I'd give the maples away for firewood if they are still any good. Just to get 'em out of the way. Have some big brush fires rather than burying stuff. Rent or hire out some stump grinding or cut them as close to the surface as possible and brush cut over them.
Maple starts to rot/grow a fungus in the sapwood - all woods do maple and for that matter birch just faster. You'll have punky light weight wood that will burn but marginally. It doesn't split so much as it chunks off. I assume the fungus grows faster due to the sugars in the maple wood. If maple is c/s/s it allows the moisture to escape slowing/stopping the growth. The fungus eats the lignen fibers which lowers the weight and BTU content of the wood http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spalting
I'll remember this for future felling ops. Won't drop em unless we can C/S/S asap. Thanks for the info… this ole dog likes learnin new stuff all the time…
I have a load of spalted maple in my stove right now very much a shoulder wood a few big 8x8" splits because they start to chunk off if I tried to split them smaller. It's BTU's but those pieces I'd guess weighed less than couple pounds
I have spalted hickory cabinets in my house. We love them. Ive been meaning to post some pics. I had never heard of spalting until we asked the old timer cabinet builder for hickory with lots of knots color and character. He suggested spalted hickory.
Beautiful looking wood (spalted) https://www.google.com/search?q=spa...rKKKTyQG3tIGIDA&ved=0CDAQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=599
Thanks Stinny. Who knows, maybe some time we will meet up and then we'll know for sure if great (or not so great) minds run the same.
If it were me, I'd be more worried about collecting firewood than clearing land. First, get everything decent to burn and get is split and stacked. After that I think a dozer is the way to get it cleared and leveled. I would pile the stumps rather than bury them.
If you have the time, wait until the trees have no leaves on them. That way you have a clearer picture when doing the work. I try and do all of my clearing projects in the spring (before the foliage comes out) or in the fall (after the leaves have fallen). It makes things much, much easier. It's been said before, but I would suggest just getting rid of the branches for now and stock piling the firewood-sized wood for later processing. Just getting the branches cleared out will make your job seem a whole lot easier. ... and that's a nice place you have there!
