Smoothing Clear Cut Land

[ecdan]

We have 100 acres that was just clear cut of pines. The ultimate goal is to make much of it mixed forest/pasture for sheep.

Tractor - Kubota MX5400 with bucket and bushhog

Slash - They piled most of it up into massive piles. We might try and burn some of it or just leave it to rot? We plan to get a grapple to collect up the bigger pieces left over into rot/burn piles and leave the small stuff to rot.

Stumps - We plan on getting a PTO stump grinder to tackle the stumps (not in a rush).

My main question is around the mess the loggers made with their equipment. There are quite a few big tire trenches and uneven spots on the land. What is the best implements to use to smooth these out/fill them in?

 

[JethroB]

I saw one of these type stump pullers at an Ag Expo once. Pretty impressed. It takes a hoss to pull it.

 

[5030]

Reputable logging companies always clean up the slash and smooth their tracks. Sounds to me like your's were slock....

Pine stumps will naturally rot over time. Have fun, you'll need it.

 

[ovrszd]

Welcome to TBN.

You didn't mention where you are located? So we don't really know soil type? And we don't know pine tree variety? What's the average stump diameter?

If the population was dense you are going to struggle leveling ruts amongst stumps.

In my area the invasive trees to clear are Eastern Red Cedar. Their stumps do not rot away. And they populate off their root systems. Very hard to stop. Requires complete removal of the stumps and major root system.

 

[ecdan]

Reputable logging companies always clean up the slash and smooth their tracks. Sounds to me like your's were slock....

Pine stumps will naturally rot over time. Have fun, you'll need it.

They are not done yet and are a reputable company. This is good to know I will ask them about it tomorrow, I just assumed they wouldn't.

I am located in North East Georgia. The stand of trees has been thinned multiple times so the stumps are very far apart. The trees were pretty big.

 

[oosik]

100 acres of clear cut cleanup is a MIGHTY big project for anybody with any size tractor. I had my 80 acres selectively logged off about 15 years ago. I had them leave the slash pile for the wildlife. Unfortunately - there is very little left of the slash piles. I'm going to gather all piles into one pile this summer. Good use for my grapple.

As far as straightening out the ruts. I used my land plane grading scraper (LPGS). Took multiple passes but turned out smooth as a baby's butt.

The stumps - why worry about them. Let them rot away. The sheep won't care. A lot of effort required for very little benefit. Unless you plan on the 100 acres looking like a garden from mystical tale of old.

Keep you goal and perspective in mind. You want this to be a sheep ranch.

 

[John_Mc]

Reputable logging companies always clean up the slash and smooth their tracks. Sounds to me like your's were slock....

Reputable logging companies do what they contracted to do. If the contract did not specify clean up and grading the area, then they did what they were supposed to do. Having said that, I would certainly hope a reputable company would ask a landowner during the contract negotiations phase of the deal whether they wanted the clean up or not. Whether or not the clean up was included, would certainly affect the price a landowner was offered for the logs (or the amount the landowner paid for the cutting if there were no saleable logs).

We recently had a small logging job done on some property I own cooperatively with some friends. We chose not to have the logger remove the tops or lop them down, which ended up giving us a much better deal. The logger was expected to do a rough grade on the trails to remove any ruts which could have started erosion problems - that didn't take much, since the logging was done under frozen winter conditions.

 

[jyoutz]

We have 100 acres that was just clear cut of pines. The ultimate goal is to make much of it mixed forest/pasture for sheep.

Tractor - Kubota MX5400 with bucket and bushhog

Slash - They piled most of it up into massive piles. We might try and burn some of it or just leave it to rot? We plan to get a grapple to collect up the bigger pieces left over into rot/burn piles and leave the small stuff to rot.

Stumps - We plan on getting a PTO stump grinder to tackle the stumps (not in a rush).

My main question is around the mess the loggers made with their equipment. There are quite a few big tire trenches and uneven spots on the land. What is the best implements to use to smooth these out/fill them in?

Smooth the ruts with whatever works. If the piles are too large, use a grapple to make smaller piles and burn when conditions are right. The stumps will be there till they rot or you have a dozer remove and pile them. Their is no good tractor solution to stumps when you are talking about acres of land.

 

[jyoutz]

They are not done yet and are a reputable company. This is good to know I will ask them about it tomorrow, I just assumed they wouldn't.

I am located in North East Georgia. The stand of trees has been thinned multiple times so the stumps are very far apart. The trees were pretty big.

