Road privacy shrubs & cutting white pines?

[Fuddyduddy1952]

From our house to secondary road is about 500ft. There's a ditch along paved road and my land up about 3'-4' above road. 40+ years ago I ordered a few hundred white pine saplings, spaced 10ft apart with dibble bar along road, up drive, etc. for privacy. They were perfect at about 6ft-10ft but now you see about 1-2ft diameter, highway department limbed them, some died, others cut back for our HV power line overhead to transformer.
A couple months ago I had one cut because of pine bark beetles. Now I see another one dying...you can hear bugs chewing.
I know a very good tree service that has great equipment & last tree they cut & hauled off $400. Rather than (my guess) having them come out every few months I'm considering just cutting them all. The good thing was the pine needles choked out weeds so I don't have to weed eat along road. Ditch & bank are steep.
At this point there isn't much privacy at all and so many missing not pretty plus low limbs hard to mow around, etc.
>I'm sorry for such a long post, bear with me<
Here's what I'm thinking: I'm 73 so time isn't on my side. I can cut trees myself but close to road is dangerous (falling on a car! ).
The tree service could cut them all, grind all stumps and have a huge chipper so I'd have a huge pile of chips. (Finally my question!):
We're in Virginia zone 7. Clay soil fairly acidic (guessing 5.5ph). I'm thinking about a hedge row for privacy, but must be fast growing. My idea would be planting then spread that pine chip mountain so it would probably be 1ft-2ft deep, 12ft wide so no weeds (?).
Hedges for acidic clay soil.
I'm reading: "Carolina Sapphire (Arizona) Cypress, Cryptomeria Radicans, Thuja Green Giant, Lombardy Poplar, Nellie Stevens Holly, and Leyland Cypress are fast growing trees that grow well anywhere within Zone 7. Italian Cypress and Wax Myrtle."
I don't like privet at all & pull it up, it grows wild here. We have forsythia bushes but again not fast growing & deer eat young ones I plant.
Around here most everyone plants cypress but they must not have a good root system because we see them blown over sometimes.
Any ideas? I'm thinking a hedgerow would give the most privacy and some grow 2ft+ a year.
I have tractor & lots of attachments.
Thanks in advance.

 

[texas42]

Following this as I'm faced with a similar problem, but I'm in zone 8a

 

[bcp]

Take a Sunday drive, look for one you like near you, then find out what it is.

Bruce

 

[jyoutz]

Those are nice white pines, they just need thinned. But if you do remove them, don’t pay a tree service to cut them. Sell them as sawtimber or at very least have a logger remove them for free. You said they are 1-2’ in diameter, so they are sawlogs.

 

[paulsharvey]

I dont know if your soils/climate will support them, but "winged elm" are extremely fast growing, bushy, privacy trees/shrubs.

 

[jyoutz]

I dont know if your soils/climate will support them, but "winged elm" are extremely fast growing, bushy, privacy trees/shrubs.

Elms in general are also very invasive because of the millions of seeds they produce every spring. Seedlings pop up everywhere.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Those are nice white pines, they just need thinned. But if you do remove them, don’t pay a tree service to cut them. Sell them as sawtimber or at very least have a logger remove them for free. You said they are 1-2’ in diameter, so they are sawlogs.

The only thing is loggers make a mess and that's our front yard.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Take a Sunday drive, look for one you like near you, then find out what it is.

Bruce

Cypress
Cypress are everywhere. This is what you want...but this is what you see!

 

[jyoutz]

The only thing is loggers make a mess and that's our front yard.

The contract can be developed to have it done neatly. I’ve done this before. They can be required to winch the downed trees off the lawn before limbing and bucking.

 

[paulsharvey]

It doesn't look like more than a load or 3; nobody is gonna mobilize in for free for that.

Anything less than about 10 loads, even for marketable trees; you likely need to pay to have them take.