Mechanical brush and woody vegetation management

Hydro-axe brushcutter

Hydro-axe working

Lake: Melvern Lake Project

Park: Sundance, Arrow Rock and Turkey Point Parks

Corps POC: Terry Osborn

Story:
Melvern Lake staff is continually looking at cost effective methods to control woody vegetation and have recently happened upon a brush cutting machine that provides for quick and easy removal of brush and trees up to 14 inches in diameter. We do not have all the particulars on the machine but it is basically a 100 h.p. four wheel drive tractor, sometimes called a "hydro-axe" that boasts a front mounted pto driven cutter wheel that will take an eight foot swath through about any kind of brush in a single pass. The cutter wheel is mounted horizontally and turns at at a high r.p.m. whirling as many as a hundred cutter teeth in a circular motion. It works in a similar fashion to a stump grinder but with many times more cutters and of course a much greater width. Melvern's cost per hour has been in the 60 dollar per hour range which for the work it can accomplish is a real savings. The contractor's name is John Atwood and he lives in Auburn, KS. For more information you may contact Melvern Lake or call John directly at (785)256-7169.

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