What to do with ‘yard’ waste?

[racerboy]

Apologies up front for this beginner ‘farmer’ question, but I have assembled a large pile of brush, dead tree branches, etc. and am not sure how to dispose of it. For one thing, my local county ‘dump’ does not accept any kind of landscaping waste. I was told by someone to think about getting a ‘burn permit’ but am not sure how comfortable I would be setting this big pile on fire. Any suggestions? Here are some photos. I should have parked my tractor next to it for a size reference.

 

[NCL4701]

Options:

• Burn it.
• Leave it where it is. Call it “habitat restoration for small native wildlife”. That sounds more noble than a brush pile you didn’t feel like messing with. And it actually does provide habitat for rabbits, mice, rats, various insects, etc. (and of course the snakes that like to eat such smallish animals).
• Chip it. You can use the chips for mulch in some areas, just not around buildings. Untreated wood chips around buildings can attract termites. If you don’t want to use the chips, the chip pile will be much, much, much smaller than the brush pile and if you just leave the chip pile alone, it will rot down to nothing much faster.

Where I live, I can’t burn. We had, I think, five largish brush piles near the houses that were all eye sores. Over a few years, just got out of hand. Bought a chipper. Several days with the chipper eliminated the five, left the two permanent brush piles that are hidden from view, and reduced those two to almost nothing.

From a maintenance standpoint, still have those two permanent brush piles. If they’re rotting down as fast as we’re adding to them and we don’t need wood chips, we leave them be. If we need wood chips or they’re getting too big or we have a lot of new stuff at one time (like when a big tree goes down near the houses or a storm makes a mess), we bust out the chipper.

 

[GeoHorn]

Do you have a local Volunteer Fire Dept..? Sometimes they need to exercise equipment and practice fire-fighting.… and that would resolve your burn-permit issues as well.

 

[Vlach7]

Get a burn permit, a gallon of diesel fuel, not gasoline, propane torch, wait for waste to be dry dead, wait for moist weather and have pile away from flammables, break into smaller piles if needed, start pile at downwind side. Follow this and it should not be an issue

 

[Scm]

Use it in the garden, as is

 

[Lil Foot]

not sure how comfortable I would be setting this big pile on fire

A few years ago I saw the Forest Circus set a pile of logs & slash on fire. (in a big open area)
It had been drying for probably ten years, and there was about a foot of snow on the ground.
The pile was probably 100ft long, 50-60 ft wide, and 20-25ft tall.
I came by about a month later & it was still smoking.
And, amazingly, it didn't get away from them.

 

[drygulch]

@NCL4701's post covers it pretty well from my perspective, but I can add a couple comments. I was surprised how I could just add to a pile periodically and smush it down with the forks, and it would stay reasonably-sized for stuff collected near the dwelling. But, with enough acreage+clearing, I finally couldn't avoid getting rid of all the growing piles somehow. We looked at the same WC68 chipper. I got around to burning it first though, probably because a little diesel is way cheaper, and burning is more fun.

Probably hard to actually be "overly cautious", but my fear of things getting out of hand was maybe exaggerated, and I had soon eliminated large slash piles all over the property. In my case, my only option for water was driving into the creek to fill the loader bucket. Def increased the pucker factor, but all turned out fine. We're getting close to needing another round of burns.

Good luck with it.

Greg

 

[drygulch]

Also, FWIW, I found I prefer burning at night because A) I'm a night owl and B) less wind. Not my idea, probably a fellow night owl that rationalized it that way...