Okay, so we closed on the property. Now what?
First I want to say that yes, we WILL get professional help in clearing trees/underbrush with respect to where the build site will be. However that will come at a later time, when we have our construction loan, and it certainly won't be for all ten acres. Instead of putting tens of thousands of cash into tree clearing & driveway installation at this time, we will wait until we know the exact build footprint and construction finance plan.
In the meantime, we still want to be able to walk through the property with ease, access the build site location, install stakes for proposed house location, bring professionals to the build site, etc. So that means we need to really start clearing out the underbrush!
When I say underbrush, it's a range of plants, but mainly invasive bushes that attract bugs and ticks. Kody has a vision of walking through our wooded parcel just amongst the trees, no underbrush at all (picture the HP Forbidden Forest). I do like some of the underbrush for privacy and noise purposes but only at the borders.
With that said, as soon as we closed (and even before closing since we received seller permission), we are clearing anything and everything under the main tree canopy, in the center of our parcel. This is starting with the build site location for the reasons I mentioned above, and spreading out from there.
As we plan to install trails, this will make installing those much easier and we can pick the best/most scenic routes.
As we consider our property a wildlife preserve, we don't want to spray chemicals all over the place. As we were consulted by a forest health inspector, we would only consider cutting the brush and dabbing the stump with a glyphosate solution that binds to the organic material, to avoid any spreading/contamination. However we are still going strong by just cutting things back for now, without the use of chemicals.
Another thought was, why don't we just burn this crap out? When we volunteered with the Department of Natural Resources to clean up a state park, the rep was talking to me about the slow prescribed burns. Kody and I were interested in this, so I checked on this for residential properties. According to local contractor, burning is a great tool for forest management, but should be considered a capstone or done in 1-5 years, as you would "work up to it" to get your money's worth. If we were to hire this professional who'd do all the work, including pulling the permit, it was going to be around $1,800 for all ten acres (we wouldn't do all of that). He indeed just recommended cutting the brush and using the cut-stump method I mentioned above to manage our size forest. So we kind of let that thought go.
With that said, our system has been one person cut, one person haul to piles. Kody and I take turns with a brush cutter, like the one shown here. But if the brush is too thick, Kody has to use his chainsaw. At this time we have over a dozen brush piles on the property, ranging in size, and plan to select a good day to seek fire department permission to burn. We are not rushed to do that at this time. Our goal is to just keep clearing out the brush. We are very careful with our brush cutter to not knick any trees, to make sure no disease/pests find their way under the bark of healthy trees. We are not cutting any of the smaller trees or sick ones until the wintertime, to make sure we are cautious with respect to Oak Wilt disease.
Another big part assisting with the cleanup is just assembling already fallen trees into piles. Kody's getting quite the workout with this one. He has had to use his chain saw to cut some of these trees into more manageable pieces for moving. But this task alone has helped to really open up our forest and make it so much more walkable
It does get somewhat dangerous walking through the property with all the cut stumps. Between the remaining stumps and the little twigs that the brush cutter chews on but doesn't properly cut, we look forward to purchasing a tractor in the future to assist with this. It's a process - coarse to fine :)
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You can watch more about our property cleanup here:
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