Make sure the trees have a variety of fruits and nuts you can pick to eat. Put up tarp or some kind of rain collection system. You would seldom have to go down. And if a herd of zombies passes you can ,out of spite ,Yell down: I piss on you zombies , as you do so.

 

I have a potential solution if zombies spot you in the tree and converge on the ground below it. Make sure you have something that can cause a fire nearby, preferably something that you can throw. That might provide enough distraction to climb down and haul ass out of there.

 

This is also the Southeastern United States and we have thunderstorm activity somewhere in this state almost daily in the summer. I would not want to be up a tree for an extended period. And it would really suck in the winter. Native Americans lived in North and South America for thousands of years and to my knowledge none of them lived in trees. It just isn't very practical or safe to be that far off the ground. One false step and you're dead.

 

The only thing that would worry me is that if enough walkers push against the tree, it could potentially fall down.

 

Agreed. Spending a lot of time in trees would be dangerous. Like I said, though, if you were forced to spend the night in the woods, it would be one of the best options. Imagine if instead of zombies, it was herds of rattlesnakes that traveled all night that might bite you while you were asleep - wouldn't being out of their reach be a no-brainer, even with the risk of falling?

As far as the one false step and you're dead, how high would you be putting your hammock? Sure, a 10 or 12 foot drop has a good chance of breaking an arm or leg (or even killing you if you land wrong), but I've jumped off many houses that high and never gotten injured (you just have to remember to do the Michael Jackson crotch grab as you land because parts of you won't want to stop when the rest of you does and that can hurt for a while).

The point I've been making is that between the options of risking a chilly night in a tree and a possible fall in exchange for a chance to be safe until morning to deal with whatever zombies might have come shuffling up or lying on the ground where you might be bitten before you ever wake up (which is almost certain death), I think the risks of foliage are more acceptable.

I can't see that happening. Unless you chose to go to a dead, rotted tree, not enough humans (or ex-humans) could get hands on the tree to push it over. A single person can rock a small tree down and a group of people can pile on and push the same small tree over, but both would require thought and coordination, plus they wouldn't work with most non-pine trees bigger than a man's thigh and pine trees half again that size.

 

Why not stay on a big bill board? Could work if you tied yourself down when sleeping or something.

 

I like the idea of an ewok like tree city as long as it spans a large enough area so you can simply climb down for food in an area with few walkers. If anyone turns, you sparta kick them off the edge, not hard to do even in the spur of the moment. You may not want to stab the corpse that used to be your friend but pushing away is easy enough. But I prefer mobility. Even if a tree city was perfect, more and more walkers would wander and join the megaherd beneath your feet. Then food runs out because theres no place to get down anymore. On the ground you can run, you aren't trapped unless you trap yourself. The end-game solution is to kill off the rest of the walkers and manage households, armored police-like figures will visit each home in the morning check if anyone is dead or infected, if clear let them out, if dead, systematically execute the walkers. Maximum security.

 

HEHE Ewok tree houses!? Umm why not just move into the second floor of a ready made house ...preferably one with a few rolls of TP:zombies_rolleyes:

 

I have this thought about every third episode.

gotta be some live Oaks in Georgia right?

 

Clementine survives by living in a tree for at least a couple of weeks in the walking dead video game, so it's been proven to be effective in this universe. I don't buy the theory that you'll get stuck. I doubt the walkers will make a circle around it. You can escape out the side with less walkers by jumping down. I think it's safer than sleeping on the ground. It's not full proof but you can get surrounded by walkers on the ground too, except you can get bitten while you are actually sleeping, so i feel like the tree has an extra layer of security even if it isn't foolproof.

You can also take your gun up with you and if there are walkers below you can kill them from above.

 

Lol nothing worse than climbing up a tree and then realizing that those suckers ain't going nowhere... they are zombies and will keep hanging around until you drop dead. On the other hand if you get lucky the tree might have a thick pointy branch that you can break off and stab those bastards. Just don't get overexcited and slip :zombies_lol:

 

Take a spear up with you. If a pack surrounds the tree just jab them in the top of the head. Heck, Sasha's improvised stick would work, but I'd like something a little longer. It's perfect. You can reach them, and the top of the head is the softest spot.
They can't reach you.

