Clearing trees and brush - exc or dozer?

[davidwyby]

The windbreak has turned into a forest and is overgrowing the fields.

The Forest Where the Only Things Alive are the Trees

there’s this place where a wash in the desert runs into farmland. The Salt Cedars/Athel Pines (Tamarix aphylla) that were planted as a windbreak have spread into a little forest in the desert. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarix

opeforum.com

 

[Seachaser]

Bulldozer for most of it and excavator for the stumps. Big enough bulldozer should take care of it.

 

[davidwyby]

If it were me I’d go in and cut down everything green, let it dry and burn it when it’s rainy and the wind is blowing from the west like usual to keep it from spreading west. But air quality restrictions are tight. That’s going to be the problem no matter what…what to do with what’s ripped out. Chip it? What to do with the chips?

 

[davidwyby]

Bulldozer for most of it and excavator for the stumps. Big enough bulldozer should take care of it.

I was thinking big dozer with a big root rake.

Just gotta establish a no man’s land that can be maintained by plowing or something in the future.

2.75 miles of it

 

[davidwyby]

I don’t think any of the trees are very big on most of it.

Some honkers on the southern part.

 

[Czed]

I personally knew two different guy's that were killed pushing brush/tree's
Limbs snapped back and came into the cab very experienced operators both of them
Another
My neighbor tab was nearly scalped by a limb coming back it ripped the top of his head off
I'd precut limbs/logs as short as possible to help limit pressure pushing them.

 

[Woodwackr]

 

[Dustin4185]

Depends on experience. I would opt for a good size hoe and stack/burn. I would also like a dozer as well for the smaller stuff and to move trees. What are they? What kinda root system? Do you have experience clearing?

 

[Ketchup]

If you cut it first you can chip it and broadcast the chips back into the forest. Then a big dozer can move the stumps and not leave a cratered mess. Push them into a hole and cover.

 

[davidwyby]

@Catbuster

 

[davidwyby]

Depends on experience. I would opt for a good size hoe and stack/burn. I would also like a dozer as well for the smaller stuff and to move trees. What are they? What kinda root system? Do you have experience clearing?

Salt cedar. Similar to cottonwood. Roots aren’t too crazy but they will run a long ways for water.

Not really.


I noticed looking closer on google earth that the trees are bigger around the edges. It’s so thick there’s almost no where to put or push anything.

Like one would need a big ex with a thumb and load the trees onto a truck (or skid them?) over to the desert side. Maybe a dozer to shove them over and then skid. I think everything would have to be cut up pretty small to be allowed to burn though.


It would be nice to come up with a use for them. Pulpwood I guess needs to be long and skinny and straight. Stink as firewood. Cracks when drying for lumber. Though in their native countries they are used for all of the above.

 

[Ketchup]

I wonder how big of a masticator you can put on a knuckle boom. Do the stumps regenerate or do they die?

 

[davidwyby]

I wonder how big of a masticator you can put on a knuckle boom. Do the stumps regenerate or do they die?

Regen like gangbusters.

They tend to have a lot of dead understory. If there is enough and they burn, they die. If not, they regen. That’s why I was thinking to cut and pile on the stumps, let dry, and burn. That’s how BLM did it. State park masticated and got more than they had


These are bigger than they look. Was like a house in there before they burned.

 

[davidwyby]

I have felled dead standing in burns before and been up to my thighs in ash.

 

[davidwyby]

 

[Bill G]

The first question is can you live with the stumps there treated with Picloram to prevent regrowth? If so it is a no-brainer.

Take a good sized excavator with a thumb and a skilled guy with a saw. Grab the tree with the thumb, cut it 2/3 and snap it. Swing the ex and drop it. The guy on the crawler piles them.

Easy peasy.

This was just a few hours.

 

[davidwyby]

Stumps gotta go so the no man’s land can be plowed clean regularly in the future

 

[Bill G]

Then if the terrain permits use a big dozer in the 6-7 class.

 

[Bill G]

If the ground is loose and the trees are not all that big you can do it with a smaller machine but it just takes longer. You can do a lot with a D4/5 class machine on the right ground

 

[HumBurner]

If it were me I’d go in and cut down everything green, let it dry and burn it when it’s rainy and the wind is blowing from the west like usual to keep it from spreading west. But air quality restrictions are tight. That’s going to be the problem no matter what…what to do with what’s ripped out. Chip it? What to do with the chips?

Does AQM have any enforcement down there? They sure as hell don't up here.