How to remove 15 acres of unmarketable Xmas trees??

[davefr]

What's the best method to remove about 10,000 unmarketable Xmas trees? The market has gone to **** and my grower has bailed on me. I'm stuck with trees up to about 10-12' and I'm guessing the stumps get up to about 12" in diameter.

I want them and their stumps removed so I can turn the land over to a grain grower and maintain my agricultural tax deferral.

Any suggestions on what machine will do this efficiently? Bulldozer and burning piles?

If anyone in Wash. County, Oregon wants to bid the job just let me know.

[CowwFace]

What's the best method to remove about 10,000 unmarketable Xmas trees? The market has gone to **** and my grower has bailed on me. I'm stuck with trees up to about 10-12' and I'm guessing the stumps get up to about 12" in diameter.

I want them and their stumps removed so I can turn the land over to a grain grower and maintain my agricultural tax deferral.

Any suggestions on what machine will do this efficiently? Bulldozer and burning piles?

If anyone in Wash. County, Oregon wants to bid the job just let me know.

Yeowzers... Is there any way you could cut them and sell them yourself? .. or possibly post on craigslist something about "cut your own Christmas Tree for $10.00 a tree" ... Then the Masses will show up and cut and haul the trees away for you?

Tractor on.

[smstonypoint]

I'm stuck with trees up to about 10-12' and I'm guessing the stumps get up to about 12" in diameter.

Stumps 12" in diameter at that height? Wow! Did you mean circumference?

Steve

[brin]

Yeowzers... Is there any way you could cut them and sell them yourself? .. or possibly post on craigslist something about "cut your own Christmas Tree for $10.00 a tree" ... Then the Masses will show up and cut and haul the trees away for you?

Tractor on.

Yikes ! I agree... If they were mine I would turn into " Charlie Hustle " and have a fundraiser with some charity starting right now...give 75% to charity and charge $10 a tree and do it now and watch those trees go fast...

[bp fick]

If the objective is to simply clear the land, then every tree you'd give away would mean one less for the burn pile.

Free is a magic word. Still, 10,000 trees. Unless you're outside a major metropolitan area, that's a whole bunch to get rid of, even for free. Plus, the tree season is TODAY, not three weeks from now.

Yeah, that's certainly sounds like a dozer running up and down is the solution, but it is going to be costly. Even a dozer pushing headlong, with an 8' blade is going to log some man hours and burn some fuel to clear 15 acres. Yikes is right.

[Iron Horse]

The only trouble with letting people cut their own is if someone gets hurt on your property as not everyone with a chainsaw is competent to use one .

A bulldozer will shear a lot of stumps off at ground level and get a lot of dirt in the piles . Even with a stick rake it will be hard to get the stumps out and the piles built with no dirt .

People are probably sick of seeing pictures of my machine but you may not have seen it . If you can find someone with a grab on an excavator like mine or even a rotating grab , it will be the best way to get them out and not get any dirt in the piles .

[fishfactor]

If you could live with the stumps being flush with the ground a mulcher is the way to go. It would be cheaper and you wouldn't have a war zone when finished.

[LD1]

Forest Fire????????

Just don't get caught being the one who started it

[fishfactor]

People are probably sick of seeing pictures of my machine but you may not have seen it . If you can find someone with a grab on an excavator like mine or even a rotating grab , it will be the best way to get them out and not get any dirt in the piles .

Now that's cool. Pull it up and shake the dirt off. That may be the way to go.

[davefr]

Even if I gave them away for free I doubt I could make a dent in the qty. They haven't been maintained the last couple years so they're probably considered culls. In addition I don't want the liability and hassle associated with the "you cut" crowd.

12" stumps is probably on the high side. I bet most of them are around 6".

What I don't want is to ignore them because it'll probably get exponentially harder and costlier to remove them in the future.