Best equipment to open up / clear a trail

Rent a tractor and bush hog. You will have it cleared in a couple hours instead of days and will not have a sore back.
 
trevj said:
... a Swedish Axe, the thin bladed unit with a metal bow holding the blade. You can move a lot of material in a day, with those, and it won't leave your ears ringing!
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Good suggestion - These are actually really really useful for keeping a trail in tune once it's been cleared properly. That way you don't need to gear up for full battle every time you want to cut a few branches.
 
Use the 6" blade Hatchet battery chainsaws... I have the Milwaukee version pictured below... I bought two spare batteries for it... this tool is also great for butchering game. It is light and easy to use one-handed allowing the other to hold and throw the brush... I cleaned 30 km of trails with that and a Fiskers Hatchet.
 

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Hire doming with a mulcher. I run one at work from time to time.
Trees less then 4” dia easy. Can deal with up to 8” trees but faster to clear with a chainsaw.
 
We clear x-country trails with scythes. There is a canadian scythe company that has loads of blades and a couple of long handle options, and a mountain of info on use and maintenance. The shorter, thicker blades with about a 20" cutting surface are quoted as good for clearing ditching, and brush.
This system is light and balanced, and far less fatiguing than the power units. Once the stuff over 3/4inch thick is gone with a brush axe, the scythe is a great tool for everything smaller.
 
I have a similar road I have to maintain, and I don't have the money for the fancy tools. Would love a brush Hog, but out of my reach.
Instead I use a lot of manual labour (exercise is good), a saw blade on my weedwhipper, chainsaw and some handheld branch clippers.
The first pass is a lot of work, after that a yearly trim isn't that big of a deal.
 
I used a Shindaiwa weed wacker/brushcutter with a 10" circular blade to clean up a camping spot on my bush property this summer. It was similar to yours in that it had been cleared before but not maintained. It took me an afternoon to clean it up.
Before
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After
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I've been looking into this a bit because I have an area of tag alders I would like to kill. You can cut them but the roots remain and suckers will inevitably come back up making things worse. You can cut it all again every other year but it seems that the thing to do is spray those fresh stumps with an herbicide that works on that species, e.g. Garlon, on the same day you cut them. Or a mixture of herbicides for a broader range of trees. Google slash and squirt.
edit: It seems, though, that a person needs a pesticide operator's licence to purchase and use that class of herbicide in Canada. Can anyone confirm this, or are there other solutions?
 
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Use Roundup (not the Advanced), you can still get it at Canadian Tire. Spray it on the leaves and it kills the plant in about 2 weeks. I use it to control Staghorn Sumac on my property. They spread like wild fire.
 
Londonshooter said:
I've been looking into this a bit because I have an area of tag alders I would like to kill. You can cut them but the roots remain and suckers will inevitably come back up making things worse. You can cut it all again every other year but it seems that the thing to do is spray those fresh stumps with an herbicide that works on that species, e.g. Garlon, on the same day you cut them. Or a mixture of herbicides for a broader range of trees. Google slash and squirt.
edit: It seems, though, that a person needs a pesticide operator's licence to purchase and use that class of herbicide in Canada. Can anyone confirm this, or are there other solutions?
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You do need a license for most herbicide and pesticide now. A lot of things were reclassified last January. Even rat bait bars requires a license. I did the 5 day course last fall and have the license...:)
 
Got Juice? said:
Here is my setup for brush mulching, trail clearing, fire brakes, land reclaimation, ROW Clearing.
Excuse the slow careful work, I was just learning at the time, and being careful as the ballistic door had not yet arrived.

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I'm planning on renting a similar rig in the spring to clear some stuff. Do you do commercial work?
 
blargon said:
I'm planning on renting a similar rig in the spring to clear some stuff. Do you do commercial work?
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Yes. Machine, Operator, Fuel and head, including transport is 2k a day based on an 8 hour day. (machine service is done outside of 'work hours')

However, being in BC, it would be a bit of a trek to bring this to Ontario :)

And I should get some more vids up. New machine is a 450 and has more of everything. More HP, higher flowing Hydraulics, you name it.
 
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