We move a lot of trees in the course of our work. Almost always it is with a tree-spade, however in our case even a small percentage that get done without a spade is still quite a few trees.

We first trench around the root ball in a size suitable for the size of the tree. Then using the B/H fully extended we insert the backside of the bucket under the root ball like a big chisel. Then we wrap the entire root ball in a heavy tarp. On top of the tarp we form a 'basket' out of heavy chain by making a series of interconnected loops around the root ball, each just small enough to not move up or allow the root ball to fall through. Then we carefully lift the whole thing up by the chains.

Care must be taken to protect the trunk from being stripped of bark, this will severely weaken the tree and most often kill it. A bunch of old towels wrapped around the base of the trunk and held in place with 100 mile-an-hour tape works great.

If you have pallet forks on a FEL this seems to work very well for lifting and carrying since you can lift from two sides and the tree is suspended in between them damage-free. It also makes for easy transport.

Be sure to loosen up the soil in the hole you have dug for it's new home and add any amendments and mix them in well before dropping the tree in. Pack the soil around it well, water it in good to prevent shock, and stake or anchor it if it's in an area where it may be subject to much wind since it will easily be up-rooted until it can re-establish a good anchor root system again.

Best of luck.

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