Grubbing out understory/brush.

DAPNET Forums Archive › Forums › Sustainable Living and Land use › Sustainable Forestry › Grubbing out understory/brush.

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  • January 8, 2012 at 10:15 pm #43374
    near horse
    Participant

    Beginner question here –

    I’ve admired many of the pics all you horseloggers have posted but it often (mostly to me) seems like you all have little to no shrubs/bushes in the understory to contend with. I’m ready to start trying to work on our woodland here but can’t really get a good feel of where to start – we have 100 acres of timber that was high gradeback in the 80’s so there are some skidding roads left, although growing over w/ vegetation. My main question though is about the brush in and amongst the trees – we have snowberry, serviceberry etc, some of which are 12 -15′ tall and pretty dense.

    So, how do you approach a tract like that?

    January 9, 2012 at 4:53 am #71343
    PhilG
    Participant

    Geoff ,
    When we do fire mitigation jobs we have to remove all of that within 40′ of the buildings and 80% of it out to 100′, it can be WAY more work than the trees, a weed wacker with a circle saw blade works ok, i use a small chainsaw a lot of the time and just wack it off low to the ground, cutting with the top of the bar. I would avoid it if possible, (for 100 acres i’d say a hydro ax on a skid steer is your best bet ? ) those 1″-2″ stems are like titanium
    Phil

    January 9, 2012 at 3:25 pm #71342
    Scott G
    Participant

    Geoff,

    Ditto for everything Phil mentioned. Depending on volume/area it may be worthwhile to get a mastication unit on site. The skidsteer units can be quite effective on smaller scale projects with small diameter brush & regen. Otherwise, a circular blade on an HD brush saw works great.

    If you want to knock it back over time without herbicides, or a lot of grubbing, it can be done. If you cut this stuff during or immediately after bud break in the spring you can be fairly effective provided you follow up for a couple of years. The shrubs put the majority of their carbohydrate stores towards leaf production in the spring. If you knock that new growth back immediately before significant photosynthesis occurs, and carb storage has a chance to build back up, you will severely stress the plant. You’ll get another flush of buds/leaves after you cut them and could knock it back again if the initial cut is not too close to the ground to rock your brush saw If you follow up every spring for a couple of years you’ll put the hurt on them. If you just cut them once and don’t make it back, all you’ll be doing is rejuvenating the plant.

    Just remember to leave some significant shrub patches for wildlife habitat…

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