Forestry Mulching

[npaden]

I posted some pictures earlier on my thread asking about excavator mulchers but thought I would start a new thread because I think this is cool. LOL.

I hired out a guy to run a skid steer mulcher on my property about 100 miles south of my house. The property had a fire 12 years ago and things have come back really well, except some of it has come back so thick it is almost unusable to any wildlife. Deer can't even walk through it. It is bumelia or the common name is chittamwood and it is a good tree for wildlife but not when it is this thick. The stuff I've read said that it responds vigorously to fire and that sure seems accurate.

I have a few clips I'm uploading to YouTube of the mulcher in action if anyone is interested.

 

[RobG]

That doesn't look cheap. Are they doing it for deer habitat?

 

[npaden]

Here’s some before and after pictures.

Looking up at my blind on the hill.



My pond:



This helps give it all some size perspective.



That was 5.5 hours on the machine. Felt like I got my money’s worth.

 

[npaden]

That doesn't look cheap. Are they doing it for deer habitat?

It was $200 per hour of machine time. No charge for getting it to me with a 4 hour minimum.

Yes, it was just so thick it wasn't usable for anything. Even the pigs struggled to get through it. It has worse thorns than a mesquite so you ended up bloody just looking at it if you weren't careful. LOL.

I had some extra time after clearing some lanes through the chittamwood so I had them work on cleaning up the mesquites on the dam above the pond.

Tried to spray all the stumps with Remedy to keep them from resprouting, but it was harder than I expected to find the stumps to spray them. I will work on spraying the regrowth later this summer and then again next spring.

 

[RobG]

Not too bad for 5.5 hours.

 

[npaden]

Got another video uploaded.

Probably will end up with one more of it knocking down some mesquite trees.

 

[hank4elk]

Love seeing those things mow down junipers.

 

[kansasdad]

I remember photos of the burn. Nature is amazing in its ability to bounce back. And the hand of man can steer growth in directions that might benefit both man, beasts and the vegetation. I like this follow up to the devestating fire story.

 

[jdf]

I've ran those CAT 299 mulchers for days upon days on end.
Good machines..

 

[Scott85]

The biggest problem with them is some operators don’t want to mix the mulch into the soil because it wears down the teeth faster.

 

[Moserkr]

Last few years the HOA has hired a team of them to keep our green belts cleaned up. Its amazing to watch them chew through everything, even 40’ tall, 12” diameter trees dont stand a chance. They leave select plants like larger dogwoods, cedars, and pines; everything else is mulch. Unless a fire jumps to the canopy, theres nothing to burn. The year after they mulch it theres young plants everywhere and the deer love it. Then they come back every 2-3 years and it stays extremely fire safe.

 

[Trap]

That looks great. We had that done this year on.
the acreage we live on. It’s unreal how fast they can clean things up. We logged first then had the mulcher run clean up on everything. Took down some big dead trees no problem. Mulched some slash piles I didn’t get burned in no time. Worth doing for sure huge time savings

 

[npaden]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I think this is going to be a big improvement and I am going to make sure it doesn't get that far out of control again. On the remaining clumps I might attempt to do some selective cutting so that some of the larger trees can actually grow and be a benefit to wildlife. I might go through and plant some of the cleared area in food plots as well.

I got another video uploaded that shows a clump of mesquite getting mulched down.

And then have one that does a pretty good job of giving an idea of what it was like before and then after. Of course I didn't do a very good job doing if from the same angle and everything but you should be able to get a pretty good idea.

 

[npaden]

The biggest problem with them is some operators don’t want to mix the mulch into the soil because it wears down the teeth faster.

These guys didn't seem to worry too much about the teeth being worn down. The teeth were more like rounded off hammers than cutting edges. I think it takes more effort to get the same amount of work done because the teeth are so dull but the teeth don't get damaged as much if they hit a rock or anything.

 

[Nameless Range]

That is really cool. Are weeds an issue in Texas? If you did that in Montana and didn't engage in post treatment, every track there would be pure weeds a year from now. Thanks for sharing

 

[npaden]

I remember photos of the burn. Nature is amazing in its ability to bounce back. And the hand of man can steer growth in directions that might benefit both man, beasts and the vegetation. I like this follow up to the devastating fire story.

Yes. Other than the dead standing mesquite you wouldn't be able to really tell that there was a fire that made the entire place look like a moonscape 12 years ago. Seeing those giant dead standing mesquite trees still makes me a little sad though.

 

[npaden]

That is really cool. Are weeds an issue in Texas? If you did that in Montana and didn't engage in post treatment, every track there would be pure weeds a year from now. Thanks for sharing

There will be some weeds I'm sure. The biggest issue is the mesquite resprouting and coming back even thicker. I couldn't ever find anything saying if the chittamwood would resprout but I ended up spraying brush killer on it all after it was mulched. Plan to keep an eye on it and spray again if needed.

 

[Cattleman]

Yeah crazy what them things will do in a days work, at my work we have a brand new bobcat t86 that has superflow and its paired with a Loftness mulching head and you can do some serious clearing in a days work.