After sending a friend of mine a link to this blog, he responded that he could get me "all the free cane poles I wanted". After tagging along with him to get firsthand directions, all the necessary connections were made to avoid any confusion. The fella had already hired a bulldozer to swipe a 100ft across his property, as it was invading his home and outbuildings. I am not sure what kind bamboo it is, but it is a timber bamboo of some sort and it is female. Some of the bigger pieces are around ~4" in diameter at the base, and the tallest was bumping 55', with averages in 45' range. I clipped them down with a chainsaw with a picco chain and cleaned the tops off with a nata hatchet (an extremely sharp and dangerous tool). Four hours of cutting was all I could handle on the somewhat steeply sloped hill, which required a 2 hour nap to recover from. I ended up clearing a 16'x16' area before becoming severly exhausted (asthma and arthritis). The landowner was super nice and I am very grateful for the bamboo, and will return again to get some more and some rhizomes soon.
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