TOPIC: Hey Latt

Whitjr,
Good luck bud. I am with ya on the clearing. We have Japanese Honeysuckle to contend with verses rhododendron as an evasive underbrush. Stuff grows like mad. 6 foot tall and under can be pulled up by the roots in a loamy soil but clay soil or bigger than 6 foot tall is whole other story.
$450 per acre seems pretty reasonable for the clearing expense. Good luck on that acre and I am sure it will more than pay for itself.
Latt

Just an idea for ya Whitjr, a weed saw blade on the end of a strong straight shaft weed eater works wonders. For the bigger stuff, a cutter that is more fashioned like a skil saw blade can work, I have cut lots of small trees and bushes which would be 1 1/2\" in caliper with just a couple hits at the base. Cut it all down this winter, spray the suckers and sprouts a couple times next year to kill the roots all the while your cut material is rotting where it lays.One days time and my efforts next year in spraying is all the labor involved in preparing an acre. Not everything will rot, I usually do a walk through picking up any large limbs and rocks before planting but the rest can be raked around with the leaves. Im not familiar with wild rhododendron either and same as Latt, we have lots of Jap Honeysuckle in areas that have less canopy.

Hillhopper

Hillhopper- thanks for the suggustions. If you look ast the photos I posted on my much earlier post \"Planting this weekend, 5 lb.s\" in this forum, you'll see what I'm clearing/ my \"understory\" in a lot of places is 12' tall. The rhodendron is well established, and when I attempted a cut w/ my weedeater, it just sorta laughed at it, and danced alluringly. Chainsaw is the best, as it's a very woody and thick. Oh, yeah, I have lap piles as tall as I am out there.

However once exposed, the forest floor is very good, and really nice for our favorite seeds. I've even noticed that now that the thick rhodo is out of there, I see maidenhair ferns voulneteering in places. A good sign...