Clearing forested land with a backhoe and tractor/grapple

[Piston]

Hi Guys,
I have learned a whole lot so far spending a lot of time on the forum and posting anytime I have something useful to ad to a post (which is rare:laughing and now I have some questions about some land clearing. I have searched and found some great info but thought I would start my own thread to answer some more specific questions regarding my situation. Actually I may just be looking for your 'approval' to some ideas I have to make sure I'm on the right track. I've never taken on a project this big but have spent a lot of time taking trees down, getting them out of the woods, and using them on my mill, or as firewood. I enjoy the process very much and it is more of a hobby for me than anything.

My wife and I are in the process of getting about 20-30 acres of forested land in the Lakes Region of NH. It is family land and I have spent a lot of time on it in the past, just playing as a kid, hunting, hiking, camping, things like that. Sometimes just walking around the land for no other reason than a walk in the woods.

My goal is to clear about 5-10 acres and then thin the remaining acrerage.
I want to use most of the logs for either firewood or the sawmill. I don't want to skid the logs because the cleaner they stay the better off my blades are.
We will eventually build a timber framed cabin (small) as a vacation/weekend home.
I will have to put in a roughly 600-800' driveway. I'm not opposed to renting out some of the work such as the driveway or something similar, but that is a decision I'll need to think about more.

Equipment= I recently purchased an '02 Kubota L4610 (with the help of many of you) with the following implements....
brush hog
landscape rake
rear blade (no box blade yet but I'm hoping to come spring time)
farmi logging winch (however it hasn't been used in forever and needs maintenance but will be working)
I just ordered a 64" grapple for it from WR Long last week
getting the tires filled with rimguard in 2 weeks

Also, my father just bought a 1988 John deere 310 backhoe, 2wd, no extendahoe, regular front bucket (not 4 in 1) and 2 backhoe quick attach buckets, it is in extremely good shape for the year and is very reliable, he couldn't pass up the deal.

My neighbor has a 100hp skidsteer with a larger mulcher head on the front and he will give me a good hourly rate to clear land. I figure I'll use him for the initial clearing of taking down everything up to 4" or so.

As far as the land goes, I don't want to ruin it by taking a D8 in there or something and mowing down everything in its path. I want to be semi low impact but I'm not worried about minor ground disturbance.
It is a fairly mixed aged site, with some slopes of 10-15% and some level land as well. It is both hardwoods and softwoods, anywhere from 6"dbh to 20" dbh and a handful of larger trees dispersed through the land, which I will probably be leaving. Plus a lot of undergrowth/brush. There are some places where there are a LOT of rocks, some where they're aren't....there are a good amount of stone walls on the property.

My thoughts are to have my neighbor go up there and take down all the smaller stuff within the area I want cleared, plus maybe thin some between the larger trees and also the boundary. My only worry here is the rocks. Most of them are soccer ball sized and mostly in piles so he could avoid them, some are just below the surface, would this damage his equipment?

After he takes down the smaller stuff, I want to take down all the trees in the area I want cleared. I am thinking I will dig up the roots a bit, knock down the entire tree with the backhoe (which seems to work great from little experience I have doing it) and then limb the tree where it lays, cut it up into log length for the mill (or for later firewood bucking) then cut the stump off, move the stump to the pile with the grapple and pick up all the brush with the grapple, then move the logs with the grapple, this would keep everything off the ground and being dragged through the dirt.

I haven't thought about how to grade out all the holes left by the stumps yet, or finish work or anything, but that comes later.

I prefer to do this myself as a spring/summer/fall project. I dont' need it done overnight so if it takes extra time that is okay. I enjoy working in the woods and the smell of fresh sawn wood chips and fresh dirt:laughing:

I know it's a long post but I'm trying to give you all the info I can think of so you get a good idea of what I want to do. Thanks for any advice.

 

[Heavyduty]

Sounds like you already have a good plan of attack. Since you are in no big hurry, the mulcher could take what he can to ground level, becauce of the rocks. You can go in latter with a sprayer to kill any offshuts that come up from any stumps. Once the 4 inch stumps are dead, they rot fairly quick.

The place will be well worth it when done. Be ready for the poison ivy, chiggers, and sore back.:thumbsup:

 

[tony Cecil]

I would go very slowly, as the woods are a wonderful place, and sometime it is very east to over do it....Maybe just take an acre or two, and work that--and do it carefully...It is amazing how quickly you will be able to see your entire property--and take the magic out of it.....Have a plan and go slow...Tony

 

[Piston]

That's a good point about clearing out too much land, I'll try to keep that in mind and not go overboard. One of the reasons I want to clear a lot is because I think it will help quite a bit with the bugs in the spring/summer, especially horse flies.

Also got some better news, the backhoe my dad just bought is a 410B and not a 310

 

[tony Cecil]

People are different with regards to clearing land...My son in law likes almost everything orderly and neat with very little other than grass...His place looks fine, but a bit sterile....If you just take the overall view, and take the acre or two you want to clear, and just pick the spot to clear, and start, with in a few hours you will see the overall mess you make....Don`t despair as that can`t be helped but realize that is now done and be careful with the rest....I swear it is easy to overdo it, and it takes many years of Mother Nature cleaning things up behind us Tony

 

[Piston]

I am going to start with taking out all the pines in the immediate area of the site I want, and leave any hardwoods, unless they are clearly unhealthy, then once I get down to just hardwoods i'll take some time to think about it and go from there, I do hate raking leaves, but I also don't want the 'sterile' look you describe, i know exactly what you mean there. I want a few trees to break up the lawn and also provide some shade, i'm hoping to someday have goats or sheep if we move up there permanently in the future, maybe even horses or a beef cattle.

 

[tony Cecil]

What type of pine? and remember on a summer day with just a light breeze a pine ``whispers`` to you...The more you think about it the better it will be..
Today I was testing out a trackhoe--small one--and I went over in a deserted corner, where no one would ever see, and commenced to make a mess....I`m not familiar with the controls, but got the hang of it fairly quickly, and I urge you to do the same...
That same area will need to be re visited with a chain saw and a couple of days of constructive hand work before it looks good....Many years ago , that group of fields were cleared of undergrowth, and a couple of large hills of dirt were left ...Some (three or four) trees grew up, and I just dug them out, and re leveled the mound of dirt...Tony

 

[Piston]

Mostly all EWP, about 10-12" DBH with many many whorls of branches. The land was logged about 40 yrs ago and they left a mess, when trees started growing again the land wasn't managed in anyway, so there are a lot of 'scraggly' trees on there in poor condition. However I'm planning on leaving all the decent pines full tree length and using some on the mill. I'll probably pile all the branches and either burn or chip them.

I just hate how the pines don't let any grass grow around them. However EWP is my favorite wood for milling and timberframing so I won't just let them go to waste. I don't think they would be worth too much to sell but I have no idea about that.

 

[tony Cecil]

Pardon my not knowing, but what is EWP? and DBH?

I gather MA is Massachusetts . I`m in S C (South Carolina).My place is on Edisto Island, and was once a tomato farm or I should say `truck farm`...fifty yrs ago it was nothing but fields, with a couple of spots of un developed farm land.....I am now just enjoying the property.....As we discussed ,....it is easy to mess up Just today I used the 121 a little more, and I`m not too sure it is the right machine for me..Still didn`t do any real damage as the little clearing is off in a corner, but what a mess.... Tony

 

[tawilson]

Eastern white pine and diameter at breast height. Hee hee, you made me say breast.

 

[tony Cecil]

We have a lot of white pine in W North Carolina...Shallow rooted up there ( I think) where as the Yellow Pine down here has a deep tap root.....Be careful with the pines as they `whisper` nicest sound in the woods on a slightly breezy day....I spent a good deal of time in Mass in my youth...Beautiful....Tony

 

[Piston]

I have no shortage of them haha. The only thing behind the trees I want to take down are more trees! I've decided not to clear cut everything but rather clear in 'steps' I'll take down all the smaller stuff so I can visualize a 'yard' better and go from there.

 

[tony Cecil]

I wish you the best, and I think you will be pleased by taking it easy...Sometimes I think I take it too `easy` and don`t appear to be getting anything really done--but then one day it just seems to fall into place...Another thing that happens if you get it too clean is that it is hard to maintain...Mother Nature is relentless until you make a mistake, then she is very slow to correct it Tony

 

[georgia jeff]

I just got back from vacationing in NH. It is a beautiful state. Hope everything goes well with your project.

 

[Ductape]

I just got back from vacationing in NH. It is a beautiful state. Hope everything goes well with your project.

Shoulda called me........... I'da given you the tour !

 

[Taylortractornut]

When I first started running a TLB which dad made mandatory before I started on an excavator full time. We had an old 3550 Ford TLB. Its a 75 model with 4 lever control. Dad bought 4 acres and had set me to clearing it. I was 17 and had only rung wobble stick machines. I started on stumps and kull trees. Dad told me al labout using a trees leverage. The first 5 days I never turned the seat back to the loader position. I sat up in the hoe side and would push the smaller trees over then pull the root balls up. Then ease that tree to the side and use my teeth o nthe bucket curled all the way out raking up bigger briar and and the thicker under brush. then swing it to the side. I worked all the way across making a road with a windrow of brush. When I got through I cleaned out a swath the width of the hoes reach radius.


I d turn around and push up a few piles of the loose grubbigns and burn them. we worked around the bigger trees and hardwood and made it like a park. Later I built a rake to go on in place of the bucket and doubled my raking capacity. It works reall well. All the smaller briar and other hard to grub things got brush hogged and then disked in and grass sown.

 

[Piston]

I'm pretty excited to try out the 'new' backhoe. Up until now I've only used the 4 lever controls aside from running an excavator for a few hours of my life.

The old Dynahoe we have now is the 4 lever design, it's slow but it's a beast. We'll be selling that one as soon as we get the 410.

I'm glad you mentioned building a rake because I was just looking at the ratchet rake and interested in how well it works. Seems pretty simple to build so instead of buying one I'm gonna go buy a big piece of angle iron and make it myself.

 

[Piston]

I was searching the internet for some more 'land clearing' threads that I haven't read yet and came across my old thread. I thought it was ironic that I last posted in this thread exactly a year ago tomorrow. I figured I would update it for the heck of it.

I ran into a lot of issues with getting the land, the town put me through the ringer but I've made a lot of progress. My wife and I decided that instead of building a cabin, we will build our new home on the land and move there permanently.

After a long battle with the town I'm finally making progress, actually the planning board meeting is tomorrow and I should know then if everything is going to work or not. I don't think I'll run into too many more obstacles but you never know.

My plan is still about the same for clearing the land, it's just been delayed a bit. As long as the land is in my name by mid April or so, and it's dry enough to bring equipment up there, I'll start with some inititial clearing. I'll work at clearing the lot and putting in the driveway over the next year, and we are hoping to start building the following year. With any luck, I'll be posting some pics of my progress, I'm keeping my fingers crossed

I may as well include a pic of the new backhoe I'll be using.

 

[Piston]

I was searching some old "land clearing" threads again, and realized I never did update this thread. I figured I'd post some pics of a few days of clearing I did.

My wife and I finally own the land after a lot of back and forth with the town, but we won, persistance paid off! 31 acres to call my own.

My dad helped me a lot with the clearing, I let him play on the tractor almost the entire time, and I was on the ground, sometimes running the chainsaw, but a lot of times just watching, we like to let the machine do the work :laughing:

We first had to get the tractor back into where I wanted to start clearing, so of course we needed some sort of access. The woods are too thick to simply drive the tractor through. We started off making a small road to the area I wanted to clear first.









That is most of getting the "road" in. It tooks us a half day just to get back to where we wanted to start. We picked our way through the woods using the easiest path we could find. I didn't measure how long the trail was, but probably close to 600' or so. I wasn't able to get the backhoe up there yet but the little tractor did quite a fine job considering it was working alone.

I'll post some more pics in the next post.

 

[Piston]

Here are some pics of the start of the clearing. All in all, my goal for this initial clearing, was to open up the land enough to get a good idea of where the best location to put a house will be. I figured I'd clear about an acre and thin out the rest, then go from there, not just clear cutting everything I see.

The woods were thick, most of it was smaller trees that were able to be pushed over with the tractor. We would push a number of trees over, then carry them to a pile. It took a while before we had enough land cleared to even make a pile.








You can start to see the small trail we made, to get up to where we started the clearing. In the first pic below, you can see the tractor through the trees, and see the clearing starting to open up. I took the second pic just by turning to the right about 45 degrees or so with the camera.




The grapple makes fast work of tree and brush material handling.


It was mostly all softwoods, but for the hardwoods, I cut them into sections and piled them to be processed into firewood later on.


This is a pretty good series of photos showing how much of the work was done. We would knock the tree over with the grapple and once it was almost down, and only held up by the remaining roots, we'd back up, then insert the lower part of the grapple under the uprooted stump, and lift and drive forward at the same time. This would free the stump/tree from the ground, then cut it in half or thirds if need be, and take it away.



Here comes my grandfather through the woods, bringing us each a sandwich and a couple cold beers :thumbsup: (He turned 94 TODAY! God bless that guy!)


It's starting to open up a bit now. That pile is going to be fun to burn this winter.


My dad really started to have some fun when I gave him my Bose noise cancelling headphones and put on some Dave Matthews for him. He was really having a good time.