I didn’t see the information that the logging is ongoing. Have them smooth the ruts before you close out the sale. Also, if the piles are too large, have them break them up into smaller more burnable piles. They have the correct equipment to do this.

 

[fishdrivel]

Pretty rare to get grading here in Georgia from loggers.
Big brushpiles is normal.

If someone wants clean land for development, that is a different bid.

Don't try a 3 pint stump grinder on that many pine stumps. you are not in a hurry, most will be rotten before you get to them!

You can burn all the brush and not have any wood left over. Let it dry awhile, and talk to your firemen, etc.

You can hire a tubgrinder to mulch the brush. Your logger either has on or know one. Keep your eyes open, you will see one on a project!

 

[ZTMAN]

Box blade should make short work of the ruts.

Grinding 100 acres of stumps with a stump grinder will take a lot of effort, but if you are in no hurry, have at it. If you are in a hurry, have a forestry mulcher come in and grind them flat. If you want them dug out, that is a different story.

We bought a property 24 years ago that just had about 40 of the 127 acres clear cut. They piled the tops up all in one area that was about twenty foot high. Mixed hardwoods and hemlock. If you went there today, you would never the know the pile was there.

 

[jyoutz]

Pretty rare to get grading here in Georgia from loggers.
Big brushpiles is normal.

If someone wants clean land for development, that is a different bid.

Don't try a 3 pint stump grinder on that many pine stumps. you are not in a hurry, most will be rotten before you get to them!

You can burn all the brush and not have any wood left over. Let it dry awhile, and talk to your firemen, etc.

You can hire a tubgrinder to mulch the brush. Your logger either has on or know one. Keep your eyes open, you will see one on a project!

All logging contractors are required under most sale contracts to smooth out ruts deeper than a foot or more.

 

[jeff9366]

I saw one of these type stump pullers at an Ag Expo once. Pretty impressed. It takes a hoss to pull it.

Two (2) track tractors begin at 400-horspower. Most quadric-tracks (4) are 600-horsepower.

 

[Midniteoyl]

Problem solver right here.. Find a guy with one:

https://imgur.com/ZJjFK5p

 

[jyoutz]

Problem solver right here.. Find a guy with one:

https://imgur.com/ZJjFK5p

I agree that this will do the job. The logging crew has one. I’ve never administered a timber sale where we didn’t require the logger to smooth big ruts and we specify what percentage of slash to be piled and how large the piles should be. The OP should just tell the logger what he wants on his land.

 

[Fixastuff]

Reputable logging companies always clean up the slash and smooth their tracks. Sounds to me like your's were slock....

Pine stumps will naturally rot over time. Have fun, you'll need it.

There must not be any reputable logging companies in my area. They all look like crap tree debris and ruts everywhere. In my woods the pine stumps were the last to rot because they were big enough to heart wood(fatwood, light wood, lighter wood) centers that almost never break down.

 

[5030]

Must not be.... Last time I sold off timber on our northern Michigan property, all the slash was chipped or removed, access paths were smoothed out too Stumps were cut at grade level as well.

 

[4570Man]

Box blade should make short work of the ruts.

Grinding 100 acres of stumps with a stump grinder will take a lot of effort, but if you are in no hurry, have at it. If you are in a hurry, have a forestry mulcher come in and grind them flat. If you want them dug out, that is a different story.

We bought a property 24 years ago that just had about 40 of the 127 acres clear cut. They piled the tops up all in one area that was about twenty foot high. Mixed hardwoods and hemlock. If you went there today, you would never the know the pile was there.

Skidder ruts are sometimes 3-4 feet deep with stumps in the middle. A D6 would be more inline with smoothing them out vs a box blade.

 

[jyoutz]

There must not be any reputable logging companies in my area. They all look like crap tree debris and ruts everywhere. In my woods the pine stumps were the last to rot because they were big enough to heart wood(fatwood, light wood, lighter wood) centers that almost never break down.

It all is based on the timber sale contract specifications. Loggers will do the work required and no more. Contracts prepared by a government or private consulting forester will include environmental clean up and slash treatment specifications and the logging contractor will do what is required. The problems usually occur when the logger provides the sale contract without these provisions and the landowner signs it, not realizing that these provisions are important to get a professional and clean job. Get advice from a forester not associated with the logging company before you sign a timber sale contract.

 

[jyoutz]

One more bit of advice. Most timber sale contracts will specify that logging operations will occur when the ground is “dry or frozen “ and the sale administrator will shut them down during saturated soil conditions. This keeps ruts and soul damage to a minimum.