Information on Clearing Methods
Why our method works and how it benefits farmer’s rancher’s cities and the environment
The Environmental Brush and Tree Mower
Malcolm Beck
The Environmental Brush and Tree Mower is an articulated loader with the bucket removed and replaced with a rotating drum with knives or hammers similar to mill used in big tub grinders.
It can roll up to any size tree and in a few minutes grind stump and limbs to ground level leaving good mulch spread out over the area. It can be ground fine or left course depending on desire or need. A course grind is a good environment for native grasses to get re-established.
The blue berry cedar (ash juniper) does not re-sprout making the “cedar eater” very effective as a control on these trees.
The mulch shades and cools the soil, keeping temperatures even. It breaks up falling raindrops and keeps a crust from forming. It holds water in place, preventing erosion. Mulch slows evaporation, keeping soil moist for long periods. The mulch encourages earthworm and microbial activity, enriches the soil and allows oxygen and rain penetration. All of this activity builds fertile soil where only barren caliches were before.
Cedar thicket can be turned into productive grazing land that traps water to fill the aquifers. The “cedar eater” does not disturb the topsoil as bulldozing does. However, in some locations bulldozing may be preferred or more economical.
The “Environmental brush Mower’s” mulch will last for many years before completely decomposing. Mulching is Nature's way of building and protecting topsoil and conserving water. 31 environmental reasons why to mulch instead of using dozers, burning, and herbicides MULCHING CEDAR FOR WATER AND SOIL CONSERVATION
By Malcolm Beck
There are tremendous benefits that result from grinding whole (ash juniper) cedar trees down to ground level with rotary type mulching machines. -
The cedar cannot re-sprout. -
The chopped up branches are spread out to good mulching level. -
The chopped up branches and stumps are low enough to the soil a passenger car can drive over the mulch and not hang up. -
The shredded material is small enough to have a good mulching effect but not so small that it will quickly decay. -
The ratio of fine to large particles is in balance to form good mulch without creating a poor C/N ratio to cause nutrient tie up. -
The soil mulching effects are as good as or better than most other organic mulches. -
The mulch adequately shades the soil, keeping the soil at an even temperature, cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. -
It brakes up large falling raindrops keeping them from beating soil loose and washing it away or packing it to a crust. -
Holds rainwater in place keeping it from running away causing erosion and flooding. -
The mulch slows evaporation keeping the soil surface moist for long periods allowing for grass seeds to sprout. -
The moist shaded environment encourages earthworms and many other insects and microbe activity which mellows and enriches the soil and forms mild organic acids that dissolve minerals from rocks that enrich the soil still more. -
The greatly increased insect and microbe activity creates a soil crumb structure, which allows oxygen and rain, even heavy rains, to more quickly penetrate into the soil. -
Rain water that is allowed to run off the soil causes erosion and destructive floods. Floodwater is lost forever, unless caught in lakes, but even in lakes much needed water is lost. -
The annual evaporation rate in central Texas is 55 inches per year. Each year 55 inches of water evaporates from area lakes. -
Water that is held in the soil and protected by mulch is safe from evaporation and flood loss. -
Rain water stored in the soil is protected from pollution. -
Rain water in the soil will never be lost. But will go in one of two directions. -
The first direction is: when the soil is completely saturated beyond its holding capacity the water will continue on down and eventually drip into aquifers over a long period of time keeping them at a constant level instead of going up and down with each drought and flood. This will help springs maintain a constant flow that feeds clear water to rivers. -
The second direction is: capillary action causes water to wick up, from deep, to plant roots, as they need it for growth and survival. -
The spacing and thickness of the mulch is excellent for seed germination and grass to sprout through. -
Any forage grass, native or planted, has protection from hoof or tire traffic with the mulch cover. -
The mulch also protects forage grass from being pulled out or bitten off to short by animals. -
The slow decay of the mulch adds its stored nutrients to the soil for healthy plant growth. -
With the cedar trees removed and turned into a soil protecting mulch the stocking rate of pastureland can be greatly increased. The ranchers would profit. -
The "seppi" grinder, or similar machine, mounted in front of a large, powerful articulated loader is the most efficient and economical way of clearing cedar and other brush and placing it as a soil and water protecting mulch. -
This machine used over the Edwards aquifer recharge zone could very well make a big difference in water supply and the "panic" conditions we now experience during drought that normally occur in central Texas. -
Well water pumpage could also be increased. The farmers would profit. -
All of the above will better the economic conditions of the area. Every one wins, city dwellers, industry, farmers, ranchers, the wildlife and the environment. -
Mulching is nature's way of building and protecting our topsoil and conserving our fresh water. -
Nature has been mulching the surface of the earth to build and protect our topsoil since the beginning. -
Nature has been mulching to trap and hold fresh water in the soil for man's use since the beginning.
