Need advice for land clearing 70+ acres of timbered land

[mudking]

You can sure tear up a tractor trying to use it as a bulldozer.

I hired a local guy with a raggedy old D6D Catepillar and he charged me about $400 per acre to de-stump and make burning piles of land that had been clear-cut. It's pasture now.

Watch out for Copperheads and Yellowjacket nests this time of year among the lapp piles.

 

[Rustyiron]

You didn't state wether you wanted it "cleared" or just cleaned up. Two very different tasks. For "cleaning up", you'd be suprised what mother nature will do to heal herself in a few more years. If you're not farming, 70 ac. is a lot to just mow, where the woods will take care of itself. I bought 700+ac. that prolly a good 80-100ac. was hit hard (logged) in the past by the previous owner and I think I know what you are feeling, looking out on the land that is close to not even walkable makes you want to do something. Mine has had 10-12? years on it "recovering" and all the slash on the skid trails is soft & broken down and (tractor) driveable & an easy walk. BUT, it sounds like you have deep pockets and those toys sure are fun to have and you will be able to pick at it, just remember to what end?

 

[rmorey]

What about renting some clearing equipment to see how well it works for you (and how well you can operate it). If all goes well, then you can buy with confidence, if not you can rethink what you want.

 

[Vhayne]

Thanks all for your suggestions and advice. It's greatly appreciated.

What about renting some clearing equipment to see how well it works for you (and how well you can operate it). If all goes well, then you can buy with confidence, if not you can rethink what you want.

I would LOVE to try renting first, but the problem is I can't find anything local to rent. At least not in the "forestry equipment" field.

As for the snakes and yellow jackets. Yeah, I had planned on not messing with it this summer, and just wait until around Dec. for those reasons specifically. Well that and the thinning of the growth brought on by the colder weather.

Cleaning vs clearing. I'm not actually sure what the difference is honestly. Remember, I'm new to all of this. But I don't mind if the ground has small sticks and mulch or whatever on it. I just want all of the big stuff gone, like the snake-haven brush piles, and the logs (from the google earth pics, it looks like someone just dropped a can of pick-up sticks on the property), and the stumps. I want to be able to drive my truck (Raptor) around the property and not worry about tearing it up because I didn't see that stump. And I'd like to be able to utilize the wonderful hills and terrain for atv trails. And I'd like to be able to "see" the lay of the land properly. It's impossible to gauge the depth of some of the gullys, or the slope of some of the hills. And as I've said, some areas are completely impassable, so there's a good 40 percent that we haven't even seen yet I think. I suppose I just want to "un-do" what the loggers did, as best as possible. I don't care if the entire property becomes woods at some point, but I don't care if the timbered areas are wiped bare either. I just want it passable without having to worry about hitting a stump or log every 2 feet.

 

[Depmandog]

You can easily do this with a good sized excavator with thumb (50,000#), 50hp tractor and a heavy duty rotary cutter.

You will also want an air curtain burner (dig burn pit, set up the air curtain, and feed the fire). See pics.











The advantage of an air curtain, less smoke, complete burn, crazy fast. Several different styles - but basically a forced air system.

Use the excavator systematically - work it down a path for a 150', using the swing of the machine to clean a 40' wide path. Dig out any tall stumps as you go. Toss all of the slash to the same side. When you get to the end, move over 40' and work back, throwing all of the slash again to the side.

Once you are handling a lot of material - plan a burn pit there. If you have made 4 passes, that's roughly 160', move 160' away and work back towards the middle. Put the pit at the end of the grid, and use it for the next grid too. That would give you two acres per burn pit. Who knows, maybe you can clean a larger area.

Use the brush hog to shred the areas you have cleaned.

A good operator on an excavator - this is easy work. The stumps that are at ground level - I would leave. Only dig out ones that would catch the brush hog, or where your yard / trails are going.

And yes, the air curtain burner works well burning stumps.

 

[sd455dan]

Yeah, I think I should probably post this in the land clearing forum. But thanks guys for the advice still.

Seriously, the quote I got so far was from a local company with a mulcher kindof like what I want to use. I kid you not, the price quoted to clear 70 acres was nearly as much as what we are paying for the entire 150 acres! So I'm very hesitant to contract out the work. I work from home so I have a ton of time that I could dedicate to the job, and I think it would be extremely fun, therapeutic, engaging, and rewarding. I plan to spend 100-150k on the equipment necessary, and at the same time have the equipment for future jobs like making atv trails and property cleanup. And if necessary, I could sell the equipment and recoup some of the cost. If I pay someone else to do it, then it will cost me at least that much (or in the case of the last guy - 3x as much), and I learn nothing about how to do it myself, nor do I have the equipment to use later.

As for using a grapple to pick up the logs, I'm not sure how it could be done. It's SO thick, that it's tough to actually see the logs until you are right on them. My wife and I drove our Polaris RZR all over the property in April, exploring. We were constantly going over logs and stumps everywhere. A lot of areas were absolutely impassable, and so far unexplored. It's that bad.

I would go to some equipment sales and buy a good used 30,000 to 45000lbs. excavator with a thumb.

then dig a large pit and go to work digging out the rotten stumps and start one huge stump pile -underground also buy a good 50+ hp 4x4 tractor and grapple anyway get the big work done with the ex and when done sell it and keep the tractor, the ex can be very handy putting in power water and foundations in a hurry to my :2cents:

 

[arlen4720]

It really doesn't look that bad. I have about 120 acres of thick woods also. I will never clean it all up, but I've cleaned up about 20 acres plus the 10 acre building site.
If you can turn a herd of goats into some of it, they will eat all of brush and undergrowth. Then after a season, you can at least see "what's what".
Long term though, you are going to want something eating that 70 acres down, instead of mowing it.
Like others have said, it doesn't all need to be clean, I enjoy all of the wildlife on our property. Blaze some trails through it to start with maybe.
I would look at a 6000 series JD tractor, with a strong loader and grapple, a stump grinder, and a nice rotary cutter. I'm a big fan of burning.

 

[Piston]

I think you have a realistic goal with purchasing the skid steer with mulches and grapple (you won't need a bucket) and doing it yourself. From the pics posted, a mulches will,eat that stuff up in short order. Sure it won't be ready for planting a lawn, but by mulching it all down and then maintaining with a tractor afterwards, you'd have some nice land in a few years time.
I think your going to need an excavator alongside the mulches though. It will grind small stumps to the ground but once ou get over 8-10" it starts to take too long.

 

[Ken45101]

That's not nearly as bad as you had described.

I agree. At least the pictures aren't as bad as I expected.

You mentioned waiting for winter...and hills and gullies. Well around here, winter is wet and that means mud and a lot of slipping and sliding on hills. It also means that any root balls that are dug out will have mud sticking to them. In dry weather, the root balls can have a lot of dirt knocked off.

For your desire to have safe trails and pathways, a few days with a dozer can probably do several miles of trails. Let them clear some trails for you to give you access. Then you can start enjoying the land immediately and have a better chance of accessing what you want to do next.

 

[arlen4720]

I agree. At least the pictures aren't as bad as I expected.

You mentioned waiting for winter...and hills and gullies. Well around here, winter is wet and that means mud and a lot of slipping and sliding on hills. It also means that any root balls that are dug out will have mud sticking to them. In dry weather, the root balls can have a lot of dirt knocked off.

For your desire to have safe trails and pathways, a few days with a dozer can probably do several miles of trails. Let them clear some trails for you to give you access. Then you can start enjoying the land immediately and have a better chance of accessing what you want to do next.

Now that is good advice!