 

I've had this thought ever since I saw first dawn of dead movie. Take one of those weight lifting "plates" (circular metal with hole in middle), tie chain or rope through hole, then drop on zombies head. Reel it back up and drop again. Variation of fishing for zombies. In dawn of dead in shopping mall there probably was sporting goods store or department. Also they sat around doing nothing for months. Could have made contest to see who could "bonk" the most zombies without wasting any ammo. For TWD it would work up tree but would be a pain to carry weight around with you. I dont know a 5 pound weight might work; walker heads seem soft as eggshells some times.

 

As others have mentioned... you can't really sleep on a thin tree branch unless you have some sort of hammock or "tree bed" you could make.... which I'm sure the survivor's don't have.

Secondly....the other biggest problem with staying in a tree is the amount of escape routes. There are none. If a group of walkers happened to catch you up in a tree, you have no way of getting down easily. Not to mention a walker clawing at you in a tree in the open would most likely attract every single walker walking by which could escalate into a huge herd below you, which would make you completely stuck. If your on the ground, you can at least have a look out and have the possiblity of running away clean without drawing a herd. I mean, everyone should know what happens when you stay in an area, walkers are drawn there no matter what.

And lastly, staying in a tree house for the long term would make you safe, but just like any isolated and "safe" location, where are your food and water sources going to be? How will you constantly manage carrying and supplying this tree house, especially if a herd of walkers were gathering below you?

In my opinion it makes more sense sleeping in a good open (but covered) area and always having a look out. That way, you can easily stand up and make an escape and the escape routes are plentiful (you can run in any direction). Plus you can see walkers coming at you and perhaps they are easy enough to deal with, without them starting up a herd clawing for you.

Edit: But yes, it would be nice if I had a magical butt that I could poop weight lifting poles and weights with pulley systems and ropes to build walker killing systems. Sometimes I can even poop machine guns...But sometimes I just can't squeeze it out of my butt cheeks so I'm stuck with what I have in my backpack.... (I mean come on, we are talking about surviving in the woods and hiding in trees here with Bob and Sasha having hardly anything to work with).

 

As we've seen many times on the show, if the walkers don't see the survivors, they just keep walking. People have hidden under cars, inside cars, and on top of trucks successfully. There's no reason to believe that the walkers wouldn't just keep on walking, unless someone goes out of their way to attract their attention. If the walker doesn't see the person climb up the tree, and the person doesn't make any loud noises, the zombies would probably never notice someone was up the tree.

Worst case scenario, if a walker sees a survivor, it's easy to defend. They wouldn't need anything crazy like a weight bar attached to a chain. All they would need is a sturdy stick (which I'm sure they could find if they found a tree suitable for climbing) and a knife (something a survivor probably already has). Sharpen the end of the stick into a spear. Don't drop it. Maybe make a back up, just in case.

Why would anyone just let the walkers gather around the bottom of the tree to the point that they couldn't escape? Especially if they went through all the trouble of building a tree house.

That's all if the survivors actually plan on living up the tree. However, even if they climb up in a spur of the moment decision to escape a herd, it's still not a bad call provided none of the walkers notice. It's no worse than hiding in a trunk, anyway! :zombies_lol:

I will say that trying to make an improvised hammock is probably not the best idea, unless you actually know what you're doing. I'd rather find a truck to sleep on top of. Sleeping on the ground out in the open would be the last resort, for me.

 

Sometimes we watch too much Hunger Games....

(That $hit don't work!)

 

I think sleeping in a tree is an awesome idea. Have you seen the tent hammocks ? Those are cool, and they have a drop down ladder. With the right resources, one could make an escape route through the tops of the surrounding trees. We are "apes" you know , we could adapt.

 

I dont think I would sleep very well in open field with someone like Dale as lookout. Everyone would wake up with zombies gnawing on them. He was on top of truck in open road and all of sudden huge herd right on top of everyone. Also he was out in open field and zombie all of sudden right on him eating his guts out.