Austin here, with some thoughts on wood chipping. We have been getting quite a few questions about why someone should chip up their trees, how to chip safely, and other technical questions. This blog takes our top tips and gives them straight to you!

Wood chipping is a great method for managing forest debris, but it’s a process that comes with its own set of challenges, costs, and best practices. Whether you’re a landowner, contractor, or simply curious about sustainable forest management, understanding chipping can help you make informed decisions and avoid costly mistakes.

Why Choose Chipping?

Chipping offers a one-step solution for processing felled trees and brush. Piling and burning dead or problem trees requires multiple steps and can pose environmental risks.

Choosing to chip the wood has multiple benefits! You only process the material once and it produces wood chips that are useful for landscaping, soil generation and improvement, and even insulation. Importantly, in areas with fire restrictions or air quality concerns, chipping is a significant advantage eliminating the need for burning. Additionally, broadcasting chipped tree and brush material onto the forest floor increases water retention, helps to shade and cool existing soils, as a lighter-colored material decreases heat accumulation in areas lacking shade due to tree removal, and overall creates conditions more conducive to accelerated plant regeneration. Benefits of broadcasting tree and brush chips onto the forest floor are additive and can become synergistic – all of a sudden, 2+ 2 = 10(!) as plants regenerate more quickly, and become soil builders themselves!

Equipment Matters: Choosing and Using the Right Chipper

The safety and efficiency of chipping depend heavily on the equipment used. Chippers come in different sizes and forms, from smaller (6 inch) to larger (12 inch), and towable to self-propelled machines. Dutchman Tree Service uses a high-capacity professional chipper that allows us to quickly clean up properties. 

Best Practices for Chipping

Safety First

Chipping is inherently dangerous. Take your time and follow these basic guidelines.

Environmental Considerations

Chipping is generally safe for the environment and does not spread most tree diseases or insects. For example, chipping does not spread emerald ash borer or white pine blister rust. However, there are exceptions for Buckthorn.

Special Tips for Different Tree Types

Managing Wood Chips

Wood chipping is a valuable tool for forest management, but it requires careful planning, the right equipment, and a strong focus on safety and ecological impact. Dutchman Tree Service follows these best practices and understands the unique challenges of your site and materials. We turn forest debris into a resource that synergistically benefits both your land, you, and the environment!

Have you noticed some exciting activity and brightly colored equipment in your neighborhood? The Dutchman Tree Service team is working on performing a fuel reduction treatment in your area! 

Who we are: Tree service, land stewards, tree lovers, doing what we know is best for safety and stewardship.

What we are doing: Wildfire Mitigation- The Dutchman Way, stewarding that property for the next generations!

How are we doing it: Using the most specialized equipment, ie. remote controlled chipper, mini feller buncher, etc. 

Why are we doing it: To make the remaining trees resistant to wildfire, drought, pests, disease, blow down, and protect the assets on the property from a spreading wildfire!

What to expect from us: 

We start early in the morning and end around 5 pm. Sometimes a little sooner or later depending on the day.

The equipment is noisy and sometimes dusty depending on the weather conditions. You might want to close house windows if you can see us working, this prevents dust inside your house.

We temporarily need to block the road to load/unload equipment, or remove trees alongside the road.

We will always give the right of way to emergency vehicles and residents along the road. Please be patient with us. We do not want to make anyone late and will let you through the area when it’s safe. 

If the gravel on the road has woody debris present, we will clean it up before concluding the project.

What we ask of you: 

Be friendly and supportive. We are trying to help the forest and prevent forest fires!

Project boundaries will be flagged clearly and will be only within the property lines of the landowner hiring us. If any misrepresentation of property lines is evident, please call Austin at 218-929-2502 as soon as possible.

Use extreme caution driving, walking, or passing by. 

Keep animals on leashes.

Wear bright clothing if you are planning on walking within sight of the equipment.

If you have questions about our service or Dutchman Tree Service, Please call Austin at 218-929-2502. The crew members on the project have to stay focused on their job, as it is one of the most dangerous occupations. Less distractions make the whole project safer!  

We sincerely thank you for your support of our crews and your neighbors who have hired us. Together we can prevent property loss from wildfires by reducing fire fuels! 

For one thing, you are going to see more pictures and video content uploaded to our YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram accounts actually showing what we do and what all goes into providing tree service in the NorthEast Region of Minnesota, Ely and Tower specifically.

We will likely be selling our old equipment and continuing to purchase new, more specialized equipment. We still need a more compact tracked chipper as well as a compact machine that is turf friendly for tight access jobs.

Hopefully we have an abundant amount of work that will enable us to continue to upgrade so we can continue to provide the best option offered in Northeast Minnesota for tree removal and fuels reduction services.

Contact us

Click the link or Google Dutchman Tree Service

Call (218) 929-2502

Email: dutchmantreeservice@gmail.com

What a trip! The whole team embarked on a journey to Charlotte, NC to attend the largest tree conference in the world. Here, we received hours and hours of valuable training related to specialized rigging and tree removal techniques as well as got to see, upclose, the state of the art equipment being offered in today’s market. We had a blast and hope to return again to stay up to date on info related to our careers.

As most of you have noticed, the neighborhood hasn’t rumbled much in the last month. That’s not because we haven’t been busy. It’s because we did away with our obnoxiously loud flatbed pickup and purchased a different one. This 2007 Dodge Ram 3500 is going to be better suited as the “crew truck” as it is equipped with the storage requirements to haul our climbing gear, saws, rigging equipment, as well as pull the trailer with machinery and still be under MNDOT CDL requirements. This truck will give our crew the means to mobilize in 1 unit, making us more efficient and effective overall. Decals will be on soon!

The white dump trailer you see is just a picture off the internet because it is still on the assembly line. We custom ordered it in white, to match our truck, as well as added some unique features that you won’t find on a typical dump trailer, again, to make us more efficient and effective.

We are excited to announce that Jessica is due in June with their second son Ripley (Rip) Allen Van Scoy. This ought to be interesting!

He has a knack for this work and it shows. We have added to his arsenal of climbing equipment as well as invested in formal education to help guide him into a primary role of Climber & Crew Leader for Dutchman Tree Service.

We are proud of you Mike! Keep up the good work and climb high!

Justin & Sam also purchased a beautiful home with 40 acres just outside of town this past summer. Between that, getting married, updating the house and doing property improvements, they both have been very busy, but happy. We are so proud of these individuals and what they are doing for each other and the community through their works and actions.

Justin just got ankle surgery from an injury that happened a couple years ago, prior to working for Dutchman. He is healing well and will be assigned to a piece of heavy machinery until he is back to 100%.

On April 1st, it will officially be 2 full years in business! We can’t thank our Team, Clients, and Community enough. It has been yet another year of substantial growth. We have added to our fleet of equipment, improved things on the business end, improved the level and quality of our client’s experience, and much more. We couldn’t have come this far and done so well without all the support from everyone mentioned and then some. Keep reading for the nitty gritty details!

Since 4/1/2021