Cutting trees with imbedded woven wire fence

   / Cutting trees with imbedded woven wire fence #11  
Definitely depends on what you are dealing with. I busted my azz removing REALLY old barbed wire. Found out it was strung by the homesteader around 1894. Old twisted wire with FLAT barbs. It was still as tough as any of todays barbed wire. It turned a normal chain saw chain into an almost perfect skip tooth chain.
 
   / Cutting trees with imbedded woven wire fence
  • Thread Starter
#12  
Thanks for all the ideas. I like the sawzall idea and that might just work.

There are at least 40 trees in that 1800 feet of fence. Most of the bigger trees are cedar with smaller wild cherry, oak, shrubs and multi floral roses with a lot of poison ivy.

I guess the original wire was put up close to 40 years ago which runs along the highway. It was regular field fence with one strand of barbed wire at the top. The original owner built it right using good materials. It was top of the line at the time. Now the field fence and barbed wire will snap like uncooked spaghetti when you try to bend it. At some point since the original wire was put up 4 strands of low tensile barbed was added. That wire is rusty but still bends without breaking.

I'm going to wait until cold weather to start, after the leaves are shed and any hornets are dead and gone.
 
   / Cutting trees with imbedded woven wire fence #13  
Can you dig around the tree a little and identify the bottom strand? Then just cut below that?
 
   / Cutting trees with imbedded woven wire fence
  • Thread Starter
#14  
Can you dig around the tree a little and identify the bottom strand? Then just cut below that?

I could try that but with 40+ assorted trees, shrubs, etc...

I've also been looking online at tree shears today. That's something that hasn't been mentioned yet.
 
Last edited:
   / Cutting trees with imbedded woven wire fence #15  
You might as well just make a full package of artillery. Sawzalls and blades, two carbide chains and you should be in business to tackle anything. Just remember when you get done with your burn pile there are gonna be zillions of little pieces of metal that you want to get cleaned up the best you can. A real good magnet is one way to help alleviate that problem and another is to dig a deep hole and push all the spoils in there to continue rusting, away from hooves, cloves, and tires.

On thing not mentioned and in a different mode..... Get a cat and doze the whole maryanne into a pile or two or three. Bingo.
 
   / Cutting trees with imbedded woven wire fence #16  
If you have a true farm single shank subsoiler your tractor should be strong enough to rip most if not all the roots if you back to each side of the stumps making them easier to pull out. The low price common subsoiler will be destroyed. My opinion.
 
   / Cutting trees with imbedded woven wire fence #17  
Triclopyr several months in advance to weaken/kill vegetation and disarm the ivy. Chain longer swaths of fence to a machine and tear it out of line. Any trees still bound in wire can be cut above fence level first and cleaned up later. Pathfinder II is an excellent choice, especially if you girdle larger stems a few inches above ground level and spray from the wound to the base of the stump. Maintaining fencelines with selective herbicide to leave grass for erosion control should be somewhere in the farmer痴 manifesto. It sure is cheaper than a dozer, and the value retained to potential buyers for clean fences should cover the recurring costs as well.
 
   / Cutting trees with imbedded woven wire fence
  • Thread Starter
#18  
On thing not mentioned and in a different mode..... Get a cat and doze the whole maryanne into a pile or two or three. Bingo.


The more I look at that overgrown 1800' section of fence the more I think that hiring a dozer maybe the most sensible option. It might save me days or weeks of labor not counting the cost of buying specialized tools. Hiring a dozer might actually cost less overall.
 
   / Cutting trees with imbedded woven wire fence #19  
I could try that but with 40+ assorted trees, shrubs, etc...

I can tell you from first hand experience that cutting stumps with recip saws ain't a whole passel of fun. I can do a 4-5" diameter or less fairly easily, but larger than that gets mighty annoying. Saw tends to bind, saw motor gets real hot after two or three and needs to rest/cool. On the larger ones, I tie a chain or strap to the top and use a come-a-long to put tension on it away from the side to be cut. That helps reduce the blade binding but doesn't eliminate it.
 
   / Cutting trees with imbedded woven wire fence #20  
You will be surprised at what a small dozer can accomplish in a day. Take out the easy stuff with what you have and leave the awful stuff for the dozer.

BTW, I have a $1000 tree and post puller and it will snap a small tree if I am not careful. Tree type, soil type and tractor capability play into how well it would work. Look at some YouTube videos to get a feel for it.

I am too old and lazy to spend a week to do what you need done. If my tree/post puller could not do the job, I would hire a dozer. I did that a few weeks ago as I had a few trees to clear for my 200 yard range that were too large. Cost me $125/hr and what he did in 2 hours would have taken me 2-3 days.
 
 
Top