Trail/Road maintenance
Wisconsin
I recently purchased a property that has 1.5 miles of internal trails or fire lanes. The previous owner stated it took 10 hour once a year to brush cut them. Most of the roads are under thick canopy and are just over grown with weeds so I don't think planting crops would work that well. Rather than keeping up cutting the weeds. Could I just spray them a few times with Gly over the next year and would that stop them from coming back so heavily? I can see the deer use the paths fair heavily. Would it be better to let the weeds there for travel concealment and browse? I appreciate the help.
I can't see it taking 10 hours to drag a brush hog through 1.5 miles of trails. Keep the poisons off the land. I would also think the chemical smell would hinder the deer from using the trails and the areas near them.
I manage properties (forestry, food plots, trail maintenance and construction...) for a living so I am experienced with your situation. With the right equipment, you should be able to mow that much in 2-4 hours depending on how wide they are. I am a proponent of planting trails with mixes that both benefit wildlife and reduce necessary maintenance.
Spraying will work, but is expensive, eliminates a grest food and cover for wildlife, and can lead to a nightmare from erosion in your trails. It also needs to be done at least once a year, requires equipment, snd ehen not done properly isn't environmentally friendly.
I do all of our trails by hand. With a heavy duty weed eater with brush head and chainsaw and other handtools. It can take all day doing it that way. But I'm usually alone and don't really rush. I have also used the self propelled DR. type brush mowers. They are a bit less work and faster. I usually don't spray just because I still have to go in and deal with the dead stuff.
Don't spray unless you want to promote herbicide resistant plants. Spraying just to set back the plants growth is not a sound management plan.
I am willing to bet that there is an ample supply of plants that the animals use on the trails. The deer and other animals flock to the trails on our property whenever we cut them.
There is no way unless you are using a push type mower that it will take that long to mow or trim by hand. For sure you want to keep your fire lanes open(if that is what they are truly used for. If you don't want the trails don't do anything with them.
Thank you folks for the quick replies. I should have stated that he was using a Dr. Field Brush mower walk behind unit. I had a gut feeling that maybe I shouldn't use weed killer but rather cut them. Have any of you used anything that would be able to be pulled behind a 4 wheeler to cut weeds. Maybe some old farm equipment.
I recently looked at what could be rented for a similar task. I was shocked at what was available, and how cheap rental was. I was mentioning that a contractor could simply rent his equipment, save the maintenance costs and that overhead, and still run a business quite nicely. Many brush cutting tools available for a skid steer, and it would not break the bank I promise.
Rough cut mowers can be used if there are no small trees that are in the way. Rental Centers might have what you are looking for.
"Rough cut mowers can be used if there are no small trees that are in the way"
I used a DR field and brush tow behind once that ate up sapling up to 2" or so. I was going around them and the guy that owned it said mow those damn things over. I obliged, and the mower was no worse for the wear. I did a 3 acre grown over field full of saplings with it.
