Slashbuster® Equipment in the News

"SLASHBUSTER"® HD 482 featured on Science Channel's new series "Heavy Metal Taskforce"

The Science Channel's premiere episode of "Heavy Metal Taskforce" features a "SLASHBUSTER"® brush cutter used in a critical flood control project on the Gulf Coast:

"Forget sending in chainsaws, that would take years and the hurricane season is just weeks away. There are over six million residents on the Gulf Coast and there is only one machine that can save them - Slashbuster."

You can no longer view the first three minutes of the 20 minute "SLASHBUSTER"® brush cutter segment at discovery.com, but the full video (episode 1 season 1) can be viewed at amazon.com, free if you have a Prime membership.

In Louisiana, the Iberia Parish Public Works Department has been filmed for an upcoming Science Channel program called "Heavy Metal Task Force". The series "will feature some of the most amazing machines on the planet and their specialist crews as they on engineering challenges around the world."

The Iberia Parish uses a newly acquired "SLASHBUSTER"® HD 482 brush cutter to manage encroaching vegetation on 830 miles of drainages as part of their flood control project.

From the The Daily Iberian newspaper:

"If a fallen tree was reported or thick vegetation was obstructing drainage in Iberia Parish three months ago, it would have taken five or six Public Works employees about a week to clear the mess with chainsaws.
That was before the Slashbuster."

The Mountain Mail newspaper in New Mexico reports that the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge was successful with their Salt Cedar removal project which used a Slashbuster® brush cutter to remove dense thickets of the invasive Salt Cedar species as part of a revegetation plan.

That same Slashbuster unit was earlier used in the Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge.to clear hundreds of acres of Juniper

The Joint Fire Science Program releases results from research on the response of wildland fire to forest fuels treatments. Their conclusion: thinning the forest is not enough to reduce the threat of wildland fire and the leftover slash and surface fuels must be treated.

"...it is critical that the resultant slash from (mechanical thinning) be treated within a year or two. Without slash treatment, mechanical thinning may increase potential wildfire severity." - p. 25

The OSU College of Forestry publishes a fact sheet entitled: Reducing Hazardous Fuels on Woodland Properties: Mechanical Fuels Reduction that details some of the benefits of "SLASHBUSTER"® equipment over other designs:

"The articulating arm allows slashbusters to process material that is higher off the ground than horizontal-shaft machines,
literally grinding standing trees down to stumps. The arm also allows thinning of selected vegetation and trees without damaging adjacent desirