Here is an album of the clean up project at my place. EAB (European Ash Bore) has or will kill all the ash trees around here. The small woods behind my home was mainly ash so it is devastated. It had also been overgrown with honeysuckle which we had not been taking care of. I will now get rid of the stuff and clean up all the dead ash on the ground. That way I can leave the standing dead till I have room for them here. I will seed grass and when the dead are out I will replant some trees so there is something up there. If I plant now I'm afraid of smashing them when felling what's left.
Album by Kevin Foust. 1 - 70 of 70 Total. 3268 Visits.
1 These are the before pics. For those of you lucky enough not to have this stuff it is a nasty plant. Grows fast, shades out the undergrowth and I've been told it releases a toxin from the root system that kills of other plants.
2 Basically nothing green under it, just bare soil. After a while you can walk under the canopy as it competes against other honeysuckle plants for light.
3 First step was to make a few driveways around the perimeter of the section I want to clear out. Not a huge area as it takes some work to get done. Probably just over a couple acres. Doesn't sound like much till you try it.
4 I root out the honeysuckle with the backhoe and then cut the straights/smalls for firewood. Not much heat value but it works okay for the shop stove. I cut all the stumps off and throw them on the burn pile.
5 Mostly ash with a few black locust, hackberry, mulberry and walnut.
6 Looking better allready
7 Able to get to the stuff that fell on the ground now. No need to split if I can lift them by hand so off to the boiler stack.
8 No roads to travel as it's here at home which makes it nice.
9 The mighty 1/2 ton earning her keep!
10 Normally back up to the big door and unload but it is full as I normally fill it. Door won't clear to shut so I'll go in the walk in door for all this.
11 I'm also stacking to the ceiling this year. I have never done this before but want to cut out and extra handling(stack/restack) as there is so much down so close.
12 Load after load they come.
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15 Chunked the bigger stuff so I can lift them.
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17 To stack to the ceiling I basically made a tapered ramp to walk up. Takes more time to pack it in but worth it to me to save the double stack.
18 Getting full and it's going to be close.
19 Can't get much more in here now.
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21 Measures out at just under 18 cord by my estimate.
22 After rooting out one of the center sections I went through and cut all the wood out. Then wind rowed all the brush, laying it in one direction. That way I can back the chipper up and get rid of the brush and haul it away,
23 Borrowed a buddies dump trailer who wanted a few loads and started in. the driveways make it easier to work. dad helps when I chip as it keeps things moving along nicely. The chipper works best with 2 people feeding it.
24 One sections brush out of the way. Just need to clear the wood and stump piles out. Makes it look smaller when you can see as this is up a hillside.
25 Still a good bit of standing dead left.
26 Digging out the next section. We let this stuff go way too long.
27 Here's a scale pic for you. That is a 14 inch bar.
28 12 inches of solid on a 4 cluster. They probably average 4 -6 on most of them.
29 Here's our old IH backhoe. Not much to look at but gets the job done.
30 Notice the branch is laying on the truck. Some of them get 30 ft long as they hang on each other growing out and up.
31 Got the next section all chipped and stuffed hauled out. I then took the box grader and leveled all the ground out from the stump digs.
32 I'll let it settle in and rehit it this spring and reseed it in grass. Get the standing dead out before planting any trees.
33 Here is a couple pics of What EAB damage is like.
34 They don't miss anything.
35 Strangle the tree but sucking the sap out of the cambium layer. Kill and move on.
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38 Started cutting the standing dead ash to refill the furnace house. I'll packed to the roof again. I still had about 4 1/2 cord left so I used 13 cord last year. I started earlier and ran a little later with the stove this year. I can work at this at my own pace by myself. Was a real wet spring here so I put off till it was fit. Started cutting and when it was finally dry enough, I started hauling. Load #1
39 Load 2
40 Not going to be much left when I get all the dead out.
41 My plan is to cut the stumps flush, burn the brush and then relevel the ground. I'll then rent a seeder and drill grass seed in. I'll spray a few times to kill the honeysuckle shoots and plant some trees eventually. I just want all the dead out so there will be no chance of messing a planted tree up.
42 Sure makes for easy pickens with all the brush and honeysuckle gone. It had most of the ground to bare as it blocked all the sunlight to the ground.
43 Stumps flush to the ground so I can bush hog once or twice a year if needed
44 I have always liked working up ash and it's such a shame that they will be no more.
45 These trees were like telephone poles. Nice, tall and straight.
46 Load 3
47 Load 4
48 Load 5
49 Getting tight in here.
50 Up to the cathedral trusses. I make basically stirs to walk up to stack that high.
51 Stove gives some scale to it.
52 Load 6. That is about it for unloading through the big door. The rest will have to be walk in through the walk in door.
53 Load 7
54 Load 8.
55 Back at it and this is load 9.
56 Partial load for load 10. Just had the stuff that needed to be split left and wanted to see how full I'd get after that was in.
57 Dad came down and helped chunk up the larger rounds into 1/4's so I can lift them without so much straining. Most of these wouldn't fit in the door anyway.
58 Splitter made quick work of this stuff with no straining.
59 Makes for a nice work area, that's for sure!
60 Load 11
61 Load 12
62 Still had some room so I cut some smaller ones that were in the yard. They were right where you see the dead tree in the upper left hand corner. No room for that one. Load 13
63 No room in the Inn! I'm stuffed full again with more than enough for this Winter.
64 To the roof again but at least that section of woods is cleaned out other than one larger ash that still has a little life. It'll be for next year as it's on it's last leg too.
65 Yeah., it's up there.
66 Over 18 cord in here now.
67 I basically stack a stairway like before and keep filling it in. Figured I hauled in over 14 cord.
