Pictures from a skid steer mowing contractor

[Lineman North Florida]

Where would I find somebody with your services in my area?
Great stuff!

Check Craigslist under Services or if you have Facebook look on the local word of mouth groups, I put pictures of my work on my business Facebook page and share it to local Word of Mouth groups, but 90% of my work is from plain old word of mouth recommendations from people that I work for.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Those volunteer pines should have all been cut. They will never amount to anything. I love the way that cutter clears a place.

That's what I recommended but not what they wanted, so I did as requested, the woman said she wants more cut the man says not, but she is the one that paid me and wants me to come back and do some more so next round I will take more of the scrub pines out, it's probably hard to tell from the pictures but I did actually take out a pile of the volunteer pines with the underbrush and scrub trees.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

You seem to be busy 24/7 ?

Between everything that I do I usually work 3 days a week most weeks but some weeks everyday except Sunday, I like to run hounds during hunting season so I lay out a lot during the fall and winter and don't take on a lot of work during that time of year.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

I have pines like that. I call them weeds!!!! I clear an area, and the next year, they are back, and ten feet tall. I have to mow three times a year just to keep the trees from taking over.

I was told my a Texas State Biologist that if we could go back in time, the country side would be a lot more park like, a lot more open, and easy to walk through. When people clear the land, the land grows back super thick. This isn't natural. Mother Nature will clear the land with fire, and keep it cleared with fire.

I bet that your area is similar to mine, and the natural habitat has been so messed up by clearing and abandoning the land over and over again, that most people have no idea what it's supposed to look like.

I'm sure, the big surprise on this piece of property was that come one in years past had either bedded some of this up on 6' spaced rows or had got out there practicing with a turn plow and made huge lands as it was so un-level that I had to cut it long ways with the beds because they were far to rough to go across, you just couldn't see them till you got in them because it was so thick.

 

[Panik]

I was told my a Texas State Biologist that if we could go back in time, the country side would be a lot more park like, a lot more open, and easy to walk through. When people clear the land, the land grows back super thick. This isn't natural. Mother Nature will clear the land with fire, and keep it cleared with fire.

^ This is part of an interesting ongoing debate that I see repeatedly played in-person in my area, as well as on a Native Habitat Managers group on FB in regards to the SE US....

Frequently between professional habitat restoration folks and the general public there is a language disconnect regarding what constitutes a "natural environment".

It seems some significant portion of the general public conceptualizes a "natural environment" as a habitat devoid of any human influence.... which frankly is an impossibility in many cases.

On the other hand most professional habitat managers that I know define creating a more "natural environment" as an attempt to return ecosystems to a more stabile and resilient state that existed primarily as a result:

- The presence of a natural cyclic fire regime (periodicity varying) due to weather
- And the usage of fire by indigenous cultures for agronomic and hunting/gathering purposes.

Sharing understanding between the two groups gets confounded the lack of specificity in word usage... Its a lot easier to say we're using timber stand improvement and fire to create a a more natural ecosystem than it is to fully define the paradigm behind the application. Also, confusing the issue is that there a lot of other factors/focuses rolled into how habitats are managed.. e.g. timber investment and harvesting, among others.

 

[EddieWalker]

My wife went through the Master Gardener program a few years ago and burning was one of their topics. They talked about the benefits of burning, and how important it is to create and maintain a natural balance in the forest. How it cuts down on weeds, and opens up the understory. Besides clear cutting and plowing up the land, the suppression of forest fires is a huge reason why the forests are no longer in a natural state.

 

[Panik]

That's great for you wife! I did one of the first master naturalist courses back in Florida in the early 2000's and was impressed by how it was structured, less about the facilitator instructing and more about them facilitating the group learning about everyone's experiences.

Fire's like just about anything else as a management tool. I've both seen and helped amazing practitioners do incredible things with fire as a tool.... and I've also seen it used inappropriately or when there were better, cheaper, safer alternatives to apply......

