Timberline Tree Shear

[renewablejohn]

Has anybody used a 10 inch Timberline Tree Shear. It is produced by Sidney Manufacturing and I would like to fit it to a 3 tonne excavator. I have a lot of woodland that needs the nursery softwood removing to leave a hardwood stand and will take forever with a chainsaw.

http://www.sidneyattachments.com/

 

[JustWood]

How big are the hardwood now that will remain in the stand?

 

[renewablejohn]

Hardwoods are about 20 to 30 foot softwoods are of similar size

 

[tkirk22]

I can't answer your question directly but....

I just recently thinned a few acres on our new property. It was much too dense to use any type of riding machine to clear the trees without hurting a lot of other trees. I ended up using one of the larger shindaiwa brush cutters with a 9" beaver blade. The beaver blade has a chainsaw chain on it and it flies through standing softwood faster, easier, and safer than a chainsaw in my opinion. When I was cutting, it was nothing to take out 3 pines in a row in one swipe.

Unless the keeper trees are pretty far apart, it's an option you may want to consider. Even a small excavator is going to need a lot of maneuvering room especially with a cutting tool hanging off of it.

 

[JustWood]

I can't answer your question directly but....

I just recently thinned a few acres on our new property. It was much too dense to use any type of riding machine to clear the trees without hurting a lot of other trees. I ended up using one of the larger shindaiwa brush cutters with a 9" beaver blade. The beaver blade has a chainsaw chain on it and it flies through standing softwood faster, easier, and safer than a chainsaw in my opinion. When I was cutting, it was nothing to take out 3 pines in a row in one swipe.

Unless the keeper trees are pretty far apart, it's an option you may want to consider. Even a small excavator is going to need a lot of maneuvering room especially with a cutting tool hanging off of it.

This is where I was headed with my previous question. Kirk has it right . If your hardwoods and softwoods are on the smaller size I'm guessing your stand is very thick. I would just use the saw because the residual damage you leave in the remaining stand by running a machine will greatly affect the value of your future harvests. Skinning the bark off a tree this time of year(right now is pealing season) can subject the sapwood to all kinds of bugs and bacteria that can kill a tree in short order. On stands like what you describe I go in late fall through winter when trees are dormant and bugs and bacteria are dead . That way if I do skin a tree while felling it has time to heal over before warm weather and bugs return. I'm working on 56 acres of my own now and doing a total rehab on the timber stand. It was poorly managed for MANY years and in 85 was wiped out by an F4 tornado. A salvage cutting was done and what grew back was junk timber.I have been working it for 6 years now and have a ton of cheery 8-10" DBH. I plan on a small harvest (weeding of 10-15 trees) in 3-6 years to open it up again and a harvest every 10-15 after that.

 

[renewablejohn]

Nursery trees were set in clumps so we have room to mechanical harvest. Brash will be shredded on site and roundwood stacked for future chipping