Brush mulching that keeps the ohia

What it is

Mulching is the careful way to open up a lot. We work from the top down, in passes, the way you would trim a hedge. The machine parks in the middle of a patch, swings slowly around and grinds the brush in reach, then moves to the edge of that circle and does it again. Each pass takes the brush lower. Short brush takes a couple of passes, tall brush more. To mulch it fine enough to rot back into soil fast, we keep going lower, and the last pass runs close to the ground. You choose what goes and what stays. The mulch lands as a mat that holds moisture, keeps the red cinder from washing out, and turns to soil. There are no burn piles and nothing to haul, and the topsoil stays put. If a crew has ever dozed a lot flat on you, this is the opposite.

When you need it

• Your HPP or Puna lot is a wall of guava and uluhe and you want to see the ground.
• You want the ohia and other natives kept, and everything else gone.
• You need a clear line before a survey, a house pad or a fence.
• Guinea grass and albizia saplings keep taking back a driveway or catchment pad.

The tool that does it

A Cat HM608 forestry mulcher that hangs square under the coupler of our 306, its drum running the way the arm reaches. The thumb still works with it on, so logs too big to grind get moved, not left behind.

Before we start

The last pass runs close to the ground, so walk the lot first and tell us about rocks, stumps, irrigation lines, pipes, wires and anything buried or hidden in the brush. Flag them, or send us a photo of each, and we work around them.