Removing Quaking Aspen

bacononeactual · Mar 9, 2014

My wife and I have a small property in West Michigan where we keep a few horses. We also have 100 ac or so in northern Michigan. The land up north is basically just a hunting cabin/land, but it has traditionally been logged every 15 years or so to remove the aspen. This provides a little income, but mostly it is done to provide good habitat for deer and birds. Recently, I have been thinking about trying to expand the one small meadow on the property up north (currently about an acre) to create a ~5 acre hay field to make some of my own hay. To do this, I would have to remove the pool que sized quaking aspen that have grown up since the last time we logged the property 3-4 years ago, plus the 12'' diameter stumps (i.e. the 15-year old aspen trees that were cut). Those stumps are probably the biggest problem, but it might be possible to just brush hog the smaller aspen down and keep it cut down (did this last year to create some paths) and let the bigger stumps rot over a few years. Anybody ever tried to remove aspen or old soft wood stumps like this in any quantity? Or is it best to just hire someone with some heavy equipment for a few days? I've got an older JD 770 with model 70 loader (like a 790/3005) and a MF 1736 with DL120 loader that I am purchasing this spring to work with.

dave1949 · Mar 10, 2014

You will likely find that many of the cue stick-sized trees are sprouts on the roots of the stumps, which in the aspen family can reach a long ways. There could be more root structure there than you would guess as far as removing stumps goes.

rd_macgregor · Mar 10, 2014

Constant (at least annual) mowing will keep a meadow as meadow, but expect those aspens to keep popping up from roots as long as there are any "parent" trees around. Existing stumps can hard to remove without some pretty big equipment, or extensive excavation. I cut a large one off at ground level, drill holes in the stump and treat it with something to kill/rot it. I've heard of folks doing that with diesel fuel, and then burning the top level of the stump to get it down below ground level...a stump grinder would be a more reliable way to do that, I'd think. The idea is to get it low enough so it isn't a hazard to mowing, then keep cutting off the sprouts as they come up.

ace10 · Mar 10, 2014

The Aspens aren't going to go willingly.

You might also want to do some soil analysis to determine if the land will readily support your northern grasses.

$0.02

slowzuki · Mar 10, 2014

Thats a typical scene here after a clear cut. There are 3 usual approaches. Dozer with root rake to pop out all the stumps, forestry mulcher to grind everything, escavator with thumb and rake.

All leave a mess after for you to clean up.

The old timer way of doing it here was to run goats/cattle etc on the ground as pasture for a few years. The stumps rot down and almost fall apart makes it possible to use farm tractors to clean up.

NS Gearhead · Mar 10, 2014

This an option?
Introducing the DR TreeChopper Tree Shear: Low Cost and Effective Tree Cutting - YouTube

Dr_Zinj · Mar 10, 2014

Quaking Aspen aren't single trees. That plot is more than likely to be one single plant, with a single massive root system underground, and dozens to hundreds to thousands of trunks above ground.

dmricke · Mar 11, 2014

Growing up my family did custom land clearing with D7 dozers. One way to deal with aspen that was a thick as hair on a dog was to go in with the dirt blade in the winter and shear everything off at ground level. This was good enough to make pastures. Sometimes we would return in the summer and go over the cleared area with a massive serrated tandem disk that would chew up the roots.

Egon · Mar 11, 2014

As already mentioned, dozer with root rake and follow up with that heavy dozer pulled disc.

bacononeactual · Mar 11, 2014

Dr_Zinj said:
Quaking Aspen aren't single trees. That plot is more than likely to be one single plant, with a single massive root system underground, and dozens to hundreds to thousands of trunks above ground.

Thanks, I am aware of the clonal nature of the trees. I'm confident that I will have to cut regularly for some time before shoots stop coming up (if ever).

As far as the stumps, it sounds like I will probably have to resign myself to either hiring a big dozer to remove them or waiting for them to rot (with or without accelerant). The new trees are still at a size where I can probably cut them with my old Ford brush hog.