Large, dead ash clearance job. Advice appreciated

[Big J]

I went to see a large ash clearance job over in West Devon earlier today. 150 acres, of which about half is ash planting in the region of 15-18 years old. It's small and it's largely dead. Recently dead, but dead. By far the worst chalara case I've seen thus far. I wonder whether chalara came in with the last round of planting, hence the very advanced dieback.

 

Anyway, the landowner is still keen to explore options for removing it. It's unsightly, and being dead is all going to fall down into an unholy mess within a few years.

 

My best idea to maximise the value is to whole tree chip it (there is after all no green matter on the trees) and retail the chip as graded biomass, which will probably come in at under 30% MC.

 

Harvesting idea in my head thus far is to use a 3t class excavator with grapple saw to fell them, with a pull behind forwarding trailer. That way, the machine only has to pass through the stand once, handle the timber once and there is no hand cutting requirement. It's all 2x2m planting, with other broadleaves (to be retained) throughout. A machine larger than 3t would be too big.

 

The excavator/harvester/forwarder would then run the tree lengths to ride side (there is a good network of rides), where the tree lengths would be left. A tractor with biomass chipper and hopper would come along, chip the timber and take the chip to a large concrete shed, where it would be loaded onto walking floor artics.

 

My best guess is that over the 150 acres (it's not a solid 150 acre plantation - with open space, perhaps 120 acres of trees) there is something like 1500 cubic metres of ash to be removed, equating to around 4000 cube of chip. It's a hell of a lot of trees (maybe 47,000), but I reckon an excavator set up like the one I've outlined would manage around 50 trees an hour, felled and extracted, or 4-500 per shift. So 90 odd days on site.

 

My question is whether we'd be likely to find a home for that volume of ash chip? Is the whole idea mad? It's not profitable forestry, but it's certainly interesting and would give me a good excuse to get a small arb excavator. Are there mobile chipping set ups like the one I described that can chip at ride side and tip out? What would the per cubic metre price for the chip be (£20-30/cm I'd imagine).

 

Any advice is, as ever, appreciated. I'm always grateful for the sounding board that is the Arbtalk massive! ?

[Big J]

[Big J]

Some pictures of the lifeless ash above.

[drinksloe]

I probably should wait and see wot others say, esp if have experience with grapple saws etc.

I also don't want too pee on ur chips.

Just 1st thoughts that im sure u have already considered anyway

 

Would a 3t have the power and speed to manuovre those trees as it felled them?? I know they don't look heavy but a lot of leverage on ur grapple and a 3t machine can't lift that much anyway.

Also the short reach, while u may be in a cab I imagine ur right in the fall zone for a lot of branches. Think I'd feel safer with a saw and getting well clear before it fell

 

I've always struggled with traction when off road with diggers once u break the turf so ur probably looking at steel tracks just not sure how well it would pull it forwarding trailer esp if wet or steep.

Plus ur low tracking speed depending how long a extraction it is.

 

Would u not be better forwarding out with ur wee forwarder? Thought it would be ideal for that.

 

Either a bigger machine with tree shears. Or

I realise the safety implications but could u hand cut and drop many the way they want to go, create holes to drop others into, no wedging.  Be a bit of a nightmare for forwarding thou, be like pick up sticks, but atleast no brash to make it even worse and no different sizes/produce.

Plus a good lad with a throw line and rope pulling a few others over, doubt they'd be many left. A rope well up would pull them over easy.

Even those new ratchet wedges might be a safer option than normal wedges.

Anything dodgy could be pulled over by ur forwarder/winch when cutter well clear

 

Just thinking aloud a wee bit so may be well off

 

[Mike Hill]

I could not tell what the diameter of the Trees are but I would mulch the whole lot and start a new.

 

To me,your plan is involving too many machines doing to much work or too much work for two few machines.

 

Either fell the lot with a felling head or shears depending on the diameter,load enormous brushy loads onto a forwarder and unload at a chipping point.Or do the same and just chip to waste at more numerous chipping points.

 

I came unstuck on a logging job in the summer,when the wind blew from the wrong direction for three weeks,the log price dropped and everything had to be done arse backwards.I think your forwarder trailer/digger combo would be ideal in the right place,ie high value,low yeild recovery coupled with difficult access but this job sounds like neither of that.

[John Shutler]

i think you’ve over estimated the amount of chip you’ll produce and the final value per cubic metre of the woodchip. it’s not going to be particularly high value chip on account of all the fines from the smaller material. you could be £15 per cubic metre or less in my experience 

[LeeGray]

Would a bobcat and mulcher head not be quick and pain free to mulch those out. Obviously not yielding any product but no one gets hurt and wouldn’t take 90 days

[arbwork]

J the idea is sound, a while ago we tried, as a trial, chipping whole tree and brash for an estate similar as your site,  the chip was ok for their boiler, they did pass it through the grain store drying facility 1st, good luck with sorting

[Big J]

Lots of interesting responses - many thanks!

 

The average tree size is very small. 12cm at chest height probably and only 8m tall. There are some that are taller, but most aren't. The weight of a tree like that is about 50kg, if that, so I don't think that the 3t machine would struggle. There are some trees that are a little larger (like the those in the third photo), but most aren't. 

 

The issue with a larger machine is that it's largely mixed planting and they don't want to damage the remaining trees. Even a 5t machine (track width 1.8m) would be too large.

 

Most of your collective concerns regarding safety whilst felling should be mitigated by the small size of the trees. The grapple saw straight onto a forwarding trailer idea reduces handling to the extent where it's potentially possible to make it commercially viable. 

 

As regards chip points, I'd look to find a chipper/trailer combo set up where the tree lengths could be left at ride side for the tractor to chip in situp, taking the full trailers of chip back to the shed for uplift. There are rides everywhere in the woodland and the extraction routes for the excavator would never exceed 100m.

 

We can't mulch it, as it's a mixed woodland. I think (from speaking to the old lad that looks after it) that it was planted by the Commission as a test site. The overall result of the test is that hardwoods don't grow well here at all. 

 

Thanks for the pointers on chip price John. I'd like to think that 25 cube of chip per acre would be a reasonable estimate. That's only the equivilent of about 8-9 fresh tonnes, and considering it's effectively a 50% clearfell I can't be far off.

 

I'll speak to a local chip company today and see what sort of price they'd offer for chip loaded to a walking floor.

 

This is the sort of machine I'd consider tackling the operation with:

 

[Stere]

Would firewood create be better value?

 

Small diameter but alot of tall looking straight  trunks could be processed with right set up with some kind of branch logger?

 

MODEL RP-200 Super - WoodProcessor24

WWW.WOODPROCESSOR24.CO.UK

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RP200 SUPER PRO with hydraulic conveyor INNER WIDTH 300mm INTERLINE SPACING 200mm BLADE THICKNESS...

 

 

Way too much fiddle?

Edited September 27, 2019 by Stere