Land Clearing Tools and Techniques

I am new to the site and in reading the forums, I have noticed that there seems to be a lot of discussion on the topic of land clearing.

I would like to share my story of how my husband and I dealt with the land clearing issue that we had. Hopefully, someone out there may find this helpful.

My husband and I bought 80 acres of land in 2005.  At that time we really enjoyed the rough, ruggedness of our land.  However, in time we realized that, in order for the live oak and native grasses to flourish, we needed to deal with the invasive trees and brush.

So we decided to deal with the invasive Mesquite tree problem first.  Like many of you, we started out with a chainsaw and sheer determination.  However, after, lots of hard physical work, sweat and sharpening of chain saw blades, we knew we had to come up with a better way to deal with this problem.

Then the light bulb came on.  We should create some specialized land clearing attachments to be used on our skid steer.  So we set to work creating what we call the Monster Tree Saw.  By using this attachment, we were able to make the skid steer do all the hard work.  Basically the Monster Tree Saw is an 8'  long saw blade, with diamond shaped teeth, that allows the skid steer operator to cut the tree on both the forward push and outward pull of the saw.  It quickly cuts through trees up to 18" in diameter and leaves a flush to the ground cut stump.  Because the cut is flat and smooth, you don't have to worry about damaging ATV or vehicle tires while driving through your pasture.  The Monster Tree Saw will work on any tree species you want to cut, Ash Juniper, Eastern Red Cedar, and many others.

Our next job was to deal with the Red Berry Cedar.  In order to kill a Red Berry Cedar, the tree must be removed by the roots.  So we needed something other than the Monster Tree Saw.  So the second attachment was created, the Monster Cedar Puller.  The Monster Cedar Puller is a 5' long attachment with a V notch that pushes into the base of a cedar tree.  With the forward motion and upward lift of the skid steer, a Red Berry Cedar can be removed by the roots.  The larger and more powerful the skid steer is, the bigger the Cedar tree that can be pulled.  The Monster Cedar Puller will work on most shallow rooted trees, brush, Yuccas, etc.

The next question was what to do with all these downed trees.  We chose to use a chainsaw and cut the Mesquite trees for firewood.  We decided the best plan for us, would be to pile and burn the cedar and brush.  But we needed an effective way to gather all of those Cedar trees.  So the third attachment we created was the Monster Brush Forks.  These brush forks have 5' long tines and are 6' wide, allowing you to gather up large piles of trees and brush and move them to burn locations.  When weather permitted we burned most of the piles, but chose to leave a few for the birds and wildlife.  

I understand that everyone's land clearing needs are unique. Also, many landowners do not own a skid steer.  However, you can usually rent skid steers for a reasonable rate.  You might want to check on weekend rates, sometimes they are a little less expensive than a daily rate.

Once we saw how effective the attachments were, we began to manufacture and sell the Monster Line of Attachments to other land owners.  If you are interested in learning more about our attachments you can find us at

Monster Skid Steer Attachments

The website has demonstration videos of the attachments.  Feel free to contact us with any questions you might have.  

It looks like you've got a great business going.  I really like the saw and the cedar puller, though they all look good and the fact that they don't need a hydraulic hook-up certainly simplifies things and reduces maintenance.  I think a skid steer has got to be one of the most useful and versatile machines for farm use.

How long have you been in business?  I love to see people start their own company.

One of the main design criteria when we created the attachments was no hydraulics.  Our skid steer is an older machine with standard flow hydraulics.  We were finding that some of the forestry type attachments you could purchase, were simply too expensive or required more machine than we had.  

We have been in business for 3 and a half years.  We have loved every minute of it.  Landowners are great people to deal with.