LOVING YOUR LAND

A unique and environmental way to CLEAR LAND AND TRAILS.

BY C.W.MEDINGER

In the area around Vermont’s Green Mountain Horse Association, the local horse world is excited by a new addition, Geoffrey Wiswell of Beech Hill Vegetation, who brings unique methods to clear land and trails. To share these possibilities for landowners in other areas, Equestrian Living spoke with Wiswell about his process and equipment.

What is unique about what you do compared to other services?

Most landscape services use chippers, which are trailer-mounted. The workers have to bring the brush to the machine to be chipped and then hauled away. My machine, a Lamtrac 6125, is a mobile chipper otherwise known as a forestry mulcher. The difference is, I drive to the debris, which I cut, chop, and chip in place, basically creating wood-chip trails as I drive.

Mulchers help operators remove underbrush, trees, and other vegetation, including invasive species. A chief benefit of using any style of mulcher is that it replaces several other machines and eliminates the need to haul away or burn cleared growth. Instead, chopped up mulch is returned to the ecosystem for rapid and natural decomposition. Using mulchers can greatly reduce manpower and equipment requirements while generating significant savings in cost and time. Moreover, in many areas, operators can use mulchers year-round, not just the growth seasons.

Are most landowners unaware that such a process exists?

Yes. When they first hear of it, I’m usually asked if it is a “brush hog” or “flail mower.” It’s neither. A forestry mulcher is unique as it can either be used on an excavator with a forestry mulching-head or on a dedicated forestry tractor with a forestry mulching-head. The mulching-head is unique in that it is basically a large drum, which spins at a high rate of speed and has carbide teeth or knives mounted to it. In either case, the tool makes quick work of invasive species, trees, vines, and stumps.

What are some things landowners can do to enhance their properties?

Pasture Restoration: With pasture restoration, the main emphasis is to eradicate invasive species. Examples are poplar trees that easily creep into fields, pastures, and timbered woodlots. There are also other harmful trees such as wild cherry, whose leaves contain a type of cyanide that can be lethal if too many are eaten by horses or livestock. You would want to get all wild cherry trees out of your pastures as soon as possible. Doing it in the late fall or winter when the leaves are gone is best, but mulching can be done at any time as long as horses and livestock do not have access to the fields that I’m working in.

Landowners may want to to enlarge their pasture. A forestry mulcher removes brush, trees, and brambles, and leaves a nice dense mulch on the ground, which naturally breaks down quickly in the environment. Stumps can be an issue too. Depending on the size, my machinery makes quick work of dead tree stumps.

We can subsoil the mulch whereby all biomass is turned into aerated dirt and viable soil, inclusive of rocks up to eight inches in diameter to create new pastures.

In the old tradition of slash and burn everything is removed. In a sense it goes up in smoke. Nothing is returned to the ground, and therefore all the valuable soil nutrients are lost. A better alternative is mulching everything in place, then using a subsoiler turning the leftover biomass into viable soil.

Forest Beautification:

Forest timber harvesting is a popular option of land management. The forest is harvested for specific species of wood. There are two types of harvesting: “cut and leave” the waste behind or remove the whole tree. In the cut and leave type of harvesting, the best trees are taken and everything else is left. The landowner is left with the dead falls, the less desirable trees, ugly stumps, and of course, the timber slash. Often, prior to a timber harvesting the landowner’s woods had attractive trails for walkers, hikers, and equestrian riders. After the harvesting, the woods are left looking like a war zone. It is not that the loggers didn’t do their job, they did, but their job is to harvest viable lumber and not worry about what they are leaving behind. Hiring a forestry mulching service cleans up the after timbering mess. We mulch the slash, remove the deadfalls, and remove the woodlot trees that won’t produce good future timber. We cleanup the understory, and working with your forester, we can replant new trees after cleanup has been completed. We allow you to see the woods through the trees.

Creating Horse Trails:

One can ride on a public dirt road, but it is inevitable you’ll encounter an automobile at some point. Riding on trails in nature, either in the woods or through open fields can be a pure joy. For instance, we just created a trail that had been a dream of the land owner for 10 years. We removed all the stumps, leaving behind soft chips, thus avoiding possible stumbles and inevitable injury to horse or rider.

Our projects don’t always represent a cleanup or a pasture restoration. We enhance or create a view or open the woods along a horse trail for the client who wants a beautiful view from their horse.

One of our clients had a section of their property logged for timber. They wanted to extend their horse fence to encompass this area. The problem was the area had been washed out and hundreds of dead, discarded trees were left in every imaginable direction. It was impossible to walk or ride in the area. The pond above was always overflowing into the area, which made it even worse. Our task was to clear away the dead tree debris, create lined drainage swales, put in culverts, and enlarge the pond so it could be used for swimming, or perhaps even fishing. To keep manure runoff created by the horses and livestock from reaching the pond, the area was fenced off so that the horses could look at the pond, but it was still off limits to them.

We primarily work in New England, but we have a network of associates that we can recommend in many regions of the USA. We can also travel anywhere in the country. Our machinery is portable with a delivery service.

Tell us about yourself.

We own a farm in Reading, Vermont. It has been in our family since the 1960s. We began with 150 acres, and we cleared 40 acres and raised sheep. Then we got into maple sugaring and maintaining the woods. The farm has grown since then and now encompasses about 300 acres. We initially tapped a few hundred trees, and we now are at 8,000 taps and still expanding. Working closely with our sugar growers and our forester, we learn more each year. I decided to take what I learned working on our farm and share it with others. I looked at the traditional methods, and I believe I’ve found a better solution. I looked at the traditional process where slash, scrape, and burn has been widely utilized. The losses to the soil and its surroundings can’t be replaced in our lifetime. Forestry mulching seems like the best alternative. The tree’s remains stay where it should—on the land. It does not end up in landfill or up in smoke. What we mulch replaces what has been lost, building up topsoil and replacing the valuable nutrients back into the land.