Tree Removal with a Backhoe

[NuBota]

My land has a lot of what I call 40ft stumps. Trees that died from being shaded out by faster growing trees. I don't see any safe way to deal with them. Some are so rotted the top can fall off from a small bump. I tried ONE time to push one over with my tractor. The top 5-6 feet fell back toward me. No harm to me or the tractor. Now I am careful to look up a lot when going in the woods. Large branches fall from the newer dead ones from time to time. I had one drop some 30 feet behind where I had just walked. It shattered when it hit the ground.

I have many of these as well. I have a 30' aluminum window washer pole. Put a slip knot on the rope - push it as high up as I can with the pole, cinch and then pull over with the truck. Most rotten ones will snap about an inch below the ground. If it snaps higher up, I just repeat the process on the remaining "stump". I only use 3/8 or 1/2 inch nylon rope. If it is too stubborn to pull down, usually the small rope will snap. At that point I figure it is solid enough to use the saw. With the lightweight rope, the tension causing it to break is not enough to do any damage to the truck