Cedar Removal

[yotethumper]

I have a lot of cedar on my property, most of it is fully matured. When I lived up north I knew of a company that would come in and clear the cedar. The took payment in the form of the lumber. Anybody know of companies that will do that in or around Colorado/Austin County?

Any cedar that isn't big enough for lumber I plan on cutting and hitting with a prescribed burn when it dries out.

[jonny_thunder]

Good luck! If you find a company like that, let me know! I hunt a lease that is overrun with cedar and we are looking into options as well. None that I have found so far look cheap...

[GoneSouth]

You are either going to have to bust out the work gloves or the checkbook if you want the cedar to disappear

[TexasLongball]

Originally Posted by yotethumper

I have a lot of cedar on my property, most of it is fully matured. When I lived up north I knew of a company that would come in and clear the cedar. The took payment in the form of the lumber. Anybody know of companies that will do that in or around Colorado/Austin County?

Any cedar that isn't big enough for lumber I plan on cutting and hitting with a prescribed burn when it dries out.

This is exactly the situation I’m facing in pretty much the same area.

[yotethumper]

Originally Posted by TexasLongball

This is exactly the situation I’m facing in pretty much the same area.

Im 10 minutes South of New Ulm. I'll let you know if I find anything but so far no luck.

[BosqueTech]

I have a experience with this on our place. The cedar cutters will go into a tree and take out the pieces that they need...so...basically the straight pieces they can sell as fence posts. They will then leave the rest of the tree. They do makes some nice trails but we found they made more of a mess than anything...Good luck

[gtsticker]

There is a herbicide that targets cedars


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[KMO8204]

You might check with your local NRCS office. They paid my landowner to clear his cedar 10-12 years ago. There is some re-growth coming back, so he is currently waiting to get approved so we can remove it again. I think you front the cost, and they reimburse you for a designated price per acre. He bought a dozer, pushed the cedar & burned it, and sold the dozer when he was finished.

[pilar]

Originally Posted by BosqueTech

I have a experience with this on our place. The cedar cutters will go into a tree and take out the pieces that they need...so...basically the straight pieces they can sell as fence posts. They will then leave the rest of the tree. They do makes some nice trails but we found they made more of a mess than anything...Good luck

Same experience here, they really made a huge mess of things leaving a real fire hazard, matter of fact when the owner sold off a piece the fencing company accidentally set fire and burned up the part being sold
The buyer was furious and wanted some money knocked off the deal
I sat him down and explained how he was really the winner for having the fire remove all that old dead cedar “ his place looks a 1000% better post fire “ so make sure you burn anything gradually or you may have a ugly mess

[locolobo]

Don't have any personal experience with it myself but a family member says he got Texas A&M/ State of Tx to clear cedar on his 400 acres a few years ago (probably about 15). He didn't go into details but it may be worth looking into. He is outside of Gatesville. I think it had something to do with getting rid of invasive species. Maybe talk to the county extension agent to see if they can help. His place is a working farm and that may have something to do with it also.

[Top Of Texas]

If you plan to burn it, just burn it from the start. Eastern red cedar is not a root sprouter, so burning the top will kill the plant. Will have skeletons for a while (years).

ABSOLUTLEY A MUST - Get professional help for prescribed fire! Holler at your TPWD Technical Guidance Biologist.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/lan...ounty=colorado

[tdwinklr]

Originally Posted by locolobo

Don't have any personal experience with it myself but a family member says he got Texas A&M/ State of Tx to clear cedar on his 400 acres a few years ago (probably about 15). He didn't go into details but it may be worth looking into. He is outside of Gatesville. I think it had something to do with getting rid of invasive species. Maybe talk to the county extension agent to see if they can help. His place is a working farm and that may have something to do with it also.

NRCS/USDA does the same thing, if your application is picked for funding.

[2B4Him]

Originally Posted by BosqueTech

I have a experience with this on our place. The cedar cutters will go into a tree and take out the pieces that they need...so...basically the straight pieces they can sell as fence posts. They will then leave the rest of the tree. They do makes some nice trails but we found they made more of a mess than anything...Good luck

I've hunted two different places that had cedar cutters come in. They take only what they want, they leave limbs, etc. laying everywhere, and they leave stumps that are too high to mow over (and the trees start growing back if you don't do something with the stumps).

[tdwinklr]

I'm thinking now it would be preferred to bull-doze them ... no stumps left and if was dry enough, you could right ahead and plant the native grasses back ??

[be12hunt]

Originally Posted by tdwinklr

I'm thinking now it would be preferred to bull-doze them ... no stumps left and if was dry enough, you could right ahead and plant the native grasses back ??

