Clearing Eastern Red Cedar Trees from 12 acres

[wngsprd]

They can be great Christmas trees. but you have so many.
If you cut them at ground level you will have tiny stumps for many years since they are rot resistant. In the fields I bush hog every year, they come back from the smallest of green branches left low against the ground. Around here, they can grow 1 to 2 feet in a year. If you can get the stump/roots out, the better for you.

 

[jdjdjd]

Hire a good attorney and then buy one of these...

 

[wroughtn_harv]

You didn't mention your soil. Here in our clay soils I've found they push over fairly easy. As Western said, they are shallow roots. You could make some of them into fence posts but consider your time in cutting them to length, shaving off the limbs, etc. I'm sure you will decide that is a bad idea unless you have nothing but time on your hands.

They are an invasive species and have will suck up all the water which can kill the trees we like such as oaks.

 

[dave1949]

Hire a good attorney and then buy one of these...

That would be more fun than work. :laughing:

 

[DT86]

What happens when you run that stupid DR thing into a tree with a hornets nest in it? Or drop the front tires in a dip and run it aground?

 

[Xfaxman]

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I have 12 acres of Eastern red cedar trees that need to be removed to create a cattle pasture. My thought is to attach a tree pincher to my skid steer (which I have available to borrow) and go through the pasture, clip the trees, pile them and then burn them.

I see this as somewhat of a waste. I figure there has to be some use for these trees.

Cutting them down and milling them into lumber is not an option because they are not large enough. I estimate their age to be between eight and 12 years old.

I am very interested in suggestions on what to do with these trees. Or, if the only option is to cut them down and burned them, any suggestions on how to make that as quick and easy of a process as possible.

Thank you for watching and for your suggestions. Remember, mow your pastures so the eastern red Cedar tree does not take them over!

Here in central Oklahoma, many years ago, I started cutting them with a 3 point cedar tree cutter on my tractor. Notice how it is made to reach under the low branches and cut the trunk at ground level. After I sold the tractor 4 years ago, I made an adapter, and put the cutter on the Versahandler. So much better out front.


Another useful tool is the long narrow stump bucket.


Pops them out quickly


My favorite tool for trees up to 4 inches is the Buckthorn Long Arm Tree Puller.


The view from the seat.

The big cedar: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/277824-tree-puller.html#post3444397

 

[Larro Darro]

If you can cut a good fire break, I would try burning them first. That won't cost you anything. You can bush hog the dead trees after that. We have always used red cedar for posts and lumber here in NW Florida. But ours grow in the woods, so they are straight and tall, without all the side limbs. I think your trees are too small to be of any use. I used to raise cedar from seeds, and made a little money selling them for landscaping. If a bird can plant them, I figured I could too.

Larro

 

[RxRatedZ71]

Heres a video of a tree "spade" on a tractor bucket. Might be worth checking into for a skid steer. Pretty similar sized tree in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_49xSP_SYuk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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[buckeyefarmer]

Yep, one utube skid steer video leads to pruning videos, before you know it, your watching cops arresting cops and getting into fights. :laughing:

 

[RxRatedZ71]

Wow. You watch the same videos I do. A little off topic but still related to trees, have you seen helicopter tree trimming? Talk about a wild contraption...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECxlCSlNHXM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

We will probably see this next season on the discovery channel as a drama reality series.

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[wngsprd]

There was a story in the news last week where a hunter was chased out of his tree by a helicopter tree trimmer off course (accidentally, I assume). Tore up his stand.

 

[EddieWalker]

Like others have mentioned, they come out of the ground pretty easily. 12 acres is quite a bit of land to clear, but very doable. I would either buy a backhoe or a medium sized excavator to take them out, then sell it when I'm done. Nothing is going to be faster then plucking them out of the ground and placing them onto the burn pile. No dirt to deal with when burning them and the ground isn't all torn up. Just a small hole to fill in or plow over. A dozer will take them out easily, but you tear up more ground and you end up with a lot of dirt in your burn pile. I hate the idea of cutting them because you will have to deal with the stumps for a VERY LONG TIME!!!! Hit a stump while mowing and you will find out real quick how annoying and expensive that can be. Having hundreds or even thousands of stumps to deal with isn't even something I would want to think about.

If you are going to try to push them over with a loader, you need to push far enough to get the roots exposed, then get the cutting edge of the loader under the root ball and lift. Just pushing the tree will result in broken, bent and twisted trees. You might also get a branch or two through your radiator and who knows where in your engine. I had a pine tree branch work it's way along the side of my dozer engine to the oil sensor on the side of the block and break it off. That branch was less then a inch thick and the distance from my blade to where it took off that sensor was well over a dozen feet. I also had a pine come up from the ground and go right through the oil pan on my full sized backhoe. That branch was about two inches thick and broken off to a point. When pushing over trees, Murphy's Law will always win.

