Cleaning up woods help

[QuasarZ]

My woods is massively overgrown with buckthorn, box elder and garbage brush. I had a guy with a forestry saw come in and clean up part of the woods. However he didn't mulch everything as much as I'd hope. I have lots of big chuncks of woods and limbs down and splintered small stumps. I'm not too worried about the loose wood as I can go through and pick that all up. What I'm wondering is the best way to deal with all the small splintered few inches high "stumps". Maybe 1-3" diameter range when the tree was intact, however now all splintered and cracked. Could rent a brush hog but that will only get me down to 2" height, and not even hit most of them. Could use my clearing saw and do one by one, however very time consuming,but I suppose most economical. Or higher someone else with a machine to come back in. This section of woods is up near the house so I'd like it to be more manicured looking and hopefully prarie type grass or some ground cover and then just the nice mature or good trees that we left.

Thoughts?
Thanks.

 

[Piston]

How big of an area? Do you have a lot of rocks/boulders/ledge? Is it level or hilly?

Just to be clear, it was a forestry saw, and not a mulcher?

What do you have for equipment?

 

[Thomas]

Good dozer operator save lot of time,than drag rear rake for final touches.

 

[QuasarZ]

It was a forestry skid steer with a big spinning wheel with teeth that he drove over everything. Not sure the term.

I'd say about 3/4-1 ac and hilly. Not many rocks. I have a compact tractor with landscape rake, ratchet rake, and piranha bar. Also stihl brush cuter and chainsaw.

 

[keegs]

what about going over it with a box blade that has some teeth on it?

 

[QuasarZ]

I could rent a box blade possibly. Don't really need to move sort though. Just a thick layer of big "mulch". I'll try and get pics later.

 

[jeff9366]

Small bulldozer or a mini-excavator.

In my area, mini-excavators are easier to rent than bulldozers.

 

[Piston]

Have you tried popping the small stumps out with your piranha tooth bar? I'd grab a few cold beers, put on some classical music with some Noise canceling headphones, and give that a try that first

If the mulches guy is local you might ask him to come back and finish the job for a small fee. In my experience, based only on working with one mulching contractor, as long as there are no rocks, he will grind right to ground level and then slightly more. This depends on the teeth to some extent as well.

 

[QuasarZ]

I have not tried popping them out yet. He finished late yesterday and rein today. He's semi local, but there is trucking fees per mile and it's more than I really want to spend, plus 4 hour minimum. I could maybe talk him in to coming out if he's already out this direction some day.

I'm still trying to get pics to load but it's not working.

 

[airbiscuit]

I think a brush hog and patience will do the trick. It is pretty likely that shoots will spring up from the cut over area. If you mow it later this summer, it will knock it back down and trim most of those "stumps". Do the same thing once or twice next year. By the third year, you will probably have a (native) grassy area with little evidence of "stumps".

What kind of tires do you have? Look out for any sharp stumps that could puncture a tire.