Anyone come up with a plausible explanation for the tree top damage?

[bipedalist]

On 8/11/2020 at 9:16 PM, BlobSquatch said:

 

I count 14 or more trees seemingly laying and blown down or snapped in the same direction.  That would seem to be a factor of windthrown, windsnapped or windblown trees in general.  Even age trees dense in cover compete for resources of sun and moisture and become unhealthy too which make them more vulnerable to the aforementioned forces.  Takes a lot of evidence to attribute an individual tree snap or grove to something along the lines of a Sasquatch.  I am a believer in Sasquatch tree manipulation too. 

[WSA]

I too am convinced there is something with hands and incredible strength creating these tree breaks, assemblages, etc.  You do of course first have to discount naturally occurring damage due to wind and weather, as well as insect and vines.  For example, the photo Northwind posted, while at first it would appear to be a mechanical twist, to me it clearly shows slow constriction by a woody vine...probably honeysuckle, by the appearance of the remnants shown. That naturally creates a weakness in a tree trunk and it will fail eventually.

 

Puzzling breaks and twists can be seen that defy glib explanations, no doubt. Far more compelling to me are the stacks of logs, tepee structures,  and tree trunks balanced in crotches and on the end of limbs. Some of these are too remote to be hoaxes and don't bear any sign of mechanical manipulation you'd see if somebody used a grip-hoist, skid steer or something similar.  Some "thing" put them there, with a precision that hints at a purpose. But  what purpose? That is the truly puzzling part. I've long maintained that these are being done because they are just satisfying to do. Sometimes this is the only explanation you need.  
 

 

[NorthWind]

10 minutes ago, WSA said:

I too am convinced there is something with hands and incredible strength creating these tree breaks, assemblages, etc.  You do of course first have to discount naturally occurring damage due to wind and weather, as well as insect and vines.  For example, the photo Northwind posted, while at first it would appear to be a mechanical twist, to me it clearly shows slow constriction by a woody vine...probably honeysuckle, by the appearance of the remnants shown. That naturally creates a weakness in a tree trunk and it will fail eventually.

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting theory, and I had thought of that, too. The one that was bent over had it's top shoved into the ground about 8 inches though, and there was no trace of any viny type plants near those two twists (but they were about 20 yards from each other, IIRC. Mostly just Douglas firs and a few maples, and lots of rhododendrons.

[Doug]

Tree damage I have encountered rarely looked anything other than natural. Once though, my brother and I, while bow hunting for elk in the Oregon coast range in the early 90s, encountered  strange tree damage that we were unable to explain and after asking many loggers, hunters, fishermen, hikers, and such, we came up with no answers. No one knew, even though some had seen it before.

 

In a nut shell, we encountered a woven vine maple "nest" that was at the base of an old growth fir tree, It was about 6'X7" and about 4' tall. Fir bows lined the floor that were twisted off, not cut. Later we came across an old road that had grown over and was now a big elk trail. As we began walking up this trail, we were  serenaded by constant tree knocks. They went on and on the whole time we were on that road. For at least an hour. Two knocks 5 or 10 minutes later and 2 knocks over and over and always just ahead of us. We then came to a row of young alders and fir trees about 12 to 15' tall all twisted clockwise about 8' to 10' high. The tops were hanging downward from the twist still attached to the tree. No other trees had this. It was just the first row along the east side of the trail and for at least 200 yards maybe more. The trail just ended at a huge old growth fir tree and the knocks were coming from just beyond or even maybe on the backside of the tree. We had no idea what it was and we just turned around and headed back to the truck. The knocks stopped once we turned around. 

 

Many years later, I found out that sasquatches tree knock and twist tree tops down and make nests like what we saw. Had we known that it may have been sasquatch related, I might be a knower instead of a believer. We were so close at the end of that trail. It was right there at that old growth tree.

Edited August 18, 2020 by Doug

[WSA]

Some anecdotal accounts suppose those ground structures might be blinds for ambush hunting.