How to remove 15 acres of unmarketable Xmas trees??

[treeman40]

you dont have the tonnage for chips or logging.

 

[Harlan B]

Here where I live there are four Christmas Tree farms within a few miles from me. They sell their trees in summer to landscapers and to public and you hire someone with a tree spade to come in and move them. They do a good business. Around here you can get a 10 to 12' tree very reasonable.

Harlan

 

[fishfactor]

The OP is from Oregon. I suspect that the acreage required to qualify for forestry-use property tax assessment differs across states. In NC, 20 or more acres in one tract are required to qualify.

Steve

Yep, didn't think about that.

 

[Willl]

5 bucks @ tree and it'll clear itself. :thumbsup:

 

[Depmandog]

I am not a tree farmer, but plan for next year by shaping the trees between now and next season.

The Missouri tree farm we went to yesterday, along with their pick and cut trees, had pre cuts on the lot from Washington. These trees were most likely cut in September and then shipped out across the country.

If you cut the trees at 4' off the ground. the 'tops' will be perfect sized 6' to 8' trees. Like I said, I am not a tree farmer, but the only down side I can see would be shaping of a tall tree (as opposed to shaping a 6-8' tree).

You still will have a mess - the tree bottoms, but we paid $46 for a 6 1/2' retail. My guess $20 to 25 per tree shipped -is what you could charge wholesale. That is a bunch of money. Goodluck.

 

[Mowermoney]

I recently finished removing 10 acres of 4" Maples and 8" Oaks from a nursery in N. Georgia. I bought a stump bucket for $600 and used it to dig the trees from the ground, fell them at a 45 degree angle from the direction of the rows and then mulch them with my FAE mulcher. I use a CAT 248 skid steer as a carrier. The whole operation took about 2 1/2 weeks and cost the landowner about $4500.00. After I finished mulching I went back and burned the mulch in place and left a relatively clean area. The landowner then used his front end loader to fill the divots.

I have used the stump bucket many times since then clearing large pines and hardwoods (12" to 20") for various clearing projects. I wonder how I ever got along without it?

Let me see you pile and burn with a bulldozer for $450/acre. Oh yeah, I also dug up about 300 stumps and hauled them 300' to a gulley and buried them for the owner along with mulching three 500' rows of 20' tall Japanese cedar.

 

[Redneck in training]

We live in Iowa where cut it yourself christmas tree farms are the norm. They don't give you a chainsaw though. You get a cart and a hand saw and you are let loose. If your trees are overgrown too tall people can take the tops only. I would give it a try and sell them or take free donation. If you sell 10% of them for $5 it will pay for the removal.

 

[o2batsea]

I doubt that in his area there will be very many people to come out and cut their own tree. Those who do won't go very far into the tract anyway so no matter how you slice it he's still got a lot of trees.
It's a lot of material.
As someone suggested, something like a Cat D7 and a rather large chipper would be the ticket. Not a small tool job.

 

[brin]

We live in Iowa where cut it yourself christmas tree farms are the norm. They don't give you a chainsaw though. You get a cart and a hand saw and you are let loose. If your trees are overgrown too tall people can take the tops only. I would give it a try and sell them or take free donation. If you sell 10% of them for $5 it will pay for the removal.

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[fishfactor]

I recently finished removing 10 acres of 4" Maples and 8" Oaks from a nursery in N. Georgia. I bought a stump bucket for $600 and used it to dig the trees from the ground, fell them at a 45 degree angle from the direction of the rows and then mulch them with my FAE mulcher. I use a CAT 248 skid steer as a carrier. The whole operation took about 2 1/2 weeks and cost the landowner about $4500.00. After I finished mulching I went back and burned the mulch in place and left a relatively clean area. The landowner then used his front end loader to fill the divots.

I have used the stump bucket many times since then clearing large pines and hardwoods (12" to 20") for various clearing projects. I wonder how I ever got along without it?

Let me see you pile and burn with a bulldozer for $450/acre. Oh yeah, I also dug up about 300 stumps and hauled them 300' to a gulley and buried them for the owner along with mulching three 500' rows of 20' tall Japanese cedar.

If you worked for 2 1/2 weeks for $4500 with the CTL you went in the red.