Eddie

 

[RPW]

I've cleared 38 acres with a dozer. Now I'm chipping them up for ground cover.

 

[jbooth]

I would recommend a skid steer saw or shear. Just cut as low as possible (at or below ground level). Pile and burn them. I notice you have some grass that looks like bluestem. Protect/save your native grass as much as possible as the seed is outrageously costly. Ground level stumps won't be a problem if you are going to use as pasture or for haying. I live near you and have done quite a bit of clearing in my county (Coffey) and have been able to cut the trees ( osage orange, cedars, and locust) low enough to be able to mow with a swather for haying. I would recommend piling and burning in an area that the native grass is not good as the burning will kill the ground for 2 or 3 years. Although renting a saw or shear is expensive, that might be your best bet unless you have a lot more to do. I would estimate it would take 2 days to cut 12 acres with my machine, if you didn't have to do a lot of piling to clear your cutting area. I run my saw made by Hicks fabrication at Berryton KS. with a Case 1845C with hi flo hydraulics. It does an adequate job but more HP and hydraulic flow would be better.

There might be some government programs that would help with the costs. I did some cutting in Cowley county and I believe the cost sharing program was WHIP. That job was about 200 acres so I don't know if smaller acreages can be included.

 

[macecase]

FEL= Front End Loader.. all of those trees are ripe for pushing over with a FEL. Just the right size. Wait a day or 2 after a rain, and go to town. Gets roots and all, and no stump. Just push into the tree, and get sharp edge of your bucket hooked in the bark, and then lift, curl and push all at the same time. Plop, out they come.. Hydrostat transmission makes this easy without slipping a clutch, and wearing it out. Heck you might be able to charge local tractor owners to come and pop out the trees! In a Tom Sawyer fence painting kind of way!:laughing:

Do you suppose a John Deere 250 (65hp) skid steer could do this? It has snowed here and is starting to melt off. I might wait until the ground is more solid and go give it a try!! But, would like opinions.

 

[macecase]

The only problem with the brush hog idea is the left over sharpened stumps. I did a few smaller ones with my brush hog and it left sharpened sticks pointing up that reminded me of some sort of Vietnamese torture instrument.

FEL= Front End Loader.. all of those trees are ripe for pushing over with a FEL. Just the right size. Wait a day or 2 after a rain, and go to town. Gets roots and all, and no stump. Just push into the tree, and get sharp edge of your bucket hooked in the bark, and then lift, curl and push all at the same time. Plop, out they come.. Hydrostat transmission makes this easy without slipping a clutch, and wearing it out. Heck you might be able to charge local tractor owners to come and pop out the trees! In a Tom Sawyer fence painting kind of way!:laughing:

The comment about pushing them over is true. If you've got bucket teeth, you could hit the tree low at a dumping angle and they typically will pop right over. Then back up and push the root ball and the other side's roots will come out. My FEL w/o bucket teeth worked well.

I know some wildlife fisheries lakes like to sink cedars for fish habitat. Not sure about ideas of being profitable. The cedar eating job is lucrative. Oklahoma has a registry of cedar tree owners that are willing to let the harvesters come in and eradicate them on your property...see link below.

ERC Registry | Oklahoma Forestry Services

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A large number of them could be bush hogged. I know you can't do it with a light duty or even med duty hog but many or most could be done with a heavy hog and a good tractor. We used to hog down anything we could ride down with a ford jubilee. It would be faster than pushing by a good bit and you don't have to pile and burn.

 

[macecase]

I just don't see how that ATV thing can be safe!!

 

[Gary Fowler]

I just don't see how that ATV thing can be safe!!

I agree, I think one could end up over the handlebars and with a face full of cedar branches really easy, not to mention what it could do to the frame of your ATV. I think you have the right equipment to dig them up with the skidster but it is going to take some time to do. Another option would be to put a chain around them and pull them up if you have any other pulling type equipment. This could work well on the smaller ones.

 

[ovrszd]

My Brother and I have a 12" shear that goes on the FEL or our Bobcat. We thought it was the Cat's Meow when we first got it. My Brother sheared 4 acres of cedars. This Spring when the ground thaws I will take the backhoe and go over that 4 acres digging out the stumps. Bad idea...... Cedar stumps do not rot. Now to brush cut that field I have to raise the cutter to clear the stumps. Bad idea......

Burning the area will make your mess much harder to clean up. All you'll burn is the smallest limbs and the needles. The trees will still be standing there.

If you have a rental outfit in the area contact them and see if they have a tree puller that you can rent. They come in various shapes/sizes but will look something like this one which I built. In the Spring when the ground is loose you can pull some very large Cedar trees.