Lot clearing

[nast70]

So I have spring project.
It's is a lot on slave lake that we (as a family) have access to for summer vacations. The plan is to set up the rv and use it as a lake lot.
The issue is its kinda over grown. All of us would take a couple weekends to clear it by hand. However we may have access to a forestry mulcher that would clear the area in an hour or 2. Ive walked cutlines cleared by these machines and notice they leave small stumps etc that would play havoc on tires etc. That being said I have seen vids of guys thay go over the areas several times chewing up larger bits.
The question is if a mulcher goes over it several times, what would the end result be like? has anyone done this? In my mind I see us camping in a playground. Is that close or is it a pipe dream.
I dont wanr to go through the expense of the mulcher if I still have to pull stumps and garbage left over we would remove in rhe first place if we did it by hand.
If anyone has any experience with these machines I would to hear about the experience and if you were happy with the results.

[nast70]

http://www.rutlandmulching.com/myimages/copy_mulching_machine_014.jpg
This is the type of mulcher we are looking at.

[HyperMOA]

Depending on the size of the mulcher but you shouldn't have any stumps left behind. Possibly a couple where he missed an overlap and missed an occasional one. IF you clear poplar it will sucker like mad and mulching is probably your best choice. It mixes all of the old stumps in like mulch to help your soil. I would mulch it. Then rake it out as smooth as you want. Pull/grind any left over stumps. Wait a week or 3 then hit it with a heavy shot of roundup. Then seed it to grass the following week. You would want to cut all of the trees before the mulcher comes in as well. Cut the site a little bigger than you want too. Poplar especially, will continue to encroach until the grass gets really established after a year or 4.

[HyperMOA]

That mulcher shouldn't leave a single stump and should be capable of close to a foot of mulching. The deeper you mulch though, the slower it can travel, or the more passes it will make. The deeper you go though the more effective it is.

[nast70]

There are only 3 larger trees we are keeping. Everything else is 2-3" poplar and a couple of willow clumps.

[nast70]

Thats the info I was hoping for. Any thoughts on the best time? Early or later spring? In my mind it probably should have been done in the fall before the first snow.

[HintonRob]

We cleared about .5 acre for our cabin a few years ago. We cleared ours with bobcat and bucket. However afterwards we dragged around a chain harrow a ton and that really helped to pile up big debris and smooth things out. We rented ours really cheap from an equipment rental place.
Then we seeded and kept mowing on high for 2 summer till the grass started to win.

[Skytop B]

I went mulcher, a medium sized one not the small bobcat mounted one. Cut your stumps off as low to the ground as possible, that will save the mulcher a lot of time. Been a few years but we did out 3.5 acre lot, he spent 10 hours there getting it done (a lot of brush and rotten trees). Costed $2700 If I remember correctly.

[Skytop B]

http://www.rutlandmulching.com/myimages/copy_mulching_machine_014.jpg
This is the type of mulcher we are looking at.

That is the exact machine the guy we used had.

[C Taylor]

I've got a bobcat mulcher with rubber tracks. Takes up to about 8" trees fairly easy. It doesn't dig into the soil much but chews stumps good enough that a lawn mower can mow over after.

[TBark]

Yep, what skytop said.
Near $3k for a day's work is what they'll want.

TBark

[coolpete1]

i have 9 acres in bc , last summer it was fully treed with no access so i rented a bobcat and put in an approach and cleared a small area for my trailer, it took all day . after i had a cat come in and clear a 600 foot driveway and huge building site , it took him an hour and a half and there was no stumps at all . best 500 bucks i ever spent out there.

[nast70]

The mulching for this place wont cost me anything but a boat ride and a couple big fish frys. Sounds like im getting a solid deal from the sounds of it!

[TBark]

Same here coolpete.
3 weeks ago our Neighbor at our cabin up near Valleyview crawled his cat a mile up and cut a 250 yd road thru the bush from our one quarter to our cabin on the other quarter.
Dead end County allowance was the only way in, we maintained it, but it is public.
Took neighbor 40 min to get there and 1.5 hrs of work for new road, then back home he went.
$300 plus a 20 lt pail of 10-30 for his leaky hydrolic system, ha.
The county allowance can now grow up to be a rats nest of mud holes and swamp, impassible hopefully.

TBark

[getasheep]

Depending on the size of the mulcher but you shouldn't have any stumps left behind. Possibly a couple where he missed an overlap and missed an occasional one. IF you clear poplar it will sucker like mad and mulching is probably your best choice. It mixes all of the old stumps in like mulch to help your soil. I would mulch it. Then rake it out as smooth as you want. Pull/grind any left over stumps. Wait a week or 3 then hit it with a heavy shot of roundup. Then seed it to grass the following week. You would want to cut all of the trees before the mulcher comes in as well. Cut the site a little bigger than you want too. Poplar especially, will continue to encroach until the grass gets really established after a year or 4.

