Tree Hugger gets last laugh .

[Eagleview]

My clients have nick named my excavator with vertical tree extraction grab "Tree Hugger" .

It must have got mad today when the tree limb broke off and cracked one of it's fibreglass panels . I could not control it , it cleared a kilometre of creek banks heavily infested with Camphor Laurel before i could stop it . Because the stumps had to be left to prevent soil erosion , we hit them with the chainsaw first so as to leave a neater stump for poisoning . Some i snapped off and tidied them up later with the saw .

 

[irwin]

My clients have nick named my excavator with vertical tree extraction grab "Tree Hugger" .

It must have got mad today when the tree limb broke off and cracked one of it's fibreglass panels . I could not control it , it cleared a kilometre of creek banks heavily infested with Camphor Laurel before i could stop it . Because the stumps had to be left to prevent soil erosion , we hit them with the chainsaw first so as to leave a neater stump for poisoning . Some i snapped off and tidied them up later with the saw .

Looking good Iron Horse

Oooh' I'm sooo jealous...

The wife and I are hoping we can get a 25-35k lb excavator and a mid-sized skid steer in the next year or two.

I just showed her your pictures... "why don't we have one of those yet" was her response. Sometimes it's hard to be patient.

 

[WarrenF]

AHHHHH.....at least I can live vicariously through your ownership of "toys" that wish I had. Just went to a small farm show here, locally. My wife actually laughed at me standing in front of some of the equipment wishing I could operate it.

 

[Bird]

It's a fine looking piece of equipment, but that big tree looked too pretty to destroy, too.

 

[EddieWalker]

Great pics.

Do you just pick them up and drive to where you want them?

How big is your excavator?

Eddie

 

[Eagleview]

Irwin , you will wonder how you ever managed before after you get one .

WarrenF , none of us new how to operate gear at first , we all had to learn .

Eddie , i try to position the excavator so that i can pick up the trees and slew around to the pile . The pile in the photo was on the bend of the creek , and that whole clear area was done like this . The big tree i was walking to the pile with was the last one for that pile as the distance was getting to far . I then started another pile , there were about 10 piles for the 1000 metres/yards of creek . The machine weighs 23 tonne .

Bird , These are Camphor Laurel trees . They are pretty but highly invasive and very toxic . They kill surrounding native plants , kill birds , fish and animals . These trees came from two larger trees in an adjoining property and choked the creek . They are native to China and have caused havock here .

I am going to buy a mulcher for the excavator but i have found this method to be best for these trees . A mulcher would allow the toxic leaves and bark to enter the water way causing more problems . The photo below shows the machine carefully lifting a tree out of the creek so as not to do any damage to surrounding trees or cause soil erosion . Tree was to big to snap off so i got the owner to run a saw cut in from both sides which helps the machine and leaves a neat stump for poisoning .

 

[charlz]

Do you end up burning the piles or just letting them rot? Is the wood good for anything?

 

[Eagleview]

Most piles are burnt , some are left to rot and yes it makes beautifull indoor furniture .

 

[Shmudda]

I have seen one of those units work on a road widening project here in Western Pennsylvania, and they are truely amazing with what they can do.

The power of hydraulics is surely proven in the design of those tree wackers!

Craig

 

[Eagleview]

I finally got a chance to remove some of the Camphor Laurel trees from my property . I had the machine brought home for some TLC and maintanance before it goes away working again .