Getting rid of autumn olive trees-tools?

[lhfarm]

After visiting a country garden tour one county over, I became determine to make the most of the pond near the house. We also meet a women there who is working with the county and state to get rid of invasive plant species in southern Indiana. She came by to do a survey and left me with a what I'm sure will be a multi-year project to rid the place of autumn olive trees.

After reading reviews here, I purchased a Ratchet Rake and used it to clear a large area of greenbriar from the pond edge this morning. As you can see, it did a quick job and I'm sure I would have been days doing it by hand. Paid for itself as far as I am concerned with what I accomplished - from the comfort of the tractor seat - with this job.

What the RR didn't do, or maybe I just haven't figured it out, was to allow me to dig up the smaller autumn olive trees/bushes like those pictured. I probably have at least a hundred to dig or cut and use chemicals to kill the roots. Some are very large and will require a chainsaw and backhoe.

I saw this Northern Tool spade Paumco Products Quick Spade Model# 1100-Quick Spade | Skid-Steers + Attachments | Northern Tool + Equipment in another thread. Has anyone had experience using these for small trees like pictured? Also, I'm working in rock hard clay. I do have a good set of QA forks and like the idea being able to use them for the task.

I suspect a spade of some sort would be the best tool, but I'm open to suggestions. Money is an issue, as I've used my allowance to buy the RR and a few other things recently .

On a side note, the dead tree is coming out as soon as my tree guy can get to it. Another reason for clearing the area.
Thanks,

 

[SSdoxie]

Try the pallet forks without the digger spade. Move them in clsoe together and push under the root ball. If the loader with forks does not have the power to uproot them, the spade won't help. Another idea would be use a subsoiler on the 3 pt to rip out the root system the rake it up with your RR. I would go this route if the forks didn't do it for you.

 

[lhfarm]

Thanks! I'll give the forks a try. I didn't think they would be sharp enough to dig in the clay, but it will sure be ease to try. I've got lots of opportunities to check out how it works.

Now if I could come up with a way to cut the cattails...

 

[Ranger Rick]

Now if I could come up with a way to cut the cattails...

On my pond I just waded in and started pulling them out. I was surprised that they actually pulled out pretty easy. They have not come back since I pulled them out either.
Rick

 

[lhfarm]

On my pond I just waded in and started pulling them out. I was surprised that they actually pulled out pretty easy. They have not come back since I pulled them out either.
Rick

My cattails have a 20 year head start and can't be pulled by hand. I've used my BH and will do so again, but I'm cutting them at the surface to make the job easier and to reduce the size of the spoils I'll be dealing with. I'm using a gas trimmer with nylon blades and raking the cuttings to shore. Load them on a trailer and haul them to the burn pile. The seat time with the Ratchet Rake was so much easier/fun that I'd like to find a solution like that for the cattails.

 

[Kays Supply]

I built this to uproot the olive trees. It works great. The roots are pretty shallow. I have used it on oaks up to 6-8" and it just leaves a loose pile of dirt, not a big hole like a BH bucket.

 

[lhfarm]

That is impressive! If the forks don't work, I may have to try something like that, although I don't have the skills to build one.

Thanks,

 

[BeezFun]

There was a pond like yours in the community where my Mom lived and they went in and cleaned out all the trees on the edges and the cattails, looked beautiful but the next thing they knew there was a huge algae bloom and the pond started to smell, all the fish died, it dried out quickly in droughts because there was no shade. Then they hired some expert to come in and tell them that taking out all the vegetation allowed too much runoff into the pond too quickly, filled with silt and fertilizer, they needed to replace some of the vegetation and stop mowing the grass around it for awhile. Before you take out too much you might wait to see how the pond reacts. Or get someone who knows about ponds to check the tree plan. Otherwise you could be buying implements to help replant trees and shrubs that the other implements pulled out. Hey, maybe that's not such a bad idea, more implements...

 

[IslandTractor]

I cannot quite figure out what size tree you are trying to remove. That said, I have been removing a lot of trees myself over the past few years and have tried a number of tools so I'll share my experience.

As you noted the RR is great for brush but not trees above an inch or two in diameter.

The QuickSpade on forks is good at digging trenches and technically would be able to dig out the supporting lateral roots on a moderate (4-6 inch) tree but it would be pretty slow going. Problem is that the spade presents it's dull flat surface to the root once you dig under it and as it is at the end of a long lever arm (forks), you would need a very powerful loader to actually break roots that way. Digging them out and then using a hatchet to cut them would work but, horrors, you would need to dismount to finish the job.

A subsoiler could break the roots efficiently if you have full access from all sides. That is rarely the case in a thicket of trees so I'd not bother with that method.

A root grapple and a decent sized loader (1500lbs+ lift, 2000lbs+ breakout) is fine for trees up to about 4-5 inches. Use the grapple tines to rip up the lateral roots that are typically less than a foot deep and then push the tree over.

I know you did not mention a backhoe but I will just point out that by far the most efficient method to get rid of those trees is a backhoe with a ripper attachment. It takes only about 5 minutes to rip through lateral roots on all four sides of trees up to about 8 inches (10-15 min on up to 15 inches) and then you just push the tree over root ball and all. Without a ripper attachment you can do the same with a bucket but you will end up with a pretty large hole to backfill while the ripper leaves just a small "divot".

Assuming you don't have a backhoe, if you have lots of trees to deal with I'd personally rent a small excavator and dig/push them out. If the trees are less than five inches then consider a light duty grapple purchase ($1000 from Gator).

Try not to resort to a chainsaw as that will only leave you with a stump problem that will take even longer to dig out regardless of whether you use a grapple, forks or BH to do the job.

 

[lhfarm]

There was a pond like yours in the community where my Mom lived and they went in and cleaned out all the trees on the edges and the cattails, looked beautiful but the next thing they knew there was a huge algae bloom and the pond started to smell, all the fish died, it dried out quickly in droughts because there was no shade. Then they hired some expert to come in and tell them that taking out all the vegetation allowed too much runoff into the pond too quickly, filled with silt and fertilizer, they needed to replace some of the vegetation and stop mowing the grass around it for awhile. Before you take out too much you might wait to see how the pond reacts. Or get someone who knows about ponds to check the tree plan. Otherwise you could be buying implements to help replant trees and shrubs that the other implements pulled out. Hey, maybe that's not such a bad idea, more implements...

Thanks for the information. While I'm well aware of the dangers of screwing up the pond it is always good to be reminded of what can happen. I'm only removing some of the cattails this fall. I plan to leave some in for fish cover and just control the rest. The primary goal is to restore the view from the porch.