Advice... burying Sitka Stumps

[Alec_Birkbeck]

Storm Arwen caused around 6 acres of windthrow of our Spruce plantation. This is now cleared and we are looking at options for stump removal.

We are replanting native broadleaf species within the areas that have been cleared.

So, we have a lot of Spruce stumps that we could perhaps grind, remove off site, pile up somewhere in the wood or bury.

One idea is to bury them along our fence boundary to create a kind of low bund, perhaps planting more hedgerow over them.

Are there any restrictions around burying stumps [in the UK]?

The site is around 32 acres.

Thanks

[Stephen Blair]

Pictures of the ground conditions, access and the size of the stumps would help.  

[Alec_Birkbeck]

3 minutes ago, Stephen Blair said:

Pictures of the ground conditions, access and the size of the stumps would help.  

Sure, no problem. See attached.

We have a good track into the woods, which we used to harvest the timber. The articulated wagons had sufficient turnaround space to pickup the timber.

[openspaceman]

4 hours ago, Alec_Birkbeck said:

Are there any restrictions around burying stumps [in the UK]?

As the stumps are probably waste then yes as burying or landfill of waste has been unlawful for nigh on 20 years now.

 

However there are certain exemptions or permits available from EA for numerous activities but I'm well out of the loop now .

 

The forestry commission dug and windrowed corsican stumps in Thetford because of fomes risk

[daveindales]

Have you considered just leaving them and planting around them.? That's what normally happens with plantings I've been involved with. 

[drinksloe]

There was a time when they were digging stumps out to chip for boimass power stations, and that was going to power the station with NO round wood, but the geniuses soom realised digging stumps off a forestry site, forwarding them to roadside, hauling ( usually small loads due to ackwardness of them) them to a yard where they had to be power washed.

 

Possibly might be viable to chip in ur case as be easy ripped out and even if u don't make much its worth it to u to tidy site, if someone will take them that is.

 

Wot ground prep are u going to do for ur hard woods?

Wot machine are going in anyway?

 

Contractors look to have left a tidy site, but how easy will it be to gather the stumps and transport them to where ever u want to bury them? Not often a tractor trailer will travel a forestry site ( esp not without puncture)

Never as easy as it looks to transport stuff about a forest site.

 

If ur getting a digger in anyway to ground prep/drain, i'd just make localised piles or rows handy to where the stumps are anyway so no moving them very far involved.

Or just leave as they are if not in the way.

 

It might be worth doing some draining work thou as windblow normally a sign of wet/water loged soil, althou possibly not the case this time as storm arwen was exceptional if u caught it bad.

[drinksloe]

Just going to add if u have a decent ammount of stumps/root plates it will take a decent sized hole in the ground and u still have the soil u dug out to get rid off.

Way things are with price of red all costs money.

[Alec_Birkbeck]

2 minutes ago, drinksloe said:

Just going to add if u have a decent amount of stumps/root plates it will take a decent sized hole in the ground and u still have the soil u dug out to get rid off.

Way things are with price of red all costs money.

Fair point @drinksloe, but that was the thinking around making the low bund that follows the site boundary. So the soil from the hole will be placed on top. The bund can then have new hedgerow planted along it...

This isn't a solution for all the stumps though, just for some of them.

[Alec_Birkbeck]

29 minutes ago, daveindales said:

Have you considered just leaving them and planting around them.? That's what normally happens with plantings I've been involved with. 

Thanks, we have some other "natural" landscaping to add to the clearings - like seasonal fish-free ponds etc so its important to remove most of the stumps

[Alec_Birkbeck]

58 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

As the stumps are probably waste then yes as burying or landfill of waste has been unlawful for nigh on 20 years now.

 

However there are certain exemptions or permits available from EA for numerous activities but I'm well out of the loop now .

 

The forestry commission dug and windrowed corsican stumps in Thetford because of fomes risk

Thanks @openspaceman, I expected that there would be some type of restrictions. We are in close contact with our local FC so I will make some enquiries