Broken and twisted saplings

Many reports of sasquatch activity in an area include the sounds of branch-breaking, and many reports of tracks include broken branches alongside the trail made by the sasquatch.

We may be reaching the point where some of this tree damage, carefully examined, may be at least tentatively interpreted as sasquatch sign. Simple breakage of saplings can be attributed to other causes, such as bears climbing and breaking the thinner tops of saplings, heavy clumps of snow falling from the canopy above, and breakage resulting from, or initiated by, insect damage or disease. Nevertheless "tree-snaps" may be a form of secondary or corroborating evidence when associated with a sighting or tracks.

A more unique form of sign which has been attributed to sasquatches are "twist-offs," saplings which were twisted while green (living) and which have been permanently deformed into a tight curve. Examples from Idaho, Ohio and Texas are illustrated below. (See page entitled Sasquatch Distibution in North America if the presence of the sasquatch in the American midwest and south is problematical)

A-tree snap photographed in Washington by investigator Joe Raab.

B and C-Two views of a twist-off collected in northern Idaho by professional mining engineer Lloyd Sanders. The sapling was alive when he cut and collected a portion of the tree to document this unique form of wildlife sign. (In B he is holding it at the approximate height at which it occurred.)

D-This extreme example of twist-off was photographed in Ohio by a person who wishes to remain anonymous but who was reportedly aware of undisclosed sasquatch activity in the area.


E-Twist-off was photographed by Craig Woolheater, TX BF Society in northeast Texas.


Natural explanations for such tree damage have not been forthcoming and human attempts to duplicate this type of damage have so far met with failure. The first problem for humans as agents is our lack of strength, since green wood over 2 1/2 inches in diameter is not as easy to bend or twist as is commonly imagined. When the mechanical advantage of a pipe-wrench-like device was employed by my colleague Henner Fahrenbach, the saplings were invariably shredded, broken or otherwise destroyed. This type of damage does indeed appear to be related to the twisting by an animal with superhuman strength combined with a  powerful and flexible grip which twists the stem, splintering it internally, without shredding or removing the bark.

This form of sign is raised here, not as primary evidence, but as something which hikers, hunters, prospectors, and other wilderness hikers, hunters, and workers may have encountered and been puzzled by. It appears to be more commonly associated with sasquatch reports from southern US than from the northern US or Canada.

Coming up in the next revision:
Hand prints
Nests
Scat
Behavior
Sounds
Odor