How do you remove stumps

[kalmos]

I need to clear 2 acres. The trees are about 12". What is the best way of clearing that property and removing the stumps?

 

[treeclimber165]

If there are a LOT of stumps then you may be best off getting someone in with a backhoe or big loader to clear the stumps.

If it's only a few, hire a stump grinder guy. Going rate in most areas is $1.50-$2 per inch diameter (approx).

 

[tshanefreeman]

Depending on the final use of your land, you may want to consider the effects that large equipment will have on your soil structure and vegetation. For example, once the soil becomes compacted, the area could take years to be hospitable for future growth.

Whereas a stump grinder is more isolated and will only disrupt the area that is in direct contact with. More work............ yes........... but in the end it might have been worth your time!

 

[treespec]

Why would you want too clear all the stumps within the 2 acres? Sounds like alot of $ if it isn't nessary. If you have a large area, you might consider hiring a brush cutter to do a specific site.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

If you dig the stumps out with a backhoe, what do you do with the stumps?

 

[Kenmai]

I'm not going to even pretend that I know what is best for a piece of land or whether digging up stumps or grinding them is better. I just want to answer the question about what to do with all the stumps once you dig them out.

My answer is; put them back in the hole. Just make sure to put them in upside down. I live in the Granite State. That means we have lots of rock and trees, but we're a little light on dirt. I've been clearing my land (10 acres) for about two years. I'm not clearing all of it. Just enough so I can have a nice yard for the kids (about 1 acre) and to have some trails that wind through the ten acres.

I had considered hauling all the stumps to a obscure back corner of the lot but figured out that unless I want the land to look like a battlefield, something would have to go in the hole. An excavator I know in the area said that one of the options is to flip the stump over in the hole. This way you don't have to pay expensive dumping fees, buy dirt, excuse me, soil or have an eye sore.

I took an Environmental Science class and I think that burying the stump will provide nutrients to the land as it decomposes, though the process will take years. You do have to accept the fact that as it decomposes, you will have a sink hole again. This suits me fine because by then I'll have won the lottery and will be able to buy soil and even afford to have someone else spread it out.

Anyway that's what I'm doing unless I want to put a different tree in the place of the one I took out. I.e. take out a pine that can hit the house and replace it with fruit tree or magnolia etc.. I'm using those stumps for fill elsewhere. I don't think stumps make the best fill, but I have lots of erosion because of water run off and I need lots of fill.

I do like the idea of stump grinding which is probably what I'll do with some of the stumps, because pulling up a particular stump, might destroy the roots of the healthy non house threatening tree next to it that I want to keep and that decomposing stump should provide nutrients to the soil/roots of the remaining tree.

Ken

 

[CJ-7]

In our neck of the woods (so to speak) land clearing contractors usually use what is called a hydro-stumper. It is a monster stump grinder mounted on the front of a large dozer. It will throw chips up to 100 feet.

 

[Kenmai]

Here's another idea for the stumps. If the stumps don't need to be removed, use them to your advantage. I have a three foot tall 18" wide stump in the back yard. I was going to dig it up with the backhoe, but it's too close to tree I want to keep. I was going to cut it down lower and see about a stump grinder but then I decided to make a flower pot out of it.

I took my chain saw, did 4 plunge cuts in the top to make a square, then another plunge cut from the side, about 12" from the top, to cut the square free. The cut at the bottom will help with drainage too.

It might not be the best environment for plants or flowers, but it gets me out of dealing with the stump for about 15 or 20 years.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Yep, that's how it starts.
Next, you'll save the $3 a peice on tire disposal, just stick 'em in your yard and fill 'em up with dirt. Then before you know it you won't even carry your trash out to the curb, just open the window and chuck.
You know your a redneck when Jeff Foxworthy talks about you on TV.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Hydrostumpers rent for around $1400 a day, but they will melt through some stupsage. Just watch out for rocks. Tooth repalcement can realy jack the cost up.

 

[Kenmai]

Mike,
Should have seen that one coming. Thanks for the idea though. Now I'm going to just put the old tires around the stumps. Even though I have redneck tendencies (must be from being stationed in NC for 8 years), my wife rules the front yard with an iron fist. An iron fist full of my hard earned money, I might add. I'm only allowed to play (as she calls it) with the backhoe in the back yard.

She's had me do the darnedest things too. I had to clear an area of all the trees and stumps. I'm sure you already know what I had to put there. Yep;"new" trees! I tried telling her that we have ten acres of trees and didn't need to buy anymore. She gave me the "look", so I got my checkbook and the truck keys. That's what I get for buying a back hoe without telling her first.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Where were you in NC?

JPS XUSMC

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

JPS, his place is easy to spot. It's the one with all the red neck wind chimes(empty beer cans tied to a stick with fishing line).

 

[treeclimber165]

Mike, that describes half of WI and most of the midwest!
(plus everything from GA to West Virginia!)

 

[Kenmai]

Twice at Cherry Point and once at Lejuene. Lejuene was my last duty station. Didn't much care for the weather along the coast in NC. Too biblical. So when I retired, I move to NH.

At Lejeune is how I got into felling trees. I was there for a few hurricanes (Bertha and Fran). I left two years later and they were still cleaning up the trees and repairing roofs. Two fellow Marines opened up a tree service and roof repair shop. Worked great. I didn't know how to do either and they paid me to learn. One had grown up on a farm in WI and the other was from VA with a similar background. The one from VA could climb too.

Lived up here for a 2 years and bought a piece a land big enough that I could keep practicing on. No matter what way the tree went I wasn't going to hit anything but trees that were coming down anyway. Learned the hard way (and sometimes dangerous) about trees getting hung up, and that life does suck when your only chain saw is stuck in a tree that decided it would rather go backwards than forwards. I now have three chain saws.

I got almost a full acre cleared and then the heavy equipment came in and took care of the rest. I told the excavator what I wanted to do with the land and he told me to buy a back hoe. We moved in 18 months ago and I've been having a blast since. I do have to keep rearranging the basement so my wife doesn't notice any new toys though. Life is good.

Semper Fi,
Ken

 

[rick_reno]

How do you remove stumps...

I needed to do this same thing a couple of years ago. I bought a Bobcat 863 with Hyflow and their big stump grinder (the local dealer didn't rent them). Setting up to grind one down takes longer than grinding it - it's a great piece of equipment. The grinder has sat in my shop for a couple of years now; I just saw the neighbor take down a couple of trees and he wants the stumps ground down so it'll get some use again.
We have about 25 acres of stumps on some property up near the Canadian border - up there I use grapple hooks to yank them up and stack them up for burning.

 

[treeclimber165]

The absolute best, fastest, easiest, and most enjoyable method is discussed on this thread.
http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5530

 

[digger242J]

I know you purists will cringe, but I'm an excavator. My preferred method is to dig around the stump a little and then push the tree over with the backhoe. Then you just have to remove the stump from the tree...

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

recently saw a pic of a guy trapped in his trac-hoe when the tree came down on him.

Some of those root balls may be eorth a few bucks to woodworkers. Specialy walnut for gunstocks.

 

[digger242J]

recently saw a pic of a guy trapped in his trac-hoe when the tree came down on him.

That's always a legitimate concern.

A few years back I worked a couple of months with a chainsaw clearing woods preparatory to some site work. I got to be able to make em fall the direction I wanted to *most* of the time. (I think part of the trick is for *you* to want them to fall in the direction *they* want to.) As an operator I try to size them up the same way, and that determines the direction I push....

BTW, on that job one of the operators nearly ruined the bucket of a Case 1450 hilift, by using just the corner of the bucket, to take a big stump out.