Felling less than 6" diameter trees?

[Frank Boyer]

Make sure that you do the front cut. I cleared a hillside of the smaller 3" to 6" stuff and got lazy. I tried doing slant cuts and a couple of 4" or so trees hung on another tree and came straight down and just missed my foot. That was the end of slant cutting.

Check with your tractor sales companies. They may know of a operator/rental yard that has a mulching head on a larger tractor. Mulching heads are like a large "weed mower", with up to a 6' blade and do a great job.

 

[ak4195]

Make sure that you do the front cut. I cleared a hillside of the smaller 3" to 6" stuff and got lazy. I tried doing slant cuts and a couple of 4" or so trees hung on another tree and came straight down and just missed my foot. That was the end of slant cutting.
QUOTE]

Right,you have to give some thought to the layout and which way you want to lay the stand,so perhaps youll want to start on the edges.Or maybe find or make a "hole" to start falling trees into.How much of a crown or pesky interlocking limbs are there?You'll know alot more in 1 or 2 hrs of cutting how you should proceed for the rest/next time.

PPE up
ak4195

 

[fsfcks]

Fortunately what I'm trying to clear is more "pasture" with heavy trash trees (Eastern Red Cedar, Honey Locust, and a few others) than an actual forest. I do have some thicker areas, but there should be plenty of space to fell most trees into a clear space, especially if we clear them up as we go along. Leaving the roots cut off at ground level is ok because this is native grassland we are trying to repoen, not crop producing fields. Therefore I also need to use environmentally sensitive methods to avoid damaging the soil, including over compaction etc.

And I've got all my PPE. My wife insisted on it, although it is also a good idea. I look like an high visibility orange snowman

I appreciate all the good comments, thanks! Gives me plenty to work on next week.

 

[treedog54]

felling small cedar

sounds like your in farm country. cedars make excellent fence posts. Might be able to do some trading with local farmer . Or just sell outright .Michigan 7ft. 2 inch dia. top at least $2.50 a piece.

 

[yooper]

I will second the crawler loader.

I used a case W-14 wheel loader to clear this stuff. It would have been nice to have a set of teeth on the bucket to get the roots out better. But I was able to get the brush roots and stumps out in one shot. The trees I wanted to saw up I pushed the brush away from pushed over cut the stump off limbed it and carried it over to my log pile. Didn't get many logs out of the brush but it is now opened up for me to park my travel trailer on.

With the brush as thick as it is there. I had to push a trail in then push into the trail and to the burn pile.

Last weekend I was UP there and was cutting trees away from my pile so I could burn it. I was cutting 20" DBH cedar. And it was nice to cut a tree limb it. Pull it to the log pile. Push off the limbs and drop the next tree into the same spot. Push the limbs into the pile and not have to throw them or trip over them.

Billy

Musta been pretty wet there last weekend, bet it was very sloppy!!

 

[fsfcks]

sounds like your in farm country. cedars make excellent fence posts. Might be able to do some trading with local farmer . Or just sell outright .Michigan 7ft. 2 inch dia. top at least $2.50 a piece.

Great idea! Yes, definitely in farm country, and I think there is a large number of 7ft tall more than 2" dia tops. The money would be nice, but its really it felt like a terrible waste of wood. Nobody I asked around here mentioned fence posts.

 

[extraspecialman]

good red cedar [with a solid red heart wood] will last right up there with locust.But I have never known anybody that would use a post that was only 2inches in diameter.Not arguin with yall about that,but around here most post are at least 5 inches at the small end,which the small end gets drove in the ground,so that leaves normally a 6 or 7 inch post stickin out.A post of 5 inches at the small end 8 foot long sells for about $3.50 -$4.00 .Thats for locust which is gettin rare around here. Im guessin that out west post are scarce and the fences are not really "ridden" to hard by cattle.