Gorse Clearance

[Mr Ed]

Ive used an excavator with a 3/4 grapple rake, if your a good operator you can rake it out roots and all and burn it. Much easier than manually.

[Stephen Blair]

Not on a SSSI mate, method is more important than cost. Specially if it's HLS or HLF money.

 

hot air balloon then with remote controlled loppers and grabbers, place onto a hover conveyor belt and build a mini pulp mill and sell the paper at the other end..

[Saw-sick Steve]

Have done acres and acres of gorse clearance on SSSI's in a previous life, most of it by Clearing Saw followed by burning. Generally had a couple of really big fire sites to minimize damage to ground flora / fauna, main objective was to remove all material to avoid nutrient build up. Will the site be grazed after?

Large machinery will probably be outlawed for the reasons stated previously,too much ground damage. My two-penneth worth, get the biggest, baddest Clearing Saw you can afford - its amazing how much you can clear with one of them.

[Parker]

Looks like it's going to be cut and burn then.

 

I think getting in a mulcher/digger is going to be too costly/time consuming and won't leave the site in a good enuf condition.

[Buzz]

So those in the know reckon cut and chip or cut and burn. I agree that clearing saws are effective but it depends on the stem diameter. I found it very fatiguing if the stems are large with a clearing saw and not good on your back as your constantly swinging the cut stems off the saw blade.

[Parker]

Will post some pictures up on Sunday of the site and keep you updated to how we go about it ! cheers for the help guys !

[Stephen Blair]

cutting gorse is only jaggy at first, if it has been done in the past then it will be jaggy from the bottom to the top and fury, so this equalls multiple stems and nasty nasty. if it is old stuff then just climb inside and knock out a section, this now opens a gap, like taking a segment out of a chocolate orange, now conventionally when chipping you would stick the woody bit in first, but with gorse you stick in the fury bit, if it is a 6" chipper on tracks then you would be better to swipe a few bits off the bushy end to make it narrow enough to get to the rollers(if you can get an 8" one this would make the world of diference)now when the jaggy bit that falls to the ground should be picked up with a long handled fork and thrown in just as the woody stem is going to the rollers thus carrying in the jaggy stuff, and by that time your cutter will have another bit ready for you and repeat the operation. DONT go bonkers and cut it all down then try and chip it, methodically you will go through it in jig time, have the guy with the pitch fork wearing welding gauntlets, you can easily shuttle the chip offsite with a quad and 2 trailers but all this eats up money, hense my first post about budget, every job has a budget so this reflects on how a job is carried out. so if you are tendering or offering the tenders then this is very important. If you can burn it and it hasnt been touched in years then fell and then burn, if not the gorse will just lions tail, all the fluffy dead stuff will go up quickly but wont be able to spread from bush to bush effectively. the most manageable way to burn is flail it first/mulch and then burn, so you only have to try and control a fire 8 inches high, but you will have to have an argo with bowzer and and plenty of guys at the ready with beating paddles. this is how they burn heather in a controled manner.

[Buzz]

Paragraphs Stevie, Paragraphs !! I have such fond memories of reverse feeding gorse into a chipper

[Charlieh]

does the spec of the job allow a tractor on site, if so what about a mounted flail hedge cutter that blows the debris into a large hopper on a trailer, eg the Bomford falcon collector? http://www.bomford-turner.com/products/Arm%20Mowers/collector.htm

 

or failing that a method we have used for harvesting heather brash, there is a contractor (cant remember his name but can get it if your interested) who has a double chop forage harvester, which blows the brash into a modified trailer, so all the debris ends up in those 1ton builders bags, once its full you just drop them off and put some more in and they can be collected or burnt at lesuire?

[nepia]

All you need is a tractor - a smallish one to keep the weight down - and an old mower. My cousin cleared acres of the stuff with an MF 35 and mower to whose blades he's welded some ?chrome steel. That thing was sending bits of 4" gorse stem 30 yards and more. The right machine will mulch the lot for you. Leave it on the ground a month and bring in the sheep; they'll keep the regrowth down.