Taking down some trees for land clearing - how high should I leave stumps for easier removal?

[jyoutz]

I would only cut down the trees over ~24" diameter, or maybe over 50-60' tall. Just use the excavator to dig the stump while the tree is still whole, it makes it SO much easier to pull the whole stump out of the ground when you have a couple tons of tree leveraging it out of the ground. Then you can cut the stump off once the tree is out and laying down. Seriously, this will save you a LOT of time in getting the whole clearing project done.

In the past I did it your way, cut the trees down first and deal with the stump later. In this case, I would cut the tree as high as I safely could operate my chainsaw without standing on a ladder of something dumb like that. Safest way is still to use the excavator to knock the tree down whole by digging it's stump out. You have a lot of control as the roots get cut away; can periodically stop digging and do test pushes on the tree. Like any felling, its best to check the natural lean of the tree and go with the flow.

Edit: I essentially agree with Carl. But I get nervous trying to stump dig huge trees - they weigh too much to control with a little rental excavator, and the last thing you want is it falling on YOU or the machine you have to pay for. Depends on your machine size.

Cutting the root ball from a fallen tree can be risky. I know of a logger who was killed by bucking the butt from a root ball. Fallen trees are often under extreme tension and the root ball can spring back with tremendous force.

 

[ovrszd]

Since you don't have equipment. Cut the trees high enough to see the stump in whatever vegetation applies. Or cut them as flush with the ground as you can. These methods will save you from damaging your tractor by running into one. Then rent whatever equipment you can afford to remove the stumps.

 

[KilroyJC]

Since you don't have equipment. Cut the trees high enough to see the stump in whatever vegetation applies. Or cut them as flush with the ground as you can. These methods will save you from damaging your tractor by running into one. Then rent whatever equipment you can afford to remove the stumps.

Probably what it will do is cut flush plus nail some flagging tape to the stumps for better visibility until I rent later on.

 

[KilroyJC]

J.I. Case 430 Utility​

Dimensions
Gas Wheelbase	77.1875 inches 196 cm
Diesel Wheelbase	78.4375 inches 199 cm
Gas Length	129.75 inches 329 cm
Diesel Length	131 inches 332 cm
Loader-tractor Length	177 inches 449 cm
Loader-backhoe Length	264 inches 670 cm
Width	77 inches 195 cm
Height (steering wheel)	60.5 inches 153 cm
Weight	6575 lbs (loader-tractor) 2982 kg

No FEL on mine, but the tires are loaded.

 

[jyoutz]

The easiest way to clear land and stumps is to leave a 1-2’ stump. Then come back and push and pile them with a small dozer (D4). Depending on the acreage to be treated, paying for a dozer and operator for a day or two may be the best option to get this project behind you and to start using the land for your desired purpose.

 

[two_bit_score]

Not real sure what the area is that you want cleared or what your intended use will be. How dense is the growth?

Those 3 questions seem to me to be necessary to determine what you will want to do.

I had about 3/4 acre behind a house I wanted to thin out the < 10” trees and underbrush. I don’t plan to till it or build anything on it. I just wanted to reclaim it to walk through easily, keep it cut back easily and be able to fence it in.

There are some large trees, (oak, pine, sweet gum) from >10” - 36” out there that I’ll leave for now until I get the rest under control and decide what I want to do with it. Lawn, shaded recreation area, ???

Started taking out the < 10” pine and sweetgum trees and leaving ~36” high stumps so they were obvious and I wouldn’t run over them. Possibly that would be enough for some leverage to push/pull them out with the JD 110 backhoe. It really wasn’t.

Even stumps that small left pretty large size holes to fill in. I had a guy with a JD 333G and drum mulcher go over it and mulch the entire area including grinding down the ~36” stumps and some lower that I had cut lower up near the edge of the lawn. I paid for 4 hours @$150 so $600 and the stumps are gone and all underbrush is gone. Some areas were so overgrown you couldn’t walk through before he started.

I think it’s knocked down enough I can keep it under control and can take out a few more trees selectively. The area is fairly level but is not totally flat.

If I was going to plant a garden over the entire area, or build on it I would have needed to do something differently. I may decide to do that, later.

In the future, if I decide to take out some of the bigger trees I could push or fell them toward the rear of the property without concern that they would fall on any buildings.

 

[4570Man]

The easiest way to clear land and stumps is to leave a 1-2’ stump. Then come back and push and pile them with a small dozer (D4). Depending on the acreage to be treated, paying for a dozer and operator for a day or two may be the best option to get this project behind you and to start using the land for your desired purpose.

A D4 is too small of a dozer for any kind of cleaning. You’d have to work on a 12” stump for a few minutes with that dozer. It would take you all day to get a 30” stump stump out with that and you would have a hole big enough to park a semi in. Back when they actually used dozers for clearing they used big dozers and they had pointed blades to split stumps.

 

[jyoutz]

A D4 is too small of a dozer for any kind of cleaning. You’d have to work on a 12” stump for a few minutes with that dozer. It would take you all day to get a 30” stump stump out with that and you would have a hole big enough to park a semi in. Back when they actually used dozers for clearing they used big dozers and they had pointed blades to split stumps.

