Clearing the Jungle

[lute]

Need to selectively clear a fifteen acre lot that, if it didn't have the pine trees, looks like a piece of Vietnam.
It has a lot of specimen exotic palms and shrubs that need to be either left in place or transplanted on the property. There are about 500 slash pines, of which about 100 need to be removed. These are 50-60 feet tall and 6-14 inches in diameter.
Also there are about 25 small ponds, about 4-6 feet deep, maybe 20' by 20' in size. The land is flat and sand or sand/muck.
It is basically an abandoned nursery that has gone feral.
Would like to fill in most of the ponds, put in a road, a pad for a house/barn,
and clear some horse bridle trails. Also need to get rid of the brush piles, the nuisance trees like melaleuca and pepper, old bathtubs, junk cars, etc. You get the idea.
What equipment would you use and how would you go about doing this? Would like to buy rather than rent, because it will take me some months to finish all this. Then would sell the equipment and hope not to lose too much.
Thanks for any help. This is a great forum, very educational.

[Countryboy]

A D11 dozer should take care of all that.

Seriously though, a few questions:

1. Are you working by yourself or will you have help?
2. Are there any structures on site that will be saved?
3. What do you plan to do with debris; cars, trees, bathtubs, etc.?
4. Would the pine trees be worth something to a logging company?
5. Would you be able to use the equipment you bought if you weren't able to sell it?

In my opinion for a one time job renting would be better than buying. It sounds like a pretty decent size job. Those trees are pretty big too.

Welcome to the forum

[tylermckee]

A 120-160 size excavator w/thumb would be about perfect for this job. You shouldnt end up loosing any money on the deal if you buy a good machine. I dont know what kind of $ you can let float for a few months while you do the work, but 30-70K would get you a decent machine that you would be able to sell for about the same as you bought it for.

[lute]

Thanks for the replies. I would be working by myself primarily. There are no permanent structures worth saving, but there is an old mobile home, an office, and a bunch of stuff inside some big brush piles. The trees are not saleable but they will be picked up for free if I drop, limb, and stack them.

I called four local land clearing companies for estimates. The first said they were maxed out and not taking new work. The second and third never called back. I talked to the wife of the guy at the fourth company; she said their prices started at ten thousand per acre and went up for tree and brush removal, grading, building a pad, etc. So it only took about three quarters of a second to figure out who would be doing the job.
I have a couple thousand hours on TLB's and skidsteers. Never ran an excavator or a wheel loader. But now I have a pretty big incentive to learn.

[hugh]

Hello, I live in Stuart Fl. where are you? theres some guys around here that will take pine logs if you load em. that almost takes the fun out of it but at 28 bucks a ton at the dump plus getting them there , suddenly loading logs is fun again.People here are always looking for a close place to dump comcrete rubble for free. Dump price is 21 a ton for that.It will fill those wetlands/ ponds, pretty quick ,then with #1 or # fill on top your'e good to go. Land clearing has slowed way down here except already contracted work. Theres plenty of guys looking for work at way less than ten grand an acre especially if you are there with a bobcat to help out. good luck, there's also landscape guys looking for field grown palms to resell retail. Hugh

[jazak]

I would ditto what tylermckee said about the excavator, you will also want like a cat 924g sized wheel loader.

[Dozerboy]

A 120-160 size excavator w/thumb would be about perfect for this job. You shouldnt end up loosing any money on the deal if you buy a good machine. I dont know what kind of $ you can let float for a few months while you do the work, but 30-70K would get you a decent machine that you would be able to sell for about the same as you bought it for.

[Wolf]

Are the leaf lickers and tree huggers giving you any grief about filling in the pond? Destroying habitat for those rare insects and frogs? That is a big problem around here---even dried up ponds that get wet in the spring are a no-no in this people's republic out west.

[Dozerboy]

In other words do it before anyone sees you.

[JBL]

In other words do it before anyone sees you.

[9420pullpan]

you need one of these or all of them

[lute]

Damn. I could sure use that chain for my front gate.
The trees are definitely an issue. Befor you can do any clearing you need to apply for a permit. You have to survey every tree on the property over 4" caliper, tie a pink ribbon around it at chest height that lists the species and the diameter. If its a specimen tree you have to tag it with a metal number tag, and with certain species you have to give a GPS location. If you take a slash pine out, for example, you have to pay the county the equivalent in cash of two replacement trees plus delivery and planting. These are residential regs; it's different if you have an agricultural exemption. All unwanted exotics like melaleuca, Brazilian pepper, etc. have to be taken out.
The regs are really tough if you have any naturally occurring wetland.
Dug ponds like the ones on this property are not a problem. I really like Hugh's idea of the concrete waste for fill.

I would certainly accept the loan of any of the equipment in the pictures.

But I'm thinking maybe a Hitachi EX120 might be a good start, plus maybe later a Case 621. Construction has slowed down here like you can't believe; the plug has definitely been pulled. The price of used equipment has got to be coming down over the next six months or year.

[digger242j]

The trees are definitely an issue. Befor you can do any clearing you need to apply for a permit. You have to survey every tree on the property over 4" caliper, tie a pink ribbon around it... etc.

Is that the rule for the entire state? Around here, there are certain municipalities with that level of regulation, but it's not true of everywhere.

As far as ponds go, I can see that being an issue, even around here. "Wetlands" are a big deal.

[NateV]

So thats what the new chain the DOT is going to make you use looks like

[greywynd]

I wonder if the chain is one of these setups where it's hooked to two machines....driving parallel, it pulls over everything in between, then they set fire to it afterwards....I just read about this recently, and darned if I can remember where.

Mark