Clearing forested land with a backhoe and tractor/grapple

   / Clearing forested land with a backhoe and tractor/grapple #1  

Piston

Elite Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2008
Messages
3,945
Location
New England
Tractor
Kubota L4610 Hitachi UH083LC
Hi Guys,
I have learned a whole lot so far spending a lot of time on the forum and posting anytime I have something useful to ad to a post (which is rare:laughing:) and now I have some questions about some land clearing. I have searched and found some great info but thought I would start my own thread to answer some more specific questions regarding my situation. Actually I may just be looking for your 'approval' to some ideas I have to make sure I'm on the right track. :D I've never taken on a project this big but have spent a lot of time taking trees down, getting them out of the woods, and using them on my mill, or as firewood. I enjoy the process very much and it is more of a hobby for me than anything.

My wife and I are in the process of getting about 20-30 acres of forested land in the Lakes Region of NH. It is family land and I have spent a lot of time on it in the past, just playing as a kid, hunting, hiking, camping, things like that. Sometimes just walking around the land for no other reason than a walk in the woods.

My goal is to clear about 5-10 acres and then thin the remaining acrerage.
I want to use most of the logs for either firewood or the sawmill. I don't want to skid the logs because the cleaner they stay the better off my blades are.
We will eventually build a timber framed cabin (small) as a vacation/weekend home.
I will have to put in a roughly 600-800' driveway. I'm not opposed to renting out some of the work such as the driveway or something similar, but that is a decision I'll need to think about more.

Equipment= I recently purchased an '02 Kubota L4610 (with the help of many of you) with the following implements....
brush hog
landscape rake
rear blade (no box blade yet but I'm hoping to come spring time)
farmi logging winch (however it hasn't been used in forever and needs maintenance but will be working)
I just ordered a 64" grapple for it from WR Long last week
getting the tires filled with rimguard in 2 weeks

Also, my father just bought a 1988 John deere 310 backhoe, 2wd, no extendahoe, regular front bucket (not 4 in 1) and 2 backhoe quick attach buckets, it is in extremely good shape for the year and is very reliable, he couldn't pass up the deal.

My neighbor has a 100hp skidsteer with a larger mulcher head on the front and he will give me a good hourly rate to clear land. I figure I'll use him for the initial clearing of taking down everything up to 4" or so.

As far as the land goes, I don't want to ruin it by taking a D8 in there or something and mowing down everything in its path. I want to be semi low impact but I'm not worried about minor ground disturbance.
It is a fairly mixed aged site, with some slopes of 10-15% and some level land as well. It is both hardwoods and softwoods, anywhere from 6"dbh to 20" dbh and a handful of larger trees dispersed through the land, which I will probably be leaving. Plus a lot of undergrowth/brush. There are some places where there are a LOT of rocks, some where they're aren't....there are a good amount of stone walls on the property.

My thoughts are to have my neighbor go up there and take down all the smaller stuff within the area I want cleared, plus maybe thin some between the larger trees and also the boundary. My only worry here is the rocks. Most of them are soccer ball sized and mostly in piles so he could avoid them, some are just below the surface, would this damage his equipment?

After he takes down the smaller stuff, I want to take down all the trees in the area I want cleared. I am thinking I will dig up the roots a bit, knock down the entire tree with the backhoe (which seems to work great from little experience I have doing it) and then limb the tree where it lays, cut it up into log length for the mill (or for later firewood bucking) then cut the stump off, move the stump to the pile with the grapple and pick up all the brush with the grapple, then move the logs with the grapple, this would keep everything off the ground and being dragged through the dirt.

I haven't thought about how to grade out all the holes left by the stumps yet, or finish work or anything, but that comes later. :D

I prefer to do this myself as a spring/summer/fall project. I dont' need it done overnight so if it takes extra time that is okay. I enjoy working in the woods and the smell of fresh sawn wood chips and fresh dirt:laughing:

I know it's a long post but I'm trying to give you all the info I can think of so you get a good idea of what I want to do. Thanks for any advice.
 
