What to do with all the brush.....

We do a combination of all mentioned above. We do burn some. See if you can clear an area and set it aside for a burn pile. Be sure you have a water source for emergencies with the burn fires. Also, we use cut up brush sticks for kindling. All through the year, we break the brush in "sticks" like pieces about 2 to 16 inches long. Then we stuff as many as we can shove into those black plastic plant pots - the large ones. We have a shed we keep the pots in and so the kindling will be dry.

Wow.....lots of responses. I am not looking for a park environment. I have two neighbors, one on each side. One has his acreage all mowed and parklike, the other side is the wilderness. Mine is a happy medium. I have 1.5 acres mowed, and wilderness in the front and back. The problem is a combo of a few things. 1. A lot of smaller trees have fallen this year. 2. I already have pileS in the size of 6 feet tall by 15 feet long of small tree wood, in multiple places in the wilderness. 3. The owners up to possibly 10 years back have cut down trees and taken tree limbs and made their own piles. Basically, lots of limb and brush clutter, and downed limbs, and so on. I have two huge garbage cans of kindling, plus a huge extra pile, and another 5 foot by 10 foot pile to cut up if I need it. We are not hurting for small sticks, we are just drowning in them. I just know it's going to be a huge huge job to do something about it. My kids and I like to walk through the woods or do something, and we are going this way and that, sidestepping where someone once cut down a tree and left it, where that pile of wood is, and so on....... I just couldn't figure out a way to do it, with such thick woods as we have, even on the road. We were thinking of goats, but can't do it with the health care needs this year, can't say I'll be able to take care of animals at this time. Don't wanna ruin my woods, but I can't wait to see it in a few years if we don't do something......

BTW, I know it'll eventually decompose, but with the dense woods we have, it's taking it's time............

Most tree species thin theirselves out when left alone. It just takes time.

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Can you clear paths with a chainsaw and a few strong backs or would that give you walls of stacked brush along the paths? In the Black Hills they stack wood in the forests so if a fire comes it will burn quick and be done instead of helping spread the fire. Any fire risk from your current situation?

Would someone who wants fill dirt be interested in brush- but you'd probably need to do all the hauling to a site on your property if not even transport to their fill site. My neighbors cut down a few dozen trees and now have a muddy lowered area where the trees had been, surrounded by the driveway. I wish they'd ground up all the slash and put it down in that mud, they'd need a lot less fill dirt.

I just hate burning because it uses up all that Carbon just to add to our CO2 greenhouse effect without even heating your house. So I hugelkultur or leave it. Of course we like a bon fire and finally burnt off our small brush pile from before we moved here but sounds like you could have 3 bonfires a week for a few years- becomes work instead of fun.

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...................Keeping big , non commercial trees for firewood is a very good idea . I might want a pathway into the woods that would allow me too have ingress\egress , too accomplish that I'd look into hiring a Very large Trachoe too literally dig the trees out root ball and all . Cutting large trees down while leaving a large stump exposed creates more work in the future . , fordy

Either a LOT of chainsaw time, or hire someone with a dozer or a trackhoe.

Me, I'd burn for a while, then let nature takes its course. Time is your most precious commodity. Use it wisely.

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Well - sounds like you have a brush mess like we did when we first bought our property. There was way too much. We finally broke down and hired a Tree Crew with one of those huge chipper things. It cost a fortune but he got so much cleaned up that we hired him again the next year. We made very good use of his time by planning ahead and we piled up everything we could so it was easy to reach. Also, we had extra family on hand to help pull limbs to the edges of woods so he could reach them. It was well worth it. Now, we are able to use the burn pile and keep it under control. And...by the way...we did try renting one of those smaller chippers but it was worthless. It jammed up, sputtered it was not at all worth it. good luck

THanks everyone for the advice. I'm still trying to figure out what to do. As I was exiting my property yesterday, I saw three more downed trees, close to the road. Too much to do.

I'd cut it and pile it for burning next winter.

We have burned small brush piles in our garden space, between growing seasons. That adds a lot of minerals to the soil. You can see the difference in the plants between where the brush was burned and where it wasn't. Fairly small fires, not huge bon fires. Don't want all of the life burned out of the soil.

If you have more firewood than you think you'll need over time, perhaps you can barter with someone -- free fire wood in exchange for help of some kind - borrow a shredder, which in my humble opinon is the best way to deal with brush. Then, either return the shreded material to the forest or put in your garden or compost it. Perhaps you can work out some type of barter arrangement.

Another IMHO, for as much as you can, just leave it natural, unless it represents a fire hazard. Mother Nature will take care of it, over time, with no work on your part.

Lee

Brush and small branches that have been put through a chipper are much easier to handle for burning, or even just leave the chips to lie on the ground and eventually break down.

Chips added to a wood heater, wood furnace, wood cookstove a quart or two at a time gets rid of the brush and saves a lot of having to cut and split firewood. It can even be a useful giveaway to people who are aging and can no longer split their own wood. You can even tell them outright that they're helping you clean up your woods - it doesn't cost you anything to give it to them, so their pride needn't stop them from accepting "charity".