Is this an application for a mulcher?

[Barton]

The property, in Turner County, GA, has about 25 acres in 2 fields planted in longleaf pines. The previous owner did not use prescribed burns to control native woody brush like wax myrtle, gallberry, blackberry etc. Some of the woody brush is well over head high and in some areas quite thick. The pines are not planted in rows but planted staggered or randomly. The pines range from grass stage to 20+ feet high.

The Georgia Forestry Com. did a prescribe burn in Feb. but the brushy areas did not have enough fuel on the ground do to a good burn. Their recommendation is to kill off the brush, keep it mowed and then in 2 or 3 years do another prescribed burn.

Would a skidsteer operator have enough visibilty to avoid the pines? I, also, assume the skidsteer would be more maneuverable than a small tractor and brush hog/shredder.

I would appreciate your thoughts. I have attached some pictures, although I realize it's hard to 'tell' from a picture.

 

[SSP&M]

We would be glad to look at it for you....i have done similar jobs where the undergrowth was much larger and taller than the pines and we were able to mulch without causing damage to the pines.

Give us a call
Southern Site Prep & Mulching
Justin Marchant
229-402-3241
Tifton ga

 

[crwatcp]

I think you might have better luck using a shear or a saw if you are wanting to chemically kill the trees after you have cut them down. There are several different companies out there that make land clearing attachments for skid steers. I had a neighbor that had a Dymax Tree Shear and that thing was build like a tank.

 

[Heavyduty]

If you are thinking of doing the clearing work yourself, you could check into renting a small tractor with a bushhog. You could rent it for a few days and see how it does.

 

[yellowdogsvc]

yes. that would be a fairly easy job for a mulcher like the supertrak setup that SSP&M lists. It would look a heck of a lot better and go faster than trying to shear woody brush. I have thousands of hours of shearing a few a thousand hours mulching. Shearing anything other than the pines in the pics would be slow going and messy then what do you do with the brush? Better to mulch it in place.

 

[cbturf]

I agree, let them mulch it then there will no need for a Rx burn in the future if you keep up the new growth. I am just upset that he hit you up to do the work before I did.

 

[Barton]

Thankyou for the feedback. I have an appointment this morning with SSP&M to check it out. Cbturf, that would be quite a conmute for you! It turns out that SSP&M is 20-30 miles down the road.

I guess my concern is that, since the pines are not in rows, it would be difficult to mulch. Some parts of the fields are more densely planted in pines that others. So much so that even a small tractor with bushhog would have to spend a fair amount of time backing up, etc.

The goal is to get a longleaf pine/wiregrass habitat. It is my understanding that it is good for the longleaf pines to do a prescribed burn every 3 years or so. Part of one field has a good stand of wiregrass and burned off quite well.
I'll attach a few more pictures.

Maybe there will be enough left in the budget to do a little mulching in the hardwood bottoms.

Thanks again for your time to respond to my post.

 

[Barton]

Well, the mulching project is done and I'm quite pleased with the results. I'm amazed about how much work got done in the amount of time we had budgeted. I met up with Johnny Marchant of SSP&M a week ago last Saturday to discuss the project. Justin Marchant started the mulching last Thursday and got about 4 hours done and we got rained out. He started up again on Friday, got about 4.5 hours in and was rained out again. Mother nature was just not cooperating. Justin was able to get in about 7 hours this past Tuesday before the rain started but was close enough to call the project done. Justin drove that machine hard and solid for the 15.5 hours total time.

After about the first 8 hours of mulching the west longleaf pine field was completed. The west field was, by far, in the worst shape.. The woody brush was much larger, thicker and covered a greater area than in the east field. Justin said that, because of the size of the wax myrtles, if we had waited any longer he would not have been able to mulch them with out knocking down some of the pines.

I'll attach some pictures of the pine area.

 

[Barton]

So, since the pine fields were done and we still had time left in the budget, Justin started to clean up the borders between the pine fields and the hardwood bottoms. I think this is where the machine ( and the operator) really shines. The borders where overgrown with huge vines, volunteer pecans, more wax myrtles, you name it. Just generally an overall mess. All the borders were done, some cleanup done around the pond, and a trail cut thru a part of the hardwood bottoms.

More pictures...

Oh, the last picture gives an indication of the constant concentration required to getr' done. That would just wear me out after about 30 min. Of course, Justin is a much younger fella than I.

 

[Barton]

Just a couple of thoughts to wrap things up...

In spite of what I wrote in the previous post about where the machine and operator really shines, I know it must take a good machine and head (DENIS CIMAF) and a skilled operator to clean up the longleaf pine area without causing damage to the pines. I'm sure the visibility was, at times, very poor because of the height and thickness of the brush and the pines are, really, not all that tall. And, as I mentioned before, the pines were not planted in rows.

Hopefully, sometime in the future, we will be able to get SSP&M out there again to do some more clean up in the low lying areas (way to wet now) and, perhaps clear the property lines.

Oh, and I'm not the owner of this property. My daughter and SIL bought this property a little over a year ago. They live in northern Indiana and I'm just trying to help them out with the property. Besides, it's fun spending someone else's money.

2 more pictures of part of the eastern field which shows our goal for the entire longleaf pine area:

Any questions or comments?