Clearing Eastern Red Cedar Trees from 12 acres

[wngsprd]

There was a story in the news last week where a hunter was chased out of his tree by a helicopter tree trimmer off course (accidentally, I assume). Tore up his stand.

 

[EddieWalker]

Like others have mentioned, they come out of the ground pretty easily. 12 acres is quite a bit of land to clear, but very doable. I would either buy a backhoe or a medium sized excavator to take them out, then sell it when I'm done. Nothing is going to be faster then plucking them out of the ground and placing them onto the burn pile. No dirt to deal with when burning them and the ground isn't all torn up. Just a small hole to fill in or plow over. A dozer will take them out easily, but you tear up more ground and you end up with a lot of dirt in your burn pile. I hate the idea of cutting them because you will have to deal with the stumps for a VERY LONG TIME!!!! Hit a stump while mowing and you will find out real quick how annoying and expensive that can be. Having hundreds or even thousands of stumps to deal with isn't even something I would want to think about.

If you are going to try to push them over with a loader, you need to push far enough to get the roots exposed, then get the cutting edge of the loader under the root ball and lift. Just pushing the tree will result in broken, bent and twisted trees. You might also get a branch or two through your radiator and who knows where in your engine. I had a pine tree branch work it's way along the side of my dozer engine to the oil sensor on the side of the block and break it off. That branch was less then a inch thick and the distance from my blade to where it took off that sensor was well over a dozen feet. I also had a pine come up from the ground and go right through the oil pan on my full sized backhoe. That branch was about two inches thick and broken off to a point. When pushing over trees, Murphy's Law will always win.

Eddie

 

[RPW]

I've cleared 38 acres with a dozer. Now I'm chipping them up for ground cover.

 

[jbooth]

I would recommend a skid steer saw or shear. Just cut as low as possible (at or below ground level). Pile and burn them. I notice you have some grass that looks like bluestem. Protect/save your native grass as much as possible as the seed is outrageously costly. Ground level stumps won't be a problem if you are going to use as pasture or for haying. I live near you and have done quite a bit of clearing in my county (Coffey) and have been able to cut the trees ( osage orange, cedars, and locust) low enough to be able to mow with a swather for haying. I would recommend piling and burning in an area that the native grass is not good as the burning will kill the ground for 2 or 3 years. Although renting a saw or shear is expensive, that might be your best bet unless you have a lot more to do. I would estimate it would take 2 days to cut 12 acres with my machine, if you didn't have to do a lot of piling to clear your cutting area. I run my saw made by Hicks fabrication at Berryton KS. with a Case 1845C with hi flo hydraulics. It does an adequate job but more HP and hydraulic flow would be better.

There might be some government programs that would help with the costs. I did some cutting in Cowley county and I believe the cost sharing program was WHIP. That job was about 200 acres so I don't know if smaller acreages can be included.

 

[macecase]

FEL= Front End Loader.. all of those trees are ripe for pushing over with a FEL. Just the right size. Wait a day or 2 after a rain, and go to town. Gets roots and all, and no stump. Just push into the tree, and get sharp edge of your bucket hooked in the bark, and then lift, curl and push all at the same time. Plop, out they come.. Hydrostat transmission makes this easy without slipping a clutch, and wearing it out. Heck you might be able to charge local tractor owners to come and pop out the trees! In a Tom Sawyer fence painting kind of way!:laughing:

Do you suppose a John Deere 250 (65hp) skid steer could do this? It has snowed here and is starting to melt off. I might wait until the ground is more solid and go give it a try!! But, would like opinions.

 

[macecase]

The only problem with the brush hog idea is the left over sharpened stumps. I did a few smaller ones with my brush hog and it left sharpened sticks pointing up that reminded me of some sort of Vietnamese torture instrument.

FEL= Front End Loader.. all of those trees are ripe for pushing over with a FEL. Just the right size. Wait a day or 2 after a rain, and go to town. Gets roots and all, and no stump. Just push into the tree, and get sharp edge of your bucket hooked in the bark, and then lift, curl and push all at the same time. Plop, out they come.. Hydrostat transmission makes this easy without slipping a clutch, and wearing it out. Heck you might be able to charge local tractor owners to come and pop out the trees! In a Tom Sawyer fence painting kind of way!:laughing:

The comment about pushing them over is true. If you've got bucket teeth, you could hit the tree low at a dumping angle and they typically will pop right over. Then back up and push the root ball and the other side's roots will come out. My FEL w/o bucket teeth worked well.

