Discussion: Chippers

Can be very useful. A good and recommended tool.

Very good. Here in the midwest, we use chippers for all sorts of uses!

Here in CT that was a real incident. He almost got away with it but for the DNA on the chipper.

I had one of those little Fargo ones but it wasn't at all satisfying and I gave it away. If I got one it would have to be a lot bigger.

A waste of good firewood.

No shortage of firewood here, and I don't burn mt laurel in the fireplace anyway.

I have an 8 hp one I don't use we could talk about. But you really want one driven off your tractor PTO.

8 HP seems about right. A PTO driven one would be pretty good.

Why not just make a burn pile. No new machinery, no storage problems.
Keep you warm and cook some brats or something.

Well, the chipper is mostly something Zack wants. I am more or less happy to just pile it up and leave places for little critters to hide out. It rots down soon enough. The real issue in laurel wrangling these days is that what used to be a gentle and soothing activity is now fraught with peril for my creaky back. I can only do a bit at a time, and no use pushing it when it is particularly cold out.

How much laurel is left after all these years of wrangling? If much, then I'd admit defeat on turning CT into CO. Just move here.

How much is left? Hahahahaha!!

Well, it's Connecticut. The only solution seems to be the Harriman one. Ban hunting in a hundred square kilometers, let the deer over populate, have a few camp fires wipe out a lot of plants. If that's not feasible, moving to lovely western forest may be the only way.

Deer don't eat laurel.

So is Harriman clear only due to fires?

Nice to know something survives them. They seem to nibble on everything around here, and positively wolf down lilac leaves, stuffing their faces in ungainly mouthfuls.

There's an awful lot of laurel in Harriman too. Rockhouse and Jackie Jones have plenty, and so do a couple of the West Point maps. I don't know why it grows in some spots but not others, maybe soil conditions. It seems to spread slowly, but on the other hand, it bounces back pretty quickly after a fire. Harriman can seem open, but that's because people tend to map and to set courses in the open sections.

Silvermine in particular seems open. But the other maps seem to have far less than many other areas in that part of New York, or neighbouring northern New Jersey or Connecticut. Not all of Harriman is mapped, but quite a bit. Are the remaining bits heavy laurel?

Charlie, glad to hear Zach is fine and not too shaken. What a scary thing to experience (for all of you)!!

As for Harriman, in places where this isn't much laurel, and particularly on Silvermine, blueberry shrubs are starting to take over (though it's not everywhere). Some are definitely knee-high and some higher. While visibility is excellent there, large patches of blueberry slow one down a lot.

Occasional patches of non-native barberry aren't getting any smaller either, and the deer do not touch it. (And it provides wonderful hiding places for the white footed mice who can harbor tons of black legged ticks....)