Spraying small pines?

[MarkV]

I need some ideas on what to do with small pine trees. Here is the situation. My in-laws are at that point in life where the wife and I are taking care of most things for them. They live on 120 acres of forested land which was 60% logged about 8 years ago. After the logging we had several years of drought and the land did not get burned off to control new growth which is the common practice in our area. All we are trying to do is keep perimeter roads/fire breaks and a few other roads open. The roads themselves are in decent shape and were cut with a dozer and graveled back when. The problem is the small 6’ to 10’ pines that have 1” to 3” trunks which have overrun the edges of the roads. The more they grow the more the branches close in the roads. There are also areas of briars, honey suckle and other types of trees contributing to the problem. These pines are very dense, literally thousands of them, and the terrain off the road edge doesn’t make it practical to get a tractor and bush hog through them.

What I am wondering is if spraying can be used to kill off pines of this sizes. I know there are chemicals that will kill anything but I don’t know if they are available to me or would have to be applied by a licensed contractor. I think it would take weeks with a chain saw so I was hoping if I could kill them off with spraying that in a couple of years they could be pushed back and an annual spraying would keep new growth in check. We could bring in a dozer to knock back the growth and that may be the way to go. I would guess there is over a mile of road though and some of it would be slow going and get kind of expensive for what we want to accomplish.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

MarkV

 

[MossRoad]

The only problems with spraying are you will still have a bunch of dead pines to deal with.

I've used some brush killer on small trees and it worked well. Purchased it at TSC several years ago along with a backpack sprayer. Wear a rainsuit, gloves and face/breathing protection, etc...

Problem with dozer is the way it disturbs the soil ripping the stumps out and the errosion control that will have to be done once the trees are gone. But it is very effective to get them gone fast.

Have you considered a tree shear on the front of FEL arms? Seems this would be fast and the stumps will hold the soil while they rot. New plants will move in to stabilize the soil before the stumps go completely. Just some thoughts.

 

[Holzster]

I agree with Moss, a dozer will rip the topsoil real bad. Like Moss said if you get a Tree Shear that will do it quick - then in a month or 2 when they are dried out go over them with a Brush Hog to chew them up for nutrients for the soil.
If you do use a spray like roundup that will kill them & most of that type of killer(read the label) go inactive when they touch soil.
This is my 2 cents so... : /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[dmccarty]

Mark,

When we bought our land the road was impassable to vehicles due to the growth of pines and some hardwoods. I cleared 1600 feet of road way with a chainsaw and brushcutter.

I do NOT recommend this method. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I have seen attachments for skid steers and tracted excavators that have heads that are used to grind up small trees. The ones for the skid steers looked like they had heavy flails not blades like a cutter. They pushed over and then mulched up the trees. They where expensive attachements. Either $4,000 or $8,000. And the skid steer had to have some serious hydraulic GPM. I Looked at renting equipment like this since it would be so usefull to clean out undergrowth that I want to take out. But I could not find it anywhere....

I was going to ask the Forestry department if they had a list of contractors that would do mechanical clearing but this got pushed down on my To Do list. We can do burns in NC to clear undergrowth. There are some laws that favor the land owner to allow controled burns. But I think my neighbors would not like it. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Can you just do a controlled burn or see if you can find a contractor to mechanically clear the lanes. With 1 to 3 inch trees maybe skid steer with a mower can handle the job?

Later,
Dan

 

[MarkV]

Thanks for the replies. I believe you guys are seeing the same problems I see with my project. A dozer is going to make a mess and be fairly expensive for what I have to do. The tree shear would work but my little 21 hp tractor would most likely be challenged to use it and they are not cheap. Besides that the terrain when you get off the road bed would be too much for my equipment in many places. Rental equipment of the type we are talking is going to be real scarce in my rural area. The forester tells us we may be too late for the burn option. I think he felt these trees have gotten big enough that it would take multiple burns or be unsafe for controlled burning. I’ll have to ask him more questions. One idea you have brought to mind is a boom mower like the highway departments use. They seem to be able to handle some pretty heavy stuff and I think my problem stuff is within there capabilites. I’ll have to ask around and see if there are any private contractors that have that type of equipment in the area.

Thanks, keep the ideas coming.

MarkV

 

[RonR]

I've been asked to clean out some waterways that have overgrown with 1-4 inch diameter trees and tall grass. I don't have a bush hog with my Kubota and I sure won't take my MMM to it. But I have looked and can rent a 20 HP walk behind brush cutter, similar to those seen on TV. It has blades (not string), so I think it would cut smaller trees ok.

Rental on it seems pretty reasonable, so if I do land those jobs, I'd go rent this thing, put on my body armor and go to it! Any trees too large to run through this would be at the mercy of MR. Chain Saw.

If you can rent a rig like this, it might lessen the work you are facing.

Best wishes,
Ron

 

[MarkV]

Good thought Ron and I happen to have a DR brush mower. If I wasn’t digitally challenged I would try to make things clearer with a photo. These pines are thick enough in volume rather than size that they will stop my tractor if I try to drive through them where the terrain allows. Sort of like it is easy to break a pencil but if you put 20 of them in a bundle it is a challenge. The walk behind brush mowers do a good job but I would not count on cutting much more than 1 to 11/2 inch stuff with them from my experience.

MarkV

 

[RockRapidsDeere]

I would agree that spraying would probably be the easiest way to keep the trees from growing any more. Otherwise, use your backhoe to snap and strip the trees you can reach from the road. Not as fast, but demolition is always fun. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[bczoom]

Mark,

How far back from the road do you want to clear? Does the terrain become more tractor friendly after you get in aways?

Where I'm going with this...
I have no idea where I saw it (TV, internet...) but here's what I recall.

There were 2 dozers running in parallel about 50-100' apart. They had a cable connected to each other, I believe off the rear of the dozers. They pulled forward and the cable knocked down everything between them.

Not sure if this would be viable. Just a thought.

 

[Fat_Man]

What you need is find a contractor with a masticator. These are tree and brush grinding heads on ASV's (similar to bobcats) or timbco harvestors for larger versions. These will handle up to about 35% slopes and grind stuff to little bits.