I know some wildlife fisheries lakes like to sink cedars for fish habitat. Not sure about ideas of being profitable. The cedar eating job is lucrative. Oklahoma has a registry of cedar tree owners that are willing to let the harvesters come in and eradicate them on your property...see link below.

ERC Registry | Oklahoma Forestry Services

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A large number of them could be bush hogged. I know you can't do it with a light duty or even med duty hog but many or most could be done with a heavy hog and a good tractor. We used to hog down anything we could ride down with a ford jubilee. It would be faster than pushing by a good bit and you don't have to pile and burn.

 

[macecase]

FEL= Front End Loader.. all of those trees are ripe for pushing over with a FEL. Just the right size. Wait a day or 2 after a rain, and go to town. Gets roots and all, and no stump. Just push into the tree, and get sharp edge of your bucket hooked in the bark, and then lift, curl and push all at the same time. Plop, out they come.. Hydrostat transmission makes this easy without slipping a clutch, and wearing it out. Heck you might be able to charge local tractor owners to come and pop out the trees! In a Tom Sawyer fence painting kind of way!:laughing:

The comment about pushing them over is true. If you've got bucket teeth, you could hit the tree low at a dumping angle and they typically will pop right over. Then back up and push the root ball and the other side's roots will come out. My FEL w/o bucket teeth worked well.

I know some wildlife fisheries lakes like to sink cedars for fish habitat. Not sure about ideas of being profitable. The cedar eating job is lucrative. Oklahoma has a registry of cedar tree owners that are willing to let the harvesters come in and eradicate them on your property...see link below.

ERC Registry | Oklahoma Forestry Services

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Contact or look up bow hunters. There are commercial bow makers that love to make bows out of cedars. I know because I have a gentleman that wants to do the same thing with some of our trees. Just an idea.

Found the ideal solution!!

Ball and burlap them!
Eastern Red Cedars Trees For Sale

They are of no value. Get rid of them as fast as possible. If they are cut below the lowest branch they will die. They kill grass, hog water, and are a fire hazard since they will burn green. I researched eastern red cedars extensively before removing them from my property in Nebraska. The only cedars that are valuable are large old growth and ones that have grown in very dense growth that are very tall with few branches. Easier to remove limbs and straight and uniform for posts. Cedar mulching operations want 8" logs with a minimum of 4" diameter at the small end with no branches. From the looks of your land I would check into prescribed burning.

I already have a burn permit from the county. I was thinking yesterday, should I just like Light it all on fire and then remove the remains of the trees? I figure that might make it easier to see what I'm doing and also remove some biomass and wait. I do want to burn the Pasture that is below them anyway.thank you for your input!

 

[macecase]

I just don't see how that ATV thing can be safe!!

 

[Gary Fowler]

I just don't see how that ATV thing can be safe!!

I agree, I think one could end up over the handlebars and with a face full of cedar branches really easy, not to mention what it could do to the frame of your ATV. I think you have the right equipment to dig them up with the skidster but it is going to take some time to do. Another option would be to put a chain around them and pull them up if you have any other pulling type equipment. This could work well on the smaller ones.

 

[ovrszd]

My Brother and I have a 12" shear that goes on the FEL or our Bobcat. We thought it was the Cat's Meow when we first got it. My Brother sheared 4 acres of cedars. This Spring when the ground thaws I will take the backhoe and go over that 4 acres digging out the stumps. Bad idea...... Cedar stumps do not rot. Now to brush cut that field I have to raise the cutter to clear the stumps. Bad idea......

Burning the area will make your mess much harder to clean up. All you'll burn is the smallest limbs and the needles. The trees will still be standing there.

If you have a rental outfit in the area contact them and see if they have a tree puller that you can rent. They come in various shapes/sizes but will look something like this one which I built. In the Spring when the ground is loose you can pull some very large Cedar trees.