Christmas tree removal, Godalming Surrey.

MJM were asked to remove approx 9 acres of over sized Christmas trees, these varied from 6ft to 20feet. The ground conditions were very flat, with a light soil. In the past, the grower had removed such trees, using a 360 degree excavator. Individual trees would be lifted to the surface, stock piled and burnt. This could be affective under the right weather conditions and if the labour was available. Although on a number of occasions, this method proved to be very slow and laborious, especially when farm labour, should have been working on other projects.

Figure 1 shows the arrival of the machine, weighting in at 16ton, the machine has an over all length of 6m, and is 2.7m wide, meaning it can fit through a standard field gate and is very maneuverable. Being tracked it has a very low ground pressure, on this model MJM opted for triple grouser track pads, which means the machine can easily cross tarmac, and concrete with little or no damage.

This picture shows the machine moving in a forward direction, severing the trees at ground level, aided by the push bar at the front of the machine. Figure 3 shows the machine reversing back over the material, further mulching it and completely destroying the stumps above ground level. This initial forward and reverse pass, will mulch 70% of the material, and in some situation this is all that is needed. In this case the grower required a 100% mulch, with complete removal of stumps and root plates.

To achieve the complete removal of root plates, a 2 legged sub-soiler was used to bring them to the surface. Here we see the machine working and a close up of the trash still left on the surface. A further forward and reverse pass, chops and buries the remaining material. Fig number …… shows the final finish. In this situation the field was ploughed, cultivated and sowed with Maze. We believe that this finish would have been good enough to reseed with grass, or replant with Christmas trees, either by hand or automatic machine. The work took 4 days to complete, with little or no interruption to the growers normal work program.