Anyone rent a skid steer / forestry mulcher to clear unwanted brush?

Located in East Texas.

Have not yet. The question that always stumps me is post management:

Can I enjoy/use the clearing with minimal management in my lifetime? If not, I may need more invasive/expensive options such as root plowing.

Are you just doing brush specie clearing or do you have trees larger than 3" or so?
The mulchers work good on 3-4" or bigger trees but is not cost effective for brush. If just brush use a heavy duty rotary cutter on the skid steer that has a 2-4" capacity.
Be prepared that it will all eventually grow back.

I did this about 18 months ago. But I took out brush and every tree under 4", which there were a lot of. I even ground a few stumps and took out a few much larger cedar trees with it. It made short work of them, and left some great (but very large) mulch. If I was just doing brush, no way I could justify a forestry mulcher, as Gunny said.

Also, if you aren't experienced with a mulcher, and have trees to take out, consider hiring someone who is. It's well worth the investment to not be liable for the equipment and innocent by standards (like my shed window) that will get torn up.

If you are just clearing brush, I would highly recommend renting a brush hog or the sort. Much smaller learning curve, and they really work well for their intended purpose.

If you don't treat the stumps when you do this, you're going to be doing it again in two years.

This 100 times sound wisdom on hiring someone with experience…. And their expense on the machine maintenance.

Thanks for the info. Sounds like brush hog will be the more practical solution and chain saw any of the smaller trees along the way

I have some experience in brush removal. My opinion, if you can poison the brush before clearing, you will have better results. Foliar herbicide application needs the maximum plant foliage to deliver enough chemical to the roots and thus kill the roots and all. You can also treat cut stumps, but that is fairly easy with larger trees and brush, but harder with smaller plants to get an efficient coverage. I think professionals usually spray in fall to take advantage of this. Once dead, I have used a saw to cut anything 3" and up and have a tractor with rotary cutter to do the rest. There will be some brush that survives (guessing 10-15% ) that you can do follow up treatment the next year.

Remedy ultra is what I have used for this. Works on the species I have, but is not universally effective for cedar, and other species. Not sure what you have to eliminate, but there are some effective herbicides that can be purchased without a private applicators license.

May not be feasible depending on the size of area you are wanting to treat, the thickness, etc. but maybe worth consideration.