Firebreaks?

[Toiyabe]

This fire season is just about over, but now that I've got a tractor I'm trying to figure out how to use it to cut a firebreak.

I've got about 75 acres, the house is near the center, with about 2 acres around the house landscaped and fenced to keep the range cows out. I'd like to clear a 20' width of vegetation around the fence to help protect the house and trees from wildfires. The vegetation is mostly sagebrush (~1" stem diameter) with assorted weeds like cheatgrass and mustard in between. The ground is very rocky, lots of rocks in the basketball size range.

Has anyone out there dealt with a similar problem? I don't see how I could mow the stuff without grubbing out a lot of rocks. Maybe a heavy chain drag?

 

[beenthere]

Prepare the strip with a bulldozer or similar machine first. Then keep the strip 'cleared' with your tractor.
Can't think of another way, unless you can slowly move those rocks with your FEL or a back blade/box blade or similar attachment.

How about a picture of what you are faced with? Sure would help.

 

[HomeBrew2]

A dozer would be great.
I have heard of pulling RR track or I-beam, either a single piece or 2 pcs in a V formation, with the point forward. A mobile home tongue might work with added weight ...

 

[andrewj]

best quick road I ever made was to
1.mow
2. chisel plow
3. box blade

one big strip, which then became a darn nice road! took one afternoon. hardest part was changing implements.

 

[Farwell]

I am not sure how well sage brush will mow, if I remember correctly sage brush can be very thick and tough. If that is the case a dozer may be a better option.
Farwell

 

[bczoom]

Sounds like a dozer would be best if you want/need to remove the rocks.

If you just want to removel the weeds, can you just put some brush killer on them to kill then control burn or whack them down? This process may need to be repeated every few years.

 

[theboman]

This may sound stupid, but that's a part of being me.

Could you build either a gravel or rock road around they place? It's hard to burn rock/gravel.

 

[Farwell]

Having covered many fires while working for TV news in Northern California I saw that the most used equipment for fire breaks was a dozer. In your case, with the rock and If I understand your brush description, heavy brush, you may be better off hiring someone to doze the fire break and then use your tractor to maintain the break. You could probably do it with your tractor, depending on its size, but it would be quite time consuming, labor intensive and you may still have to hire a dozer before you are through. The dozer would do a good job of scraping off a few layers of soil and remove most of the sage roots slowing down re-growth.
Farwell

 

[Highbeam]

The dozer is used for firebreaks for a few reasons. It is big ant tall, hard to flip over, operator out of the smoke, and the tires don't burn. The dozer's fuel tank is big for long run times and the blade is wide enough to cut a firebreak in one pass. During a forest fire is not a time to try and make a tractor suffice, get the big boys out for pioneering work.

I would recommend getting the dozer out to make the firebreak just smooth enough to drive the tractor on and to brush mow for maintenance. Why not brush hog the dinky sage? 1" is small stuff.

 

[Toiyabe]

I've attached a photo of my fenceline. The brush itself is not so bad, worse comes to worse I can cut that by hand. What I'm concerned about is the grassey stuff. I did about half the fenceline with a weed-eater this year and that was no fun at all. This year was particularly bad for grass and weeds on account of the wet spring and there's fewer cows on the range

A bulldozer might get it to the point where I could mow it. I've also got a lot of diatomaceous earth on the property, maybe spread that stuff out around the fence - most plants don't grow well in it.