Massive storm clean up

[Hay Dude]

Monday August 7th. We has a very strong storm blow through my little town. Top wind speeds in my area of 110MPH.
One of my farm customers bore the brunt of the damage. An estimated 300 medium-large trees blown over or snapped off like tooth picks.
Amazing is the power of nature. Huge trees just uprooted and blown over. Their 100 year existence over in one gust of air.

Their “tree guy” is going to be busy for a long time, so they have called me offering tractor & chainsaw work for the month of August.

Nothing set in stone yet, all just talk with the groundskeeper right now. He’s a very solid guy I have farmed & worked for for years. He was a meteorologist in the Navy and knows his stuff about weather.

Some pictures of the damage. Looks like a hurricane came through, but it’s isolated to a small area-maybe 1,000 acres, and the strangest part is it’s a very narrow swath.
Everyone thought it was a tornado, but no tornado activity was confirmed. Fallen


trees down point towards the east. No “swirl” to any of the debris.

I can’t really get back far enough to show all the damage, but it is extensive. No buildings, barns or houses were damaged, which is hard to believe.

Now begins the clean-up process. If I am to take on this job, it will probably be done in several steps, first being clear areas used daily like tractor paths, then farm fields. The trees that fell in the woods are probably last, if ever done at all.
A huge mess. Beginning to think a tub grinder is going to be needed.

No idea how to price this other than time and equipment. I have what’s left of the month of August to knock out the first part out, then have to return to hay farming.
First, have to confirm I have the work!!! Could be an interesting and long term job. Going to have to find some help.

 

[Thomas]

Dang
Wouldn't track feller buncher with skidder work the best for that disaster?

 

[YanmarFever]

Hay Dude,
You could cut all the trunks and good wood and sell it as firewood (un-split) then just drag the rest into big piles and burn it.
There are a lot of guys that sell firewood, have them show up with their trailers and load the logs on for them, they can cut it on their own property,
which lowers the liability of them getting hurt on others land.
A neighbor of ours did that and it worked out for him. He ran an add in the local paper for trailer loads of wood only.

 

[Duds13]

What a mess! Where abouts are you located?

 

[Hay Dude]

Good ideas, but there’s a few issues worth mentioning.

The land owners are environmentalists. They are also VERY private people. They won’t want a bunch of different people coming in/out with trucks kicking up lots of dust in and out past their houses. These people are excellent farming customers, but demand courtesy, privacy and respect for their land. Took me a while to earn their trust. I can’t tear-up the property or bring in any idiots.

The land is also very hilly. This could get dicey at times.

I was going to use my Challenger with loader & grapple forks and keep picking away at it. I thought of renting a tub grinder for the smaller stuff. However, this may be a job too big for my equipment and may require a dozer with a winch.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Would they allow you to pile and burn in the areas that are not close to their home? Also if there is wide spread damage the State/County is probably going to get FEMA assistance and if they do there is usually a designated site to haul debris to but you would need to rent a loader truck for that most likely.

 

[dodge man]

We had a Derecho come through here about a month ago. We didn’t have a lot of damage but my wife’s nephew did. I took my tractor over and did quite a bit of cleanup. I burn some firewood but I realized I needed to focus on the cleanup and forget about firewood.

I have a small tractor and just used the forks and picked up what I could. They own something like 10 acres of which 3 acres is mowed and the rest is in trees. We just dumped the brush and broken trees along the edge of the woods. A neighbor came along with a skid steer and other family members came along with a skid steer and chainsaws later. I‘d say there was maybe 60 man hours in just their 3 acres of yard and we didn’t touch what they had in the woods.

My point is the time required can be big and you probably won’t want to do much more than try and cleanup the open areas. Forks and/or a grapple will be your friend.

 

[lilranch2001]

My woods had something similar in a much smaller scale happen about 20 years ago, involved approximately 40-50 trees all stacked up in a row semi on top of each other in a row 400ish feet long from southwest to northeast.

Weirdest thing I had ever seen…..

The rest of the woods seemed mostly unscathed

It took me almost ten years to clean up all the mess by myself, still can tell the path that it took

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I'd be easing into firewood. That's enough to get things started.

 

[Hay Dude]

Track hoe with thumb may be perfect for this. Pick up logs and set them into open areas to cut up 8’, 16’, 24’.
A friend of mine will haul away tri-axle loads of logs, any species for $300/load. Thought of using him to haul away pine & poplar

I’m into a little firewood, so maybe save best log species and haul them away on my trailer for firewood or sell to guys who want to split wood.

 

[lilranch2001]

Firewood is so species dependent……..

Also in OP’s area, firewood may not be as desirable as other areas!

 

[Tinhack]

The first two pictures remind me of what Ukraine looks like now in the South. Imagine dodging mines while cleaning that up.

 

[dodge man]

In my area it seems like firewood pays about $5/hr. Selling the logs in bulk sounds like a good plan just to get rid of them.

A track hoe with thumb would do well for the bigger stuff.

When I helped clean up the nephews place I tried to do as little hand work and chainsaw work as possible. I was just trying to pick up tangled messes and get them dumped.

 

[Hay Dude]

In my area it seems like firewood pays about $5/hr. Selling the logs in bulk sounds like a good plan just to get rid of them.

A track hoe with thumb would do well for the bigger stuff.

When I helped clean up the nephews place I tried to do as little hand work and chainsaw work as possible. I was just trying to pick up tangled messes and get them dumped.

I was thinking it’d work for the bigger stuff and the piles of smaller stuff. I could grasp several branches and start making piles.
Or if a grinder rental happens, then drop them in the grinder.

 

[2manyrocks]

With that amount of debris to clean up, the work areas are unavoidably going to turn to dust if its dry and turn to mud if it rains. You may have to prepare their expectations for that.

I'd be curious how you will divide the work with the tree service.

There comes a point when a dozer or loader equipped with a winch is the most efficient method of dealing with a lot of large trees especially if you don't want to damage a tractor.

What's the plan for dealing with all of the inevitable stumps and holes left behind by trees that have been uprooted?

Orderly plan to clean this up in stages will probably work better and be better received by the owners if they are able to see progress being made.

 

[riptides]

Over 300 trees is dozer calls for a dozer. That's like way beyond working a chain saw for firewood. Maybe a select few trees, but you are looking at a lot of work. And factor in the terrain and tree mix, both variety and tanglement .....
that's a lot of work....

 

[2manyrocks]

I suspect most landowners who don't actually work with trees on a regular basis would woefully underestimate the amount of material and the weight involved in clearing one tree.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Several months of work for one person.

 

[TractorTYMe]

Damn Hay Dude............Looks like our land from 20-21 when we had 80+mph winds, we're STILL cleaning up remnants of it, rough when you have a 40/h week job and have so much unpaid work todo else? But I have my tractor, grapple and forestry winch now for future endeavors.

 

[nyone]

Those pine trees a white pine. They are like the weed of pine trees. I counted the rings on a 38in one in my front yard and it was only 60yrs old. They also break in the middle of the trunk with any major wind. The tree really has no strength. They are huge and suck to clean up.