Thank you, Gentlemen! Here's an update.
My buddy just couldn't get any heavy equipment to his island property because insurance seemed impossible, but he eventually found someone willing to go for a "You break it, you buy it" handshake on a $200K excavator. That's the Alaska I grew up in, and it's more rare today, but still exists, thankfully. A very competent semi-retired fisherman has a medium landing craft and took the machinery out the island despite the ever present ocean swell this time of year.
The weather has never been better for November, and all the stumps were out and burned in a week flat. Clear, and above freezing. The machinery made it back to town, no problem.
The worst thing that happened was my buddy was burning huge piles of stumps and had an ember pop and go into his glove. It didn't take long to give him a semi-nasty burn the size of a silver dollar. It only takes a split second. Heckuva wake-up on getting flying coals in gloves, clothes, and down pant legs (keep your pant legs over your boots.)
Thanks again for all the suggestions. It's a shame that it's not easier to get a licensed dynamite guy here in a small town, but the excavator worked wonders and would have been might handy even if the stumps could have loosened a lot faster.
Can you imagine getting drenched in semi-vaporized dead whale? You'd probably have to go to the shipyard and get sand blasted just to get the smell off.
