Diamond Mowers' customer, Toby Dahl, Rancher/Landowner in Roundup, MT shares his story of how his Skid-Steer Forestry Mulcher has helped him reclaim thousands of acres of grasslands from Ponderosa Pine.
Imagine being a 5th generation rancher; grazing cattle on the same soil your great-great-grandfather homesteaded over 100 years ago. Imagine working the land alongside your father and dreaming of one day passing this experience onto your children.
For Toby Dahl of Roundup Montana, this dream was in peril. Every day volunteer thickets of regeneration pine encroached on Dahl’s grasslands consuming thousands of acres set among the Ponderosa pines near the base of the Bull Mountains.
Two years ago, Dahl decided to take action; purchasing a Diamond Skid-Steer Forestry Mulcher to fulfill a Government EQUIP tree thinning contract. Since delivery in July 2016, Dahl has thinned more than 600 acres at a 20-30 foot spacing and cut close to 1,000,000 trees by government estimates.
From the time the property was homesteaded, the grasslands within the ponderosa stands were designed to burn every 20 to 30 years. As rural housing has developed, fire suppression practices have disrupted this cycle, growing thickets of regeneration that prohibits sunlight from hitting the forest floor, choking off grass cover.
“Over the last 30 years I estimate that we have lost half of the ranches carrying capacity to regen,” remarked Dahl. “Diamond’s Forestry Mulcher has changed my life by allowing me to manage my pine trees and create fire breaks to safely conduct controlled burns by keeping flame length to a minimum. It’s hard to imagine a better product for management of young trees.”
Click below to see the Diamond Skid-Steer Forestry Mulcher in action:
