Woodland mulch machine.

[Blue2Orange]

Yesterday around 1218 drove past the crew mulching down the trees under and trimming any branches hanging too close to the power line. They were about 1/4 mile up the road. Things you don't want to hit like the internet cable pedestals and boulders hiding in the brush and trees were all marked. Drove into town ~1030 and saw the machines being transported on the highway. 1248 heard the machines and took a walk down to the mailbox. Mailbox is one mile up from the highway. They were already 1/8 of mile further inland than my mailbox. Two mulch machines and one tracked boom machine with an oversized circular blade to trim high tree branches. ~25 foot wide clear path under the power line and all the too close branches removed.

Impressed with the speed and also the steep inclines and side pitches the machines can handle. Talking with the boom saw operator he noted the mulch "teeth" run ~$90 each. Drum were rotating fast enough that I could not even guess at how many teeth are on it.

Company is not local. Contracted by our electric co-op. Local tree and woodland lot management company has a woodland mulch machine very similar or maybe identical to the ones use by this company. I have a ~4 acre chunk of my SE 10 quarter that I've been clearing the small stuff out with manually for the past 3 decades. Just a few gigantic red oaks and the patches of conifers I've been trying to establish over that SE 10 acres. Now I understand what they mean by fast forest mulching. Getting too old. Thinking of checking about the costs for a day of mulching. Based on the speed of the line clearing guessing an eight hour day might be enough to clear the ~4 acres of anything under 4" and maybe even clear about 1 mile of my trails that need brush hogging.

Impressive machine. Tracked skid steer with a relatively large diameter rotary drum with "teeth" that eats up small trees and brush leaving a mat of large wood chips.

 

[hedgerow]

In my area there doesn't seem to be anyone doing mulching custom. Our county has at least a couple mulching machines that I have seen them clearing right of ways. The state seems to have some also I saw one running just down the road from my home place the other day when I was hauling gain to the city. Last summer there were contract crew's in the area doing work under power lines. They were from out of state. I talked to them at a truck stop one morning and none of the crew knew what there per hour rates were. I am sure the rate is going to be two to three hundred an hour with a fair good size min on the hours. High dollar equipment and steep up keep. I have ran a lot of hours on a skid steer with a hyd tree saw clearing my pastures and it takes a lot of fuel. I myself would never hire out.