 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.
|  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.
|  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.
|  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.
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 Mostly ash with a few black locust, hackberry, mulberry and walnut.
|  Looking better allready
|  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.
|  No roads to travel as it's here at home which makes it nice.
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 The mighty 1/2 ton earning her keep!
|  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.
|  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.
|  Load after load they come.
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 |  |  Chunked the bigger stuff so I can lift them.
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 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.
|  Getting full and it's going to be close.
|  Can't get much more in here now.
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 Measures out at just under 18 cord by my estimate.
|  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,
|  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.
|  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.
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 Still a good bit of standing dead left.
|  Digging out the next section. We let this stuff go way too long.
|  Here's a scale pic for you. That is a 14 inch bar.
|  12 inches of solid on a 4 cluster. They probably average 4 -6 on most of them.
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 Here's our old IH backhoe. Not much to look at but gets the job done.
|  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.
|  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.
|  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.
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 Here is a couple pics of What EAB damage is like.
|  They don't miss anything.
|  Strangle the tree but sucking the sap out of the cambium layer. Kill and move on.
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 |  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
|  Load 2
|  Not going to be much left when I get all the dead out.
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