“Using Cedar and other brush thickets to an advantage”
Malcolm Beck
Cedar/Juniper Brush:
Grazing abuse caused most of the cedar thickets in the lower and more level lands. There have always been cedar trees in the steep rocky out crops where nature needed them. Not in the deeper soils the thick grass kept them smothered out. But, when we penned our domestic animals in pastures and allowed them to wipe out the best grasses, they then went after lesser and lesser forages until the soil started to become bare.
Nature never wants bare exposed soil. Bare soil is highly subject to erosion. That is why Nature lets the weedy, poison and thorny plants take over. Insects, and animals don't eat them, they are allowed to cover, protect and rebuild the soil. Cedar is one of these re-builder plants, if given enough time cedar will do it. However, we can speed up the process.
Seldom have ranchers had the opportunity to mulch marginal and poor pastureland as they have today. Junipers or cedars as most ranchers call them, cover over 3 million acres of Texas. In some locations so thick you can't ride a horse or walk through them. Their shade is so dense no other plant gets enough light to grow. Unless the annual rain comes in 3-inch showers or more, little if any water ever gets past their roots. The green needles and mulch of dead needles under the trees hold the first inch. Then the roots take the next half-inch or more.
In my own pastures I have never seen drought kill cedars. They have roots like a cactus. After a long dry spell the cedar get their share of the water first. It takes big rains to feed the aquifers or make the creeks flow in cedar thickets.
The junipers or cedars are immune to herbicides, which I consider a blessing. Other control methods must be found. Few, if any of our modern generation laborers know how to use a grubbing hoe, if they did; I doubt that minimum wage would get them to the pastures. Our only choice of control is mechanical.
The remnants from our process make excellent mulch. The whole tree, stump and all is acidic; the ph is around 5 and below. When chopped up and used as mulch over the alkaline soil of the Edwards Plateau it quickly makes topsoil out of the caliches and limestone they grew in.
Big machines with rotary mulchers frequently referred to as “cedar eaters” can chop large junipers, stump and all, right down to the soil and lay it out as beautiful mulch. These machines are articulated, rubber-tired tractors equipped with big, heavy duty flail mowers that can reach high up in a tree and chop it right down to the ground.
These machines can work on some pretty steep grades and fairly rough terrain. They can snake around and between big rocks and/or desirable trees to be saved. Where the terrain is too steep or rough the cedars are best left alone. They are needed in those locations. They help decay rock into soil that can eventually erode into the lower and more level terrains to help build good pasture soils.
The Blueberry Juniper will not re-sprout from the stump like the Red berry and the One-Seeded junipers do. However, they can all pop up from seed. But the seedlings can easily be controlled with brush hogs or flail mowers on small farm tractors if shredded before they get too big. But, you may want to let them get big before shredding so you can create more mulch for soil protection, water savings and soil building.
Juniper is a high-energy wood and because of the low ph it makes very good mulch in the central Texas high ph soils. Because of its slow decay rate, the mulching affect lasts for years.
I have been visiting and watching some of the first cedar thicket pastures reclaimed with Rotary type mulchers. Within 12 to 16 weeks there were good stands of native grasses coming through the thinner spots of the mulch. The mulch protected the small grass plants from being tromped or eaten down until a good root was established. The mulch held the heavy rain in place; it soaked in instead of running off and eroding soil with it. The soil temperature under the mulch is cooler in hot weather and warmer in cool weather. I have found moisture under the mulch weeks after a rain while un-mulched soil, near by, was dry inches deep.
Within three years you could see a change in the soil under the thicker mulched (1 to 3 inch) spots. The soil was much darker. The white limestone was beginning to turn into soil. The top ¼ inch was dark brown but it slowly faded lighter and lighter to original white at about three inches. There were all types of micro and macro life forms living, eating, reproducing, dying and decaying under that energy rich protective cedar mulch cover. This will continue and continue to build fertile soil as long as the mulch lasts.
