The first photo shows where I had a crew come in with equipment to thin things out—it was so overgrown I wanted to see what a professional job looked like. The other photos show what’s left for me to handle on my own. I want to learn and take this section on myself.
Here’s my plan so far:
• Mark smaller and larger trees so I know which ones to cut and which to leave (following my arborist’s advice).
• Cut the marked trees at ground level with a chainsaw.
• Pull them out with my old Ford N8 tractor, then cut them up for firewood or burn later.
• Go back through with a limb trimmer to raise branches up to about 10 feet.
• Gather and move that debris while also cutting back and clearing blackberry bushes.
• Work in roughly 25-yard sections and repeat the process.
My goal is better fire safety, and to open up the land so I can enjoy more visibility and wildlife—lots of deer and elk around.
For those who’ve done this kind of thinning, does this sound like a good first plan? Any tools, methods, or workflow tips you’d recommend before I get started
by Dillydoooo
5 Comments
Sorry, last photo is what was completed by a crew.
How do you eat an elephant?
Been there, done that nearly identical density in mixed pine, oak, fir forest in northern California. I had lots of head high manzanita and live oak as understory. I first cleared out the brush using a Sthil gas trimmer with a circular brush blade and a chainsaw. Made burn piles and got rid of it. Then an arborist marked trees to remove, which many were not practical to take out because they were 200’ high ponderosa’s, ha. Anyway cleared as many pines as I could to thin out the big trees. Then a forest fire came through and took out half of the big marked pines, thank you PGE. We had the burned trees removed and now it looks like a park. I keep the live oak and yerba santa in check with yearly very targeted herbicide.
Your last photo still looks way too dense for a fire break to me. I would take out all of that small stuff and just leave the mature trees after limbing up. If I had not cleared the understory, the fire would have completely denuded our property, as it did to several neighbors who had not cleared their brush and small trees.
Pigs…..will root that out in no time. Use an electric fence to corral different areas.
goats