Clearing land can be easy or daunting depending on several variables: the size of the area; the thickness and toughness of the brush; the incline of the surface; and the nature of the terrain beneath the brush to be cleared. In any event, it is a task that is necessary. For one thing, clearance makes the land usable for any number of objectives. In addition, it contains diseases and inhibits spontaneous fires. On top of those things, soil becomes more robust when cleaned of dense shrubs and thickets while pests must live elsewhere. below are some simple, efficient land-clearing techniques.
1- Get Fired Up
The use of fire is an ancient method that indigenous peoples employed, and to which some rural landowners still resort. Also a tool of professional foresters, this approach involves setting to flame the living and dead vegetation that occupies a plot of land. Ironically, professionals do this to make larger, more destructive fires less probable. This “pile and burn” strategy has the added benefit of consuming the vegetative waste, sparing the landowner the time and expense of hauling it away. However, it is ill-advised for those with little experience. Fires can quickly move beyond prescribed boundaries without careful monitoring and control.
2- Extraction — This Won’t Hurt a Bit
Another way to remove unwanted plants is to pull them up, root, and branch, much like a dentist would a bad tooth. Some shrubs may be easy to uproot by hand but the more established plants and trees require mechanical assistance. In this scenario, chains wrap around the tree or bush on one end while connecting to a tractor at the other. From here, horsepower does the rest and the offending greenery is evicted in short order. Few roots survive to compete for soil nutrients.
3- Crushing It
Some thicket is less thick in which case the clearing methods may not be quite as aggressive as those noted above. Removing sparser vegetation could still require heavy equipment like brush mowers and bulldozers. Yet these trees, bushes, and shrubs are modest enough to feed into a mulcher for pulverization. The mulch, in turn, is available for other plantings. It holds onto moisture; fights weed encroachment; maintains a stable temperature range for plants; and adds to an attractive image, i.e. curb appeal. Of course, the type of mulcher necessary depends on the scale of the clearing job.
4- Bulldozing the Opposition
Whereas pulling, or extraction, is sometimes the best option, do not discount the pushiest of the heavy equipment, the bulldozer. Not intended for precision work, the bulldozer pushes vast quantities of vegetation down and away from the cleared land. This is a fast and easy solution unless the owner wants roots removed. Some uses call for regrowth so here, again, the bulldozer is optimal. It is worth mentioning, in any event, that these techniques are not mutually exclusive and — as conditions warrant — are useful in conjunction with one of the others.
Using the above tips will make clearing land easier for everyone involved in the process.
