Removing Quaking Aspen

[bacononeactual]

My wife and I have a small property in West Michigan where we keep a few horses. We also have 100 ac or so in northern Michigan. The land up north is basically just a hunting cabin/land, but it has traditionally been logged every 15 years or so to remove the aspen. This provides a little income, but mostly it is done to provide good habitat for deer and birds. Recently, I have been thinking about trying to expand the one small meadow on the property up north (currently about an acre) to create a ~5 acre hay field to make some of my own hay. To do this, I would have to remove the pool que sized quaking aspen that have grown up since the last time we logged the property 3-4 years ago, plus the 12'' diameter stumps (i.e. the 15-year old aspen trees that were cut). Those stumps are probably the biggest problem, but it might be possible to just brush hog the smaller aspen down and keep it cut down (did this last year to create some paths) and let the bigger stumps rot over a few years. Anybody ever tried to remove aspen or old soft wood stumps like this in any quantity? Or is it best to just hire someone with some heavy equipment for a few days? I've got an older JD 770 with model 70 loader (like a 790/3005) and a MF 1736 with DL120 loader that I am purchasing this spring to work with.

 

[dave1949]

You will likely find that many of the cue stick-sized trees are sprouts on the roots of the stumps, which in the aspen family can reach a long ways. There could be more root structure there than you would guess as far as removing stumps goes.

 

[rd_macgregor]

Constant (at least annual) mowing will keep a meadow as meadow, but expect those aspens to keep popping up from roots as long as there are any "parent" trees around. Existing stumps can hard to remove without some pretty big equipment, or extensive excavation. I cut a large one off at ground level, drill holes in the stump and treat it with something to kill/rot it. I've heard of folks doing that with diesel fuel, and then burning the top level of the stump to get it down below ground level...a stump grinder would be a more reliable way to do that, I'd think. The idea is to get it low enough so it isn't a hazard to mowing, then keep cutting off the sprouts as they come up.

 

[ace10]

The Aspens aren't going to go willingly.

You might also want to do some soil analysis to determine if the land will readily support your northern grasses.

$0.02

 

[slowzuki]

Thats a typical scene here after a clear cut. There are 3 usual approaches. Dozer with root rake to pop out all the stumps, forestry mulcher to grind everything, escavator with thumb and rake.

All leave a mess after for you to clean up.

The old timer way of doing it here was to run goats/cattle etc on the ground as pasture for a few years. The stumps rot down and almost fall apart makes it possible to use farm tractors to clean up.

 

[NS Gearhead]

This an option?
Introducing the DR TreeChopper Tree Shear: Low Cost and Effective Tree Cutting - YouTube

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Quaking Aspen aren't single trees. That plot is more than likely to be one single plant, with a single massive root system underground, and dozens to hundreds to thousands of trunks above ground.

 

[dmricke]

Growing up my family did custom land clearing with D7 dozers. One way to deal with aspen that was a thick as hair on a dog was to go in with the dirt blade in the winter and shear everything off at ground level. This was good enough to make pastures. Sometimes we would return in the summer and go over the cleared area with a massive serrated tandem disk that would chew up the roots.

 

[Egon]

As already mentioned, dozer with root rake and follow up with that heavy dozer pulled disc.

 

[bacononeactual]

Quaking Aspen aren't single trees. That plot is more than likely to be one single plant, with a single massive root system underground, and dozens to hundreds to thousands of trunks above ground.

Thanks, I am aware of the clonal nature of the trees. I'm confident that I will have to cut regularly for some time before shoots stop coming up (if ever).

As far as the stumps, it sounds like I will probably have to resign myself to either hiring a big dozer to remove them or waiting for them to rot (with or without accelerant). The new trees are still at a size where I can probably cut them with my old Ford brush hog.

 

[Jim Timber]

Aspen is soft enough you can chew them quickly with a stump grinder. How many stumps are we talking here?

Maybe a weekend's rental of a skidsteer and a stump grinder would get you to where you could brush hog it?

 

[slowzuki]

If its like here the density is very high, thousands per acre. Not really stump grinding territory. If you doze out the stumps you could bushhog it for a few years and the trees will stop coming up for a while.

 

[Gator6x4]

I would walk over the area and count the stumps. As you are counting the stumps, use red marking spray paint to mark stumps. Them contact someone with a track hoe and dozer. Obtain a price for using the track hoe to extract the stumps and then use the dozer to pile them up. Stump extraction with a dozer can get expensive in a hurry.

 

[Egon]

Taking out Aspen stumps with a root raked larger dozer is one of the faster ways to go. Following up with that big heavy disc is just icing on the cake.

 

[Jim Timber]

I looked at the rental sheet for the larger Caterpillar dealer in our area and a D4 is only 1400 a week. You might choke on that number a bit, but think of how much work you could get done with that machine in 40 hours.

 

[oosik]

Something here is strange. The Alder or Quaking Aspen in our area sound exactly like those in Michigan & Canada except. Here the trees rot so fast that they aren't good for fire wood and both the tree and stump with be completely rotted and gone within a year of falling. When I clear a thicket of Quaking Aspen I don't even consider chipping the trees because next year both stump & tree are "fluff".

 

[bacononeactual]

Something here is strange. The Alder or Quaking Aspen in our area sound exactly like those in Michigan & Canada except. Here the trees rot so fast that they aren't good for fire wood and both the tree and stump with be completely rotted and gone within a year of falling. When I clear a thicket of Quaking Aspen I don't even consider chipping the trees because next year both stump & tree are "fluff".

They are soft wood trees, but even a few years after cutting they are still pretty substantial. Certainly not something that a small compact tractor would be able to cut off/extract easily with a loader. I do think that if a large dozer could cut them off flush with the ground, then after a few more years of sitting and possibly being run over with a disc they would rot to soil.