"Dave" wrote in message
...
OK, we bought a house in lake effect snow area recently. A few months
ago,
there was an ice storm that took down some very large branches of several
trees. That's not a problem. The problem is, our property includes some
woods (behind our house). We have two acres cleared. At the back of the
cleared area, there is about 150' or so of trees/bushes that mark the edge
of the woods. Our property extends into the woods a ways, so we can do
whatever we want to, to the trees/bushes that border the cleared area (our
back yard)

Most of the tall vegetation at the edge of the woodline consists of,
well...I'm not sure what to call it. Bushes, I guess, about 10-15' tall.
Each one of these things is made up of clusters of trunks (for lack of a
better word) that are anywhere from 1/2" to about 2" in diameter. Or
maybe
I should describe each bushy thingie as a tree with hundreds of trunks?
Each trunk is firmly rooted in the ground. Now multiply that by about a
hundred or so bushy thingies, and that is what comprises the woodline that
borders the back of our yard.

Now the problem. During the ice storm, several of these bushes got bent
over into our back yard, some of them now reaching 10' or more into the
back
yard. Now they are more like trees growing horizontally just above the
grass. I need to remove them from my yard. How do I do that?

Obvious answer is, hire a tree service. Only, I have a feeling this ice
storm crap could be a regular occurrence. I'd rather find a DIY solution,
even if I have to throw money at it. First thought was to buy a chainsaw.
But, I'm not sure that it would be safe to work in the area with a
chainsaw.
These are clusters of trunks, hard for a rabbit to squeeze through. I'm
not
sure it would be wise to try to fight my way through the mess while trying
to safely control a very dangerous chainsaw. And, a chainsaw might be
overkill. As I mentioned, the thickest trunks are about 2" in diameter.

But then a hand tool like pruning shears has a couple of problems. First,
i
t won't be powerful enough to cut most of the trunks. Second, even if it
was powerful enough, it would take several weeks to clear all that crap
out
by hand. Any kind of hand saw would be equally useless. It would take
too
much time.

I'm open to any suggestions. We do have several rental stores in the
area.
If someone could tell me what the right tool is, I might be able to rent
it.
At worst, if there is a proper tool for this job, I'd be willing to buy
it.
Even if it costs more than hiring a tree service, I'd rather buy the
proper
tool and own it, because I will save money in the long run.

So, what is the proper approach? Dynamite? OK, just joking. -Dave

I'd kill the bushes with herbicide first. Then buy or rent a motorized pole
trimmer. You can reach right through branches and cut them off at the
ground. I've got a trimmer attachment for my Ryobi weed wacker and it's
great limbing dense trees and cutting down nasty bushes like multiflora
roses.