   / Clearing forested land with a backhoe and tractor/grapple #2  
Sounds like you already have a good plan of attack. Since you are in no big hurry, the mulcher could take what he can to ground level, becauce of the rocks. You can go in latter with a sprayer to kill any offshuts that come up from any stumps. Once the 4 inch stumps are dead, they rot fairly quick.

The place will be well worth it when done. Be ready for the poison ivy, chiggers, and sore back.:thumbsup:
 
   / Clearing forested land with a backhoe and tractor/grapple #3  
I would go very slowly, as the woods are a wonderful place, and sometime it is very east to over do it....Maybe just take an acre or two, and work that--and do it carefully...It is amazing how quickly you will be able to see your entire property--and take the magic out of it.....Have a plan and go slow...Tony
 
   / Clearing forested land with a backhoe and tractor/grapple
  • Thread Starter
#4  
That's a good point about clearing out too much land, I'll try to keep that in mind and not go overboard. One of the reasons I want to clear a lot is because I think it will help quite a bit with the bugs in the spring/summer, especially horse flies.

Also got some better news, the backhoe my dad just bought is a 410B and not a 310 :D
 
   / Clearing forested land with a backhoe and tractor/grapple #5  
People are different with regards to clearing land...My son in law likes almost everything orderly and neat with very little other than grass...His place looks fine, but a bit sterile....If you just take the overall view, and take the acre or two you want to clear, and just pick the spot to clear, and start, with in a few hours you will see the overall mess you make....Don`t despair as that can`t be helped :) but realize that is now done and be careful with the rest....I swear it is easy to overdo it, and it takes many years of Mother Nature cleaning things up behind us Tony
 
   / Clearing forested land with a backhoe and tractor/grapple
  • Thread Starter
#6  
I am going to start with taking out all the pines in the immediate area of the site I want, and leave any hardwoods, unless they are clearly unhealthy, then once I get down to just hardwoods i'll take some time to think about it and go from there, I do hate raking leaves, but I also don't want the 'sterile' look you describe, i know exactly what you mean there. I want a few trees to break up the lawn and also provide some shade, i'm hoping to someday have goats or sheep if we move up there permanently in the future, maybe even horses or a beef cattle.
 
   / Clearing forested land with a backhoe and tractor/grapple #7  
What type of pine? and remember on a summer day with just a light breeze a pine ``whispers`` to you...The more you think about it the better it will be..:)
Today I was testing out a trackhoe--small one--and I went over in a deserted corner, where no one would ever see, and commenced to make a mess....I`m not familiar with the controls, but got the hang of it fairly quickly, and I urge you to do the same...
That same area will need to be re visited with a chain saw and a couple of days of constructive hand work before it looks good....Many years ago , that group of fields were cleared of undergrowth, and a couple of large hills of dirt were left ...Some (three or four) trees grew up, and I just dug them out, and re leveled the mound of dirt...Tony
 
   / Clearing forested land with a backhoe and tractor/grapple
  • Thread Starter
#8  
Mostly all EWP, about 10-12" DBH with many many whorls of branches. The land was logged about 40 yrs ago and they left a mess, when trees started growing again the land wasn't managed in anyway, so there are a lot of 'scraggly' trees on there in poor condition. However I'm planning on leaving all the decent pines full tree length and using some on the mill. I'll probably pile all the branches and either burn or chip them.

I just hate how the pines don't let any grass grow around them. However EWP is my favorite wood for milling and timberframing so I won't just let them go to waste. I don't think they would be worth too much to sell but I have no idea about that.
 
   / Clearing forested land with a backhoe and tractor/grapple #9  
Pardon my not knowing, but what is EWP? :) and DBH?

I gather MA is Massachusetts . I`m in S C (South Carolina).My place is on Edisto Island, and was once a tomato farm or I should say `truck farm`...fifty yrs ago it was nothing but fields, with a couple of spots of un developed farm land.....I am now just enjoying the property.....As we discussed ,....it is easy to mess up Just today I used the 121 a little more, and I`m not too sure it is the right machine for me..Still didn`t do any real damage as the little clearing is off in a corner, but what a mess....:) Tony
 
   / Clearing forested land with a backhoe and tractor/grapple #10  
Eastern white pine and diameter at breast height. Hee hee, you made me say breast.
 
 
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