Mulching Head

A mulching head is a drum or disc with rotating teeth, mounted on a skid steer, excavator, or dedicated forestry mulcher. It can take standing brush and small to mid-size trees and reduce them to mulch in place, fast, without the dozer-plus-chainsaw-plus-haul-off workflow of conventional clearing.

Mulching is the fastest way to open up a fence line, clear cedar and other invasive species off a pasture, or prep a building site without leaving big stump piles behind. The mulch stays in place as ground cover, which suppresses regrowth and reduces erosion in the short term.

Downsides: the mulched material stays on-site (which is great when that's what you want, less great when you wanted clean dirt), the equipment is rough on the operator and the machine, and pricing is higher per acre than dozer work for big-tree clearing.