Tree Manipulation/ Wood Structures: What Is The Evidence?

[southernyahoo]

Yes, not too many knowns that would place a bone ( I think deer pelvis) in a tree. Local hunters might in field dressing a deer , but that would mean a large portion of it was left for scavengers.

 

This leads me to conclude it is more than about just rubbing the velvet off, but maybe about the scent. or texture of the branches and bark?
 

 

I'd say scent could have something to do with it, they smell great, especially when it's raining, like natures perfume, or perhaps a good cover scent for a predator. In the case of that particular cedar though, I think the animal/ creature/being was grooming the cockel burrs out of it's hair.

[bipedalist]

Well a theory about why an 8 ft. creature might be interested in these woodsy forest products besides signal or territorial marking might include:

 

http://www.naturalnews.com/032054_cedar_oil_aromatherapy.html

 

 

?Antiparasitic, and other health properties depending on whether they are making use of any of these products including oils or resins.  Maybe they just like the smell like some humans like the Christmas-tree smell of the firs. I know it's one of my favorite smells.   Maybe it is the essential BF cover scent on hot-date night or speed-dating night. LOL.

 

Edited to add posted before reading SY's post ^.....  so yeah I agree about possible multipurpose use for cover scent.  I would imagine resins are pretty sticky and could pull hair out too if that was a particularly irritating cockleburr.  Maybe the splintered woody stems serve as a type of comb in such cases.    

Edited August 22, 2013 by bipedalist

[southernyahoo]

It is interesting when you read up on the two plants involved. The cockel burrs are toxic and irritate the skin while the cedar oils are practically an all purpose remedy.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanthium_strumarium

[WSA]

Funnny how you can find two plants with opposite properties growing close to each other, isn't it? Jewel weed and nettles are another good example.

 

And don't forget also: Cockleburrs were the inspiration for the invention of velcro. Millions of senior citizens would be walking around with unlaced shoes if not for this plant!

Don't overlook the possibility of a squirrel taking a bone up into the crotch of a tree, the better to gnaw it. Doesn't look like it has any chiseled toothmarks on it though, from what I can tell.

[southernyahoo]

Here's one other Cedar we found while investigating a sighting. There could be a number of different causes, but one thing is certain, once the limbs die the tree stands out among the rest with no damage. Perhaps it could have a symbolic meaning when all limbs are facing downward after the manipulation.

 

[WSA]

Yep, something beat that tree down, no doubt. The context of that is just as important to me too.

[Guest WesT]

Here's one I came across last summer. I had the zoom backed out all the way to get the dead tree that's on top in the picture. The dead tree had/has moss growing on the truck so it wasn't a new treefall. It's hard to get an idea of it's height just looking at the pic , but the "arch" is apprx. 6ft. tall. The left hand side coming out of the ground is the trunk, the right hand side is the top of the tree and was wedged into the ground.

 

 

Here's a close-up pic I took of the apex of the "arch" standing flat footed. (I'm 6ft. tall) 

 

 

 

[Guest]

My wife and I went for a hike in the no foolin' woods behind our home two weeks ago.

Given what I have learned about tree snappage out of human reach, I looked up a lot as we went along.

 

I did come across a 3 inch aspen that was snapped 10 or 12 feet off the ground in a 90 degree angle.

two 3 " dead lodgepoles were laying across the 90 degree portion. They could not have caused the break as

their trajectory would have been wrong, but fell on the broken part later as I read the scene. The ground end of the fallen

lodgepoles were in the ground and not free placed there from somewhere else.

 

... I'm just sayin ya know....

[WSA]

I find that interesting SummitSquatch. You sound like you know your woods pretty well. Can you gauge how out of place, or not, this was? I've often heard that in extreme cold in the West, trees will actually explode from the pressure of the frozen sap. I've been in Yellowstone, the Wasatch and othe places in the cold months, but I've never experienced that, or seen the aftermath. Is that something that you would consider plausible, or is this just not a likely cause?

[1980squatch]

I tend to ignore most of the tree break stuff since there is just so much of it.  And just because I cannot tell how an event occurred does not mean it was not a natural/weather event.  Still, on my last trip I came into an area where a whole series of saplings (around 1/2 dozen), small ones and all about the same size, were broken over at the same height (about 5 feet up) pointing in the same direction.  Really stuck out.

[Guest DWA]

Let's just say I wouldn't be too too hasty in ascribing that event to a sudden storm.  ;-)

[southernyahoo]

I tend to ignore most of the tree break stuff since there is just so much of it.  And just because I cannot tell how an event occurred does not mean it was not a natural/weather event.  Still, on my last trip I came into an area where a whole series of saplings (around 1/2 dozen), small ones and all about the same size, were broken over at the same height (about 5 feet up) pointing in the same direction.  Really stuck out.

 

I know of a couple other researchers with the same observations as this.

[1980squatch]

I looked them over and it seemed that it might have been within human strength, but yes I discounted weather as a cause.  The trees were dead but looked like they had been taken down alive, I would rough guess it as about a year old.  Area was off trail but not remote, in a general zone where there have been a few BFRO reports but not a likely site for year round presence.  I was actually planning another trip out there tomorrow but my cold/sinus infection is telling me not to try it in 90 plus heat...  Probably next week then.  SY, do you think this behavior is more likely to occur from BF on home territory or while roaming?

[southernyahoo]

I would expect it to be marking a boundary line or a sign of direction while roaming, but just a guess. Whenever I've been in deep woods, with older growth I've not found these signs of manipulation. Perhaps because there is less undergrowth and saplings to mess with. 

[JKH]

I've been hiking in our local sighting area for over a year, usually monthly. I've barely scratched the surface of this area due to time constraints. However, in returning to the same place each time, I can observe changes over time. The one thing that has surprised me is ongoing wood manipulation, some large scale. I hadn't started out looking for that kind of evidence, but there it was. I recently read on the Oregon Bigfoot site in their latest data analysis that the second most reported activity is breaking trees.

When I say manipulation, I mean the kinds of things that weather and humans likely can't or won't do. Since the area is public, one can't rule out human activity, but for a few reasons, I think they're unlikely in my most notable observations. In one instance, in November 2013 I observed a thirty foot live pine tree broken at its base, wedged horizontally between two other trees in such a way as to cross over the hiking trail about seven feet up. Trail workers had cut the top and live branches off so people could pass under it. This was not there on my previous visit in October. We had not had any storms during that month.

I've documented more of these possible indicators and have photos. I'll see if I can figure out how to post some later.