These days, removing senescent trees and clearing out deadwood requires a combination of high-tech machinery:
And good old manual labor:
One of the guys observed that they get a good deal of amusement from Youtube videos of amateur tree cutting incidents.
They worked hard all day, pacing themselves well, finished cutting in a driving rainstorm, then returned the next day for cleanup.
I felt a nap comin’ on strong…
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Some friends of mine were losing patience and sanity while fighting a tree, and were preparing to do something truly ill-advised with their truck, so I got out my camera and said “this video is going on the internet”. That got their attention and made them rethink their strategy.
A number of years ago we had to have several trees removed considerably larger than the ones in the pictures above. Only one outfit did it “the old fashioned way” and by climbing with tree spikes. All the others wanted to cover the yard in steel plates and bring in cranes to do it and their prices reflected as much. Needless to say we went with the climbing outfit for multiple reasons, price only being one of them. We have used them many times since. I try to take down/cleanup as much as I can by myself, but when it comes to risking a fall on a house or building, I leave it to someone else.
The lifter had caterpillar treads and they laid plywood on the slopes, so it worked out well enough. If this place was the Taj Mahal, maybe we’d have worried a bit more about the lawn. [grin]
Turns out everybody uses lifts around here, other than the “climber” guy who got around to sending us his estimate after the lift crew finished the job…
Well played, sir!
About 10 years ago, the local tree cutting outfits were about 50% boom trucks, but as of a few years ago, it mostly went back to tree spikes, except for the big outfit that handles right-of-way trees for the power company. I suspect the cost of keeping a boom truck going and the local economic situation made that happen for the small guys. A good cutter can make the tree fall precisely the right direction, so if there’s nothing in the way, most can be done from the ground. We used a boom outfit to take care of trees next to the house, but the last dozen that came down didn’t need any climbing.
I’ll cut my own trees 12-18″ in diameter, but I’ve had a few go the opposite way from intent. On the gripping hand, once the tree is down, I’m the one who takes care of the branches and turns the logs into firewood rounds. I know that hardwood is preferred for wood stoves, but when you have 20+ cords worth of pine and juniper…
We had them drop a long-dead tree over the cliff out back; it shattered on impact. If it fell the other way, it would probably miss everything important, but the pros know exactly how to make that happen nearly every time. I’m pleased to watch!
This is worth killing three minutes watching…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJXPXTaVlMY
After the fact, it’s called skill…