The issue with that is what to do with the bulldozed brush? We slowly burn ours but it takes a long time if you want to keep it controlled.

[tdwinklr]

Originally Posted by be12hunt

The issue with that is what to do with the bulldozed brush? We slowly burn ours but it takes a long time if you want to keep it controlled.

yeah, even one of these things makes a decent pile. Got about 7-8 ac. to clear with hardwoods and fields around that. Hopefully we could pile it all into 2 or 3 very large groups and let the cleared land be the fire buffer from the rest of the property. Depends on the weather too ... ? A lot of work.

[rockspringshunt]

we have a lot of cedars on 80 acres. its not very flat and rocky so its hard on equipment. Neighbor had a dozer track break on him. Wondering if a cedar eater would be worth it?

[RattlesnakeDan]

I ran a 100 hp Cedar Eater this year for a couple weeks for a friend, it was a beast of a machine and we wiped out a huge amount of cedar. Will probably do it again in February while it is cool out. This time we will use that big one and a skid steer size for getting into the low branch area and shredding the smaller ones.

[rockspringshunt]

good to hear. Was there any concern with grass growing once the cedar was chopped up and laying on the ground? Has it been long enough for. the grass to grow where you cleared and left chips in place?

[RattlesnakeDan]

Originally Posted by rockspringshunt

good to hear. Was there any concern with grass growing once the cedar was chopped up and laying on the ground? Has it been long enough for. the grass to grow where you cleared and left chips in place?

I have not returned but we did leave the cedar laying where it landed. Grass is pretty tough and will probably come up through without much problem.

[Blackmouth]

Originally Posted by rockspringshunt

good to hear. Was there any concern with grass growing once the cedar was chopped up and laying on the ground? Has it been long enough for. the grass to grow where you cleared and left chips in place?

As long as the mulch isn't too deep, there are no issues with grass coming back and it does really well.

[JeffJ]

Anyone who says the words "free" and "cedar" is a liar. The cost is the cleanup after they take what they want. Best thing about the "free" crew I had to run off our place was they left six perfectly straight post that I used for a project. Unless the dozer operator is VERY skilled your cedar fields will turn in the rock fields in the hill country.

Two ways we clear cedar:
1) Skid steer and a shear on the easy to get to stuff
2) Three man crew with two cutting and one stacking by hand and/or skid steer.

[mills650]

They need to cut the stumps at the ground either with a saw or shear. Then they must burn or mulch what they don't use for posts. The problem is the cedar brush doesn't rot like other wood.

[BIG BONE]

Hack and spray method-google it and watch some vids
Velpar L Herbicide
We are about to start on our place

[tdwinklr]

Originally Posted by tdwinklr

yeah, even one of these things makes a decent pile. Got about 7-8 ac. to clear with hardwoods and fields around that. Hopefully we could pile it all into 2 or 3 very large groups and let the cleared land be the fire buffer from the rest of the property. Depends on the weather too ... ? A lot of work.

We got the 8 acres cleared of cedar, the dozer guy finished this week. Now we have the brush piles to burn down. We have 2 that are really large and a little overwhelming, the rest are much smaller and manageable but have several of those.
For those of you who have land too far away from a water supply, do you find that rural, volunteer fire depts. will help out with keeping the initial blaze down until it burns down somewhat. ??

[be12hunt]

Originally Posted by tdwinklr

We got the 8 acres cleared of cedar, the dozer guy finished this week. Now we have the brush piles to burn down. We have 2 that are really large and a little overwhelming, the rest are much smaller and manageable but have several of those.
For those of you who have land too far away from a water supply, do you find that rural, volunteer fire depts. will help out with keeping the initial blaze down until it burns down somewhat. ??

We never reached out to the local FD but in our area it would be very unlikely they would even be able to access it.
We usually wait until it is a serious rain going on and get a fire started. Once the fire is going the rain will keep the embers from traveling but the fire will burn anything thrown directly on it.

[be12hunt]

We also have a good spot that is about 10,000+ sqft with nothing around.

[tdwinklr]

Originally Posted by be12hunt

We never reached out to the local FD but in our area it would be very unlikely they would even be able to access it.
We usually wait until it is a serious rain going on and get a fire started. Once the fire is going the rain will keep the embers from traveling but the fire will burn anything thrown directly on it.

yeah, ours is very clear now around them. That's what I'm worried about is a breeze kicking up and blowing embers as well. Access to mine is very limited as well. Did you just use some diesel fuel to get it going? Has to be tough with soaked wood.

[TX Fireman 911]

Originally Posted by gtsticker

There is a herbicide that targets cedars


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Yes there is and it works pretty well given a little time