How to de-stump forest meadow?

[grace mellow]

Looking for advice on a cost-effective way to handle pine stumps.

A few years ago we made a 2 acre patch cut of "cabbaged" white pines and discovered a still-viable old apple orchard under them (6-10 trees). Would like to keep the area open as a forest meadow and small orchard for wildlife value, mowing once or twice a year to keep it grassy.

To make mowing possible, will need to flatten or remove 15-20 pine stumps to allow for the brushhogger.  Diameters range from 12 - 24". Thoughts? Cut them to ground level with a chainsaw? Appreciate any words of wisdom.  "Cost effective" means we'd pay up to a couple thousand dollars to get the whole thing taken care of, but my guess is that a logger grinding or pulling would still exceed that budget.

[Daniel Little]

Given the species of tree and small number of stumps, I would say a walk behind stump grinder from a local rental shop would do the trick, your looking at around $150 a day.  I have used them in the past for hardwood stumps including a 24" hard maple and it worked great!

[John McNerney]

I'm with Daniel on this one. Renting a walk-behind stump grinder is probably the way to go on this one. It's definitely do-able for 20 stumps, and not too expensive. If a local hardware store doesn't have one, try a Taylor Rental or similar.

You can probably get it low enough with a chainsaw, but sawing in that dirty environment is hard on the chain, bar, and saw in general... plus, it's backbreaking work.

[Brett Chedzoy]

short of burning, which may not be an option in your area, the next most effective and cost-effective method of clearing the stumps and residual slash to make the site maintainable with a brush hog would be to contract a "FECON" type machine - which is a wide stump-grinder head mounted either on a skid steer or excavator.  Cost will range from $250 to over $1000/acre depending on the volume, diameter and density of the material.  You can see a video of a FECON at work on our farm this past fall under the video section of www.silvopasture.ning.com

[Kevin Mathers]

Grace, have you already cleared out all the slash?  The different solutions offered by Daniel and Brett are likely due to different assumptions about exactly what you'd need to remove.   

[Terri S]

Maybe you could try a smaller version of this.  It was something used to clear stumps when clearing land for the Erie Canal.

Nearly all the excavation was done by men using picks and shovels and by draft animals (animals that pull heavy loads). Workers used black gunpowder to blast through rock, with the powder holes drilled by hand. Very few machines were available to supplement physical labor, but there was one machine to bring down trees and another to pull stumps.

The first machine worked by attaching a line near the top of a tree, then winding the line on an endless screw turned by a wheel, pulling the tree down.

The stump removal device had a huge axle 30 feet long and 20 inches in diameter - supported by two wheels, both 16 feet in diameter. In the middle of the axle was mounted a third wheel, 14 feet in diameter. Workers placed the machine over the stump and then attached the stump to chains wound around the axle. Draft animals pulled a rope wound around the center wheel and thus ripped the stump from the ground.

 

[Brett Chedzoy]

When I used to work as a forester in NW Argentina, I watched workers convert wooded areas of large trees into tillable land by spreading high phosphorous fertilizer on freshly cut stumps.  The concentrated fertilizer was usually sufficient to kill the stump, but not before the root systems absorbed a good dose of phosphorous.  A year or so later then the stump had dried out enough, they would start small fires and then place hot coals on the stumps - which would proceed to burn the phosphorous-rich stumps well below ground level.  I've never tried it and don't know if it would work as well on our species.