Page 7 - Moving the Earth_ The Workbook of Excavation

LAND CLEARING AND CONTROLS

LAND CLEARING AND CONTROLS 1.7

The usability and value of trees vary greatly, in both quality to be found on the job and the process-
ing equipment that will handle them. Some users are very narrowly restricted as to species, size, straight-
ness, and soundness. Others will take (usually at a lower price) almost anything that is recognizable as
wood. In any big job, it may be worthwhile to invest considerable time in investigating possible outlets.
Firewood is another possibility. Very high prices are often paid for wood cut in 2-foot lengths
and split to cross sections averaging 30 square inches or less. Lower but still interesting prices
may be paid by cordwood dealers for cut (and perhaps trimmed) trees which they process them-
selves. But this market is largely limited to the vicinity of cities.
If the vegetation must be removed and nobody wants it, the cheapest disposal is to just push it
off the right of way, or out of the construction area, and hope to forget it. Fortunately this practice
is usually not allowed. Even if it is, it may have disastrous effects on high-priced surveyors’ ref-
erence points.
If the contract requirement is off-site disposal at a distance, there may be several possibilities.
Both bulk and problems can be greatly reduced, although possibly at considerable cost, by chip-
ping the vegetation and hauling out the chips. Otherwise, trees should be trimmed into lengths
suitable for dump trucks or trailers, or flatbeds of either type, with all angles in trunks or branches
cut to make them lie flat. Nondumpers require a log-handling crane at the disposal site. Brush may
be chipped and loaded, or loaded whole.
Except with medium to large tree trunks, or chips, these loads are likely to be mostly air. Haul
cost per pound will be proportionately high.
Unchipped vegetation that is hauled off the job, and is not to be burned, may be dumped in
piles over a wide area or stacked in high piles with a log grapple or clamshell. See Fig. 1.2.
The result is almost always an environmental nightmare. Bulk is enormous in relation to the
amount of clearing done, appearance is generally a first-class eyesore, and the dumps may be dan-
gerous or impossible to cross for many animals and for people. They may serve as inaccessible
infection points for plant insects and diseases.
Depending on the size and variety of vegetation involved, and climatic conditions, these unfavor-
able conditions may persist for 5 to 20 or more years.

FIGURE 1.2 Clearing with a rake blade.