Large, dead ash clearance job. Advice appreciated

[Big J]

12 minutes ago, swinny said:

I can't add to this thread but all I can say is I enjoy reading your threads Big J. You always look at all sorts of angles to do works and look like you get interesting opertunities. 

 

Keep at it

 

Kind of you to say. We've all got to do the bread and butter stuff to pay the wages, but life is more interesting when you push yourself to try to solve problems that other people shy away from

[benedmonds]

16 hours ago, Big J said:

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.

Do you really need to remove it?  After the big storm of 87 many woods got flattened, many left to their own devices were in much better shape after a few years compared to the ones where folk went in to clear up and replant. Maybe not in a forestry view, but certainly in an ecological view. 

 

By all means make it safe but if you can just leave everything else to collapse and  recycle back into the environment doing nothing might be a better option. 

 

[Big J]

3 minutes ago, benedmonds said:

Do you really need to remove it?  After the big storm of 87 many woods got flattened, many left to their own devices were in much better shape after a few years compared to the ones where folk went in to clear up and replant. Maybe not in a forestry view, but certainly in an ecological view. 

 

By all means make it safe but if you can just leave everything else to collapse and  recycle back into the environment doing nothing might be a better option. 

 

Quite possibly, but he would like to sell the woodland in the near future and I can't imagine that there will be many prospective buyers wishing to purchase that kind of liability. It's a huge volume of work, and a potentially high cost if not approached intelligently.

[Big J]

There is a grant available for replanting after ash dieback. It's called the Tree health restoration grant, and extends to £2750/hectare, which would cover the replanting of around 700 trees per hectate, which would be about right for this particular woodland.

[Gary Prentice]

39 minutes ago, Big J said:

Tree health restoration grant,

I wonder what the species list is? Seems to be so many threats on the horizon that it's puzzling what to choose for the best.

 

Interesting reading about the restoration grant and what diseases it applies to.

How it works - Woodland Tree Health grant manual: Countryside Stewardship (From August 2019) - Guidance - GOV.UK

WWW.GOV.UK

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The Woodland Tree Health grant is part of Countryside Stewardship. It’s a capital grant under which you can apply...

 

[benedmonds]

7 minutes ago, Gary Prentice said:

I wonder what the species list is? Seems to be so many threats on the horizon that it's puzzling what to choose for the best.

They will probably end up being imported trees with foreign pests that will end up wiping out our native trees..

Edited September 27, 2019 by benedmonds

[Gary Prentice]

1 minute ago, benedmonds said:

They will probably end up being imported trees with foreign pests that will end up wiping out our native trees..

You cynic, you

 

 

No worries, tree imports will stop after Brexit - that'll teach old Johny Foreigner, you'll see. 

[Big J]

Come to think of it, I could just use the Logbullet forwarder to do the job, no need for an excavator. Just have to put a small grapple saw on instead of a grab and I'm good to go. I have 3 aux hydraulic outputs already on the machine for the operation of the chainsaw and the tilt on the head. It's ideal for the job as it's lightweight and is already set up as a forwarder.

[LGP Eddie]

Use the logbullet for what it was intended for and put an Excavator with Shear and Collector in front to Shear/Stack and sort a path for the following Logbullet.

 

Greg and myself used to do loads of this type of thing with myself on the Kubota 8 tonner and him on the Tracked Dumper Forwarder.

Used to get laughed at, until a couple of days in with the stacks piling up and no ruts or damage anywhere.

 

Couple of ideal Shears about now with Collector that size, you don’t want anything dangle mount really or you’ll have everything crashing about and anything with a Saw brings its own issues.

 

 

 

 

Eddie.

[Tom D]

On 27/09/2019 at 06:24, John Shutler said:

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 

Totally agree, I’ve chipped a helluva lot of brash with the heizo and small diameter stuff and brash just doesn’t produce much chip. I can fill a  grain trailer, maybe 14 -16 cube in 20 mins with 10-14" diameter softwood logs. But it will take me an hour with brash.