We do this all the time with the small firecat D4, and do take out 30” stumps on fire lines. Yes it does make a big root ball hole. We also do it quicker with the D6. But both machines are used in fire line applications. It is generally quicker with the bigger machines, but we don’t use pointed blades. We are generally working in conifer forests and not eastern hardwoods, so I’m sure it requires a bit more muscle on a 30” oak compared to a pine stump.

 

[4570Man]

We do this all the time with the small firecat D4, and do take out 30” stumps on fire lines. Yes it does make a big root ball hole. We also do it quicker with the D6. But both machines are used in fire line applications. It is generally quicker with the bigger machines, but we don’t use pointed blades. We are generally working in conifer forests and not eastern hardwoods, so I’m sure it requires a bit more muscle on a 30” oak compared to a pine stump.

There’s not a lot of pine around here to experiment with but I could probably push a 12” pine in one pass with my D5. A 12” oak that’s cut flush would be drastically harder.

 

[jyoutz]

There’s not a lot of pine around here to experiment with but I could probably push a 12” pine in one pass with my D5. A 12” oak that’s cut flush with the ground would be considerably harder.

Yeah it’s important to leave high stumps. That’s why it’s important to decide what you want before cutting. You either have to leave the stumps or use a mastication machine to deal with flush cut stumps.

 

[4570Man]

Yeah it’s important to leave high stumps. That’s why it’s important to decide what you want before cutting. You either have to leave the stumps or use a mastication machine to deal with flush cut stumps.

An excavator of equal weight would be a lot better at removing stumps than a dozer.

 

[jyoutz]

An excavator of equal weight would be a lot better at removing stumps than a dozer.

But slow if you need to treat acreage.

 

[4570Man]

But slow if you need to treat acreage.

Excavators and dozers usually work together. There’s attachments to help bridge the gap but they’re neither one very efficient by themselves.

 

[jyoutz]

Excavators and dozers usually work together. There’s attachments to help bridge the gap but they’re neither one very efficient by themselves.

Was just describing how we did it for some fire lines and horse pasture clearing. It worked good. We didn’t have access to an excavator and the dozers did the job. The key message is leave high stumps if you are going to remove them. We also used a brush rake bar on the dozers for pushing stumps into burn piles. The rakes don’t scrape up the soil like a flat blade.

 

[4570Man]

Was just describing how we did it for some fire lines and horse pasture clearing. It worked good. We didn’t have access to an excavator and the dozers did the job. The key message is leave high stumps if you are going to remove them. We also used a brush rake bar on the dozers for pushing stumps into burn piles. The rakes don’t scrape up the soil like a flat blade.

I’d leave the trees standing and push them over and then cut the root ball off.

 

[KilroyJC]

We have a mix of loblolly pine, poplar, black walnut, and a smattering of others mixed in. based on aerial photography from the GIS, and local information, the land was once part of a cattle farm and was open field in 1954.

 

[KilroyJC]

Not real sure what the area is that you want cleared or what your intended use will be. How dense is the growth?

Those 3 questions seem to me to be necessary to determine what you will want to do.

I had about 3/4 acre behind a house I wanted to thin out the < 10” trees and underbrush. I don’t plan to till it or build anything on it. I just wanted to reclaim it to walk through easily, keep it cut back easily and be able to fence it in.

There are some large trees, (oak, pine, sweet gum) from >10” - 36” out there that I’ll leave for now until I get the rest under control and decide what I want to do with it. Lawn, shaded recreation area, ???

Started taking out the < 10” pine and sweetgum trees and leaving ~36” high stumps so they were obvious and I wouldn’t run over them. Possibly that would be enough for some leverage to push/pull them out with the JD 110 backhoe. It really wasn’t.

Even stumps that small left pretty large size holes to fill in. I had a guy with a JD 333G and drum mulcher go over it and mulch the entire area including grinding down the ~36” stumps and some lower that I had cut lower up near the edge of the lawn. I paid for 4 hours @$150 so $600 and the stumps are gone and all underbrush is gone. Some areas were so overgrown you couldn’t walk through before he started.

I think it’s knocked down enough I can keep it under control and can take out a few more trees selectively. The area is fairly level but is not totally flat.

If I was going to plant a garden over the entire area, or build on it I would have needed to do something differently. I may decide to do that, later.

In the future, if I decide to take out some of the bigger trees I could push or fell them toward the rear of the property without concern that they would fall on any buildings.

I have several goals here:

-logs for my sawmill
-firewood
-plantable areas for personal food consumption
-open land for family recreation (I need to be able to get the tractor to where I can brush hog all the thorny grabby bleedy stuff and then plow the roots out)

I will be doing this in stages, starting with the easiest, most accessible, least thorny part, approximately 100’x300’ irregular shaped area, that has about 30 or so trees to come down, most in the 10”-20” range (not counting stuff under 4”).

 

[KilroyJC]

Looking at projects like this, it is downright amazing to think that people used to do this with nothing more than two oxen and bare hands while building a log cabin so the family could move out of the covered wagon and still have food grown for the following winter. . .

but then, they weren’t sitting around with their thumbs tapping on tablets…

 

[oosik]

I have no problems just leaving the stumps. There are no trees in my yard. They are all out on the acreage. I tried digging out one pine stump. It was about 35 years ago. I was young.....and stupid. After three days of digging - I burned it. On my 80 - Mother Nature takes care of any stumps.

 

[jyoutz]

I’d leave the trees standing and push them over and then cut the root ball off.

See my earlier comment about the risks of doing that. Maybe for small trees.