2004 we had done some Fire Mitigation in our forest in the 4 acres near our home. 2013 we got more serious about it
and did 10 more acres. We did 5 acres in 2014. We finished the last 12 acres in 2016.
BEFORE MITIGATION
Before
Before
Before
Before
Before
Michal flags area to be mitigated
2013 MAJOR MITIGATION BY KOREY WEAVER
Big honking tree feller
One pass with tree feller
Grapple follows feller and
stacks for shredder
Neil and "dozer" help stack
felled trees
Grapple feeding big honking self-propelled chipper
Chipper chipping. Controlled from ground
Lucky for us, they can operate on steep terrain
Big honking masticator is last step
Masticator follows chipper
Neil and Korey confer
Feeding chipper by hand
A grapple lesson
And a masticator lesson
Operating the chipper
Logs saved for firewood for "Help the Needy". Chips for us
Finished product
Mitigated
Mitigated
2014 SMALLER SCALE MITIGATION BY RUSS
Trees felled by loggers with chainsaws
Bucked trees loaded on "Swinger"
Good logs hauled out to make firewood
More felled trees. Along rough "logging road" made by Neil and "Dozer"
Robert and Bobcat dress up road
George uses "Dozer" to dress up road
Deer watched our progress
Robert hauls scrap to chipping area
CUSP chipper and crew chip scrap
2016 MAJOR MITIGATION BY KOREY WEAVER Kory brought in two large tools to fell trees and grind up/chip so there was no need for a separate chipper this time. One was a mean looking front end grinder that worked on small trees and brush. The other was an even larger "bobcat" type machine with a giant rotary cutter that would "eliminate" even 14" diameter trees by cutting them off at the highest the cutter would reach, then grinding them down to ground level, then grinding the top section where it fell.
1st we had to mark the area to be mitigated
The Grinder
Grinder at work
Turning trees into chips
Working brush and small trees
This rotary cuter/chipper is really BIG
Rotary tool at work
Also had some hand work to do
Our forest mitigated
Used some downed trees to help control runoff areas