It is not cheap; in fact it is expensive to mulch down a cedar thicket. But, when all the benefits of grazing land re-claimed, soil saved and water saved for future use, not just for the rancher but near by cities that draw from the replenished aquifers, the cost can quickly be justified.
Mulched down cedar thickets may even be of greater value to the nearby communities than to the ranchers themselves. Costs of mulching should be divided proportionally. Mesquite Brush:
Mesquite covers about 15 million acres of Texas. I never heard the old timers complaining about mesquite. My dad always looked forward to a good mesquite bean crop. Mesquite beans kept the horses and mules fat. My grandpa’s pasture was a small part post oak and the rest mesquite pasture. The post oak pasture was in a red soil, the trees were thick, and no grass grew there but dad and grandpa both made some money cutting oak fire wood and shipping it to the big cities.
Mesquite land was considered better land for farming or pasture. I remember in their conversations often talking about “sorry post oak land and good mesquite land”. In early boyhood my favorite dove and rabbit hunting pastures were mesquite savannas with big mesquite trees spaced 50 to a 100 feet apart. There were a few bushes of different types and scattered clumps of prickle pare cactus that the cottontail and jackrabbits hid under. Ninety percent of the ground was covered with good forage grasses right up to and under the big mesquites. There was no mesquite brush in these pastures.
The Cedar Eater type machines do a good job of mulching up mesquite brush. Grind it low to the ground. When it sprouts back use a root plow or big disc plow to pull the stumps out by the roots. Mesquites are very persistent. If you don't do a good job of getting all the roots out the first try they come back with more, bigger and sharper thorns. DO NOT poison or chop down the big mesquite trees. If you do, numerous small mesquites will sprout up in their place. Old timers told me about this and I have seen it happen but didn't know the cause. Modern science has now un-covered Natures secrets of how this works. The big trees give off some substance in the soil that keeps the mesquite beans from sprouting. If the big trees are destroyed this substance is no longer produced. Also, when big mesquites are chopped down buds from the remaining tree roots will also sprout up.
A naturalist once told me mesquite roots go very deep. A mesquite tree may pump up more water than it uses. Many times while resting in the light but cool shade I noticed the good forage grass under the canopy of big mesquites is as good as and sometimes better than out in the open. Mesquites as cedars in their right place are beautiful, productive and beneficial as is every other creation in Nature.
Mulching brush and trees is much preferred over piling and burning. Burning destroys the soil building, soil protecting and water collecting mulch. Burning causes the carbon and nitrogen and other elements in the wood to go up and pollute the atmosphere. The atmosphere is already overloaded with CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
*Malcolm Beck has been quoted by permission. He is a recognized authority and published author in the areas of soil conservation and a variety of other environmental issues.
(End excerpt from Malcolm Beck) Problems with Cacti? Controlling/Eradicating Cactus:
As you know this prickly shrub is hearty and difficult to eradicate. The most common eradication techniques utilize an initial chemical treatment. The effectiveness of the initial chemical treatment varies widely depending on the chemical used, the applicator and the environmental conditions at the time of treatment. Typically the initial chemical treatment will kill 50-85% of the cacti. Subsequent chemical treatments are required to eradicate the cacti. Unlike most shredders our machine will break down the cactus almost to a pudding like substance, which prevents new plants from sprouting out of the cuttings. More importantly our cutters unique design allows us to grub below grade in any terrain and destroy the root systems of the cactus preventing the original plant from reestablishing itself later. The real beauty is your cactus is gone instantly! While effective chemicals are readily available for the control or eradication of cactus plants, you must have a license to purchase them, the chemicals are expensive, application is tricky and time consuming, the chemicals take up to a year to work, and typically you will need to apply them several times to achieve 100% of your desired result. Not to mention that you will have introduced yet another noxious chemical into your land and the environment. By using our service you will eliminate the vegetation instantly. If we clear your cactus at the proper time of year, your field will be ready to cultivate instantly or with adequate rain within 12 weeks you will have grasses growing and your pasture will be re-established enough to graze within a year or so. Do the math; we are your best answer for the control or elimination of cactus |