I've got a 2 acre lot I'm clearing this summer. Lots of thick underbrush but lots of mature poplar and I'm leaving most of them except for road and building site. I'm worried about the poplar sucker after. Do you think roundup would be safe if I still want to keep the larger trees? There is lots of space between the trees.

Glad I saw this thread as I had the same questions.

[HyperMOA]

I've got a 2 acre lot I'm clearing this summer. Lots of thick underbrush but lots of mature poplar and I'm leaving most of them except for road and building site. I'm worried about the poplar sucker after. Do you think roundup would be safe if I still want to keep the larger trees? There is lots of space between the trees.

Glad I saw this thread as I had the same questions.

As long as the round up is applied only to the targeted tree/plant it will not affect other plants. If you are spraying in a good wind and it carries it everywhere, everything will be affected. You want to apply it to leaves to be most effective though. However if you are spraying the suckers of a larger tree it may affect the mature tree. No way of knowing for sure what sucker belongs to what though. I don't know if Roundup would transmit all the way through a sucker root to the mature tree either.

[HyperMOA]

Thats the info I was hoping for. Any thoughts on the best time? Early or later spring? In my mind it probably should have been done in the fall before the first snow.

Spring or early summer I would say preferably as you will be one season ahead then. Or fall, early enough to germinate the grass seed should be sufficient.

[norwestalta]

I've got a 2 acre lot I'm clearing this summer. Lots of thic.underbrush but lots of mature poplar and I'm leaving most of them except for road and building site. I'm worried about the poplar sucker after. Do you think roundup would be safe if I still want to keep the larger trees? There is lots of space between the trees.

Glad I saw this thread as I had the same questions.

The power line companies use some stuff that will kill the tree's and leave the grass.

[Kim473]

You can try one of these.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7kq7qBuA8Q

[JimPS]

I've got a 2 acre lot I'm clearing this summer. Lots of thick underbrush but lots of mature poplar and I'm leaving most of them except for road and building site. I'm worried about the poplar sucker after. Do you think roundup would be safe if I still want to keep the larger trees? There is lots of space between the trees.

Glad I saw this thread as I had the same questions.

Glyphosate ( the active ingredient in Roundup) is a herbicide that is constantly lauded as benign. These affirmations are based on studies examining the active ingredient only. In the field, our lawns, our communities, however a different result has emerged. Glyphosate has caused a host of acute and chronic effects ranging from red blood cell destruction to increased propensity for miscarriages. The effects on wildlife, from fish to birds and also non-target species have been observed at doses lower than the application rates suggested.

Glyphosate has been shown to kill beneficial insects including parasitoid wasps, lacewings and ladybugs. Other insect populations have been drastically reduced by glyphosate populations, which negatively impacts on birds and small insect-eating mammals. These changes in plant communities impact birds’ sources of food, shelter and nest support.

Glyphosate in its commercial form is 20 to 70 times more toxic to fish than glyphosate alone. It is also increasingly toxic at higher temperatures. This is significant when one considers that glyphosate is a defoliant and the lack of plant cover increases the temperature of waterways. Sublethal effects on fish include erratic swimming, gill damage, and changes in liver structure.

Glyphosate also impacts non-target plant species in several important ways. In low doses it decreases both the number of seeds germinating and the seedling weight as compared to untreated plants. It also affects the ability of bacteria located on the nodules of leguminous plants to perform nitrogen fixation, an essential process converting nitrogen from an unusable form to a compound that is able to be used by the plant. Studies have shown that at typically application rates, glyphosate inhibits up to 70% of nitrogen fixation.

Corn and soybeans, are some of the crops that have been genetically modified with genes that convey resistance to the herbicide Roundup™. There exist numerous other health, environmental and economic issues with these products.

Sorry for the cut and paste.

The power companies also used Agent Orange as a defoliant before it was found to be bad bad.

[Kim473]

What do the rail lines use along the tracks ?

[jd7mmultra]

Look into a product called Grazon. You may like it.

[C Taylor]

I've got a 2 acre lot I'm clearing this summer. Lots of thick underbrush but lots of mature poplar and I'm leaving most of them except for road and building site. I'm worried about the poplar sucker after. Do you think roundup would be safe if I still want to keep the larger trees? There is lots of space between the trees.

Glad I saw this thread as I had the same questions.

You don't want to use round up on this. You'll want a broadleaf herbicide so your grass stays. Grazon is good but expencive and harder to get. Hit it with 24d burns the regrowth off an doesn't hurt the roots. You'll want a slight breeze to carry fumes away

[norwestalta]

[QUOTE=jd7mmultra;2739953]Look into a product called Grazon. You may like it.aboutUOTE]

I was told grazon is good. I suppose a guy could talk to someone at asplundh about herbicide for popular trees. County also sprays the ditches. I think it kills trees.

[norwestalta]

Would par3 work?