Meet Eric a French itinerant tree climber and tree cutter. In the mid 1960’s a Florentine family bought Casa Verde and replanted and restocked the terraced land. The planting included four pine trees among other such trees that formed the amphitheatre at this end of Vellano. Sadly, partly through neglect of the land, partly through drought and age these trees have died and have become unsafe so they needed to be felled. The question was how to do it?
Eric, in the space of three hours cut down these four trees by climbing the trunks with a rope and crampons, cutting away the lower branches on his way up then cutting the large trunks from the top down. This was achieved with an amazing degree of skill, speed and efficency. Now our view from the house is even better! We plan in the next few years to plant more olive and fruit trees. To restore the ‘campi’ to their original full and plentiful state.
