I would not advocate the use of a track type or other tractor to directly push on any trees, unless the falling object hazard was eliminated, or you were adequately protected with a stout R.O.P.S. This is not for the inexperienced, and for those who are, no need to say it but one really needs to make a good judgment call, if it's too risky, best to leave it alone like you say.
The key is to never put yourself in danger, either have that R.O.P.S., get it topped off 1st or get a line attached where it makes sense and enough distance to be out of it's way. Or just leave it be.
I've been assigned to take out some large trees when I was a full time equipment operator, no tree-cutter was afforded to us, so for the large ones, some big mature red oak, maple I remember on this custom home site in Red Bank, NJ, I excavated one side with a 955, had an excavator brace the trunk and observe, then we would push them over, darned 955 just had a weather cab, no R.O.P.S., I don't recommend this method, can be done but is dangerous. Loader gave a high push point, so did the excavator, soils were sandy, so trees seemed easy to topple on those sandy sites.
The 120'+ oak I recently cut, was pretty darned big, I saved it for milling, still turned out to have ants up top, the guy dumping clean fill in the ravine the tree was in, thought he could take it with a JD 450H, bark was all scarred up, no one else, landowners son, guy bringing in clean fill wanted to cut this one, had another trunk weighing back the main trunk, in a ravine, no place to run sideways etc. He certainly put some marks in it with the dozer, I took my time, cut it and it dropped where I wanted it, though this tree did make be a little nervous and cautious with good reason. I think I read the lean just right, but had no idea of the ants and hollow areas. Guy who owns the dozer should have never attempted to push it over, had to be cut. I have some photos of this one. I towed it out to the short slope up to the staging area, stopped the 450H, backed up and hooked a limb with the corner of the blade, this thing has some strong hydraulics, it lifted the log and I was able to get it up the short slope, still can't believe how powerful that '02 450H was, though I would not make a habit of doing this with a 6 way blade, sure did the job.
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Today's Featured Article - Third Brush Generators - by Chris Pratt. While I love straightening sheet metal, cleaning, and painting old tractors, I use every excuse to avoid working on the on the electrics. I find the whole process sheer mystery. I have picked up and attempted to read every auto and farm electrics book with no improvement in the situation. They all seem to start with a chapter entitled "Theory of Electricity". After a few paragraphs I usually close the book and go back to banging out dents. A good friend and I were recently discussing our tractor electrical systems when he stated "I figure it all comes back to applying Ohms Law". At this point
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