Is hedge worth cutting - yes! As mentioned, there isn't a wood that will give you more BTU's, but it does come with drawbacks. Very tough to cut, can be very tough to split and takes a while to dry properly. i no longer burn it in my wood stove in the house (defiant encore). It's too hot and don't like the temp spikes. I do, however, burn it in my OWB. When the temps drop, A few pieces added to the regular over night load really does wonders. I am fortunate to have just about all I can ever ask for. Seems like everybody wants it gone around me and it's very plentiful.
It's not so much using every inch of ground as it is eliminating shade by reducing wooded fence lines. Either way, fence lines are getting more and more scarce.
Multi-flora rose vines, and bittersweet are the bane of the northeast.. i hate them suckers. I pull them out as soon as I see them around.
Honey suckle is just as bad as it seems to spread faster. At least it doesn't have thorns. I'm still waiting for an Emarald honeysuckle bore or Multiflora rose blight!
It sure is making life harder up our way-- dust storms in the fall after the crops are out, snow blowing unimpeded and blocking roads, excessively high winds. The Iowa DOT has started a "natural snow fence" program paying farmers to leave the last five rows of crops up to combat these issues.
Hedge is one of the Kings of the BTU chart for sure, but is kinda scarce around these parts. We have tons of hickory, honey locust and black locust, which are close to hedge in terms of BTU, so that's one of our coveted woods here..... I've found that almost any tree growing nasty thorns will put out fantastic BTUS.....
Most of the hedge I'm cutting is in clumps too. I don't have a backhoe, but do have a pole saw to cut a path into the base I have several LARGE brush piles that I've pushed up partway with the tractor. Before I light them, I will make sure that they are over the top of the stumps. Last time I did that, it took several days to finish burning.
Most of the hedge I cut was girdled 20 or 30 years ago. It is hell on chains and heaven in the stove.
It is a full cut through the entire circumference of the cambium layer which will vary in thickness from species to species.
I intend to girdle a few honey locusts with an axe because I have heard that a dead honey locust will lose its thorns over time. The girdle will not be pretty but I will be sure to get deep enough with the axe to be effective.
I don't want the thorns to be thrown back into my face. My honey locusts look like the worst pictures that you will find on line. It is the third and forth deep layer of thorns that I worry about. Mine are about like this one. The good part is that no single thorn is more than 3 or 4 inches long.
I did this EXACT thing to a cluster of HL thorns on some huge ones I took down several years ago, threw a clump of those nasty thorns right into my thigh....buried one several inches into my leg! It was sore for over a month!!!!
That pic reminds me of the time I was 11 wandering through the woods and saw a perfect vine to swing on halfway up a ridge. I cut it with a hatchet, walked to the top of the hill with the vine and jumped. Next thing I know, I'm 15' in the air and approaching a honey locust at what seemed like Mach 4! All I could think of was getting impaled with hundreds of 3" long needles and then falling to the ground. My guardian angel must have been there with me, because at the last second I noticed a single patch on the bark without needles just large enough to fit my shoe, and I jammed my foot in that spot and pushed off the tree. After that I learned to calculate my "flight path" before swinging on vines lol.