... And yes, as much as I generally support individuals the US Forest Service, DOI/BLM, Fish & Fowl and Park Service managing our wildlife resources.... There has been a lot of initiatives that were flat out wrong and/or problematic in their implementation - one of the biggest being the Smokey the Bear advertising campaign and the "Out by 10am" policy regarding forest fires. It was a very different time, and our understanding of forest resource management and subsequent policies was, as a whole, very much in its infancy compared to today... and that has had some very negative and lasting impacts even beyond forest/ecosystem resources.

I'm sure, the big surprise on this piece of property was that come one in years past had either bedded some of this up on 6' spaced rows or had got out there practicing with a turn plow and made huge lands as it was so un-level that I had to cut it long ways with the beds because they were far to rough to go across, you just couldn't see them till you got in them because it was so thick.

My comments are getting a bit far afield from your thread.... I have and do enjoy following your posts. I've friends in the comercial property/land management business (as well as habitat restoration/management) and have a lot of respect for all the physicality & skills (business, mechanical, physical, equipment ops, etc)required to successfully operate a business like the one you have. He!!, it takes a lot of constitution just to run skid/mulcher combo for 6-8hrs on generally tame/flat land, let alone bouncing and jouncing over old plow lines or timber stand rows.

As a Fla expatriate I also have very much appreciated that you share glimpses into your day-to-day and through that show pictures of a Florida most folks never get to see/experience. I grew up off a salt marsh outside of Tarpon Springs and while I don't miss the unending heat, I do miss seeing palmettos stands, Pine 'N wiregrass uplands, scrub oak and also the type of country that exists in pockets on peoples' land outside metro areas and the coast.... so thank you!

 

[Lineman North Florida]

That's great for you wife! I did one of the first master naturalist courses back in Florida in the early 2000's and was impressed by how it was structured, less about the facilitator instructing and more about them facilitating the group learning about everyone's experiences.

Fire's like just about anything else as a management tool. I've both seen and helped amazing practitioners do incredible things with fire as a tool.... and I've also seen it used inappropriately or when there were better, cheaper, safer alternatives to apply......

... And yes, as much as I generally support individuals the US Forest Service, DOI/BLM, Fish & Fowl and Park Service managing our wildlife resources.... There has been a lot of initiatives that were flat out wrong and/or problematic in their implementation - one of the biggest being the Smokey the Bear advertising campaign and the "Out by 10am" policy regarding forest fires. It was a very different time, and our understanding of forest resource management and subsequent policies was, as a whole, very much in its infancy compared to today... and that has had some very negative and lasting impacts even beyond forest/ecosystem resources.



My comments are getting a bit far afield from your thread.... I have and do enjoy following your posts. I've friends in the comercial property/land management business (as well as habitat restoration/management) and have a lot of respect for all the physicality & skills (business, mechanical, physical, equipment ops, etc)required to successfully operate a business like the one you have. He!!, it takes a lot of constitution just to run skid/mulcher combo for 6-8hrs on generally tame/flat land, let alone bouncing and jouncing over old plow lines or timber stand rows.

As a Fla expatriate I also have very much appreciated that you share glimpses into your day-to-day and through that show pictures of a Florida most folks never get to see/experience. I grew up off a salt marsh outside of Tarpon Springs and while I don't miss the unending heat, I do miss seeing palmettos stands, Pine 'N wiregrass uplands, scrub oak and also the type of country that exists in pockets on peoples' land outside metro areas and the coast.... so thank you!

I'm certainly glad you enjoy it , feel free to discuss any and everything that you want about your experiences/teaching, prescribed burns, etc as it is all related and we can all learn from other's methods and experiences

 

[Lineman North Florida]

It has been raining this morning so I went over and picked up my 60x40x14 pole barn materials, should be able to start on it this Saturday.

 

[workinonit]

Did you buy a package from somewhere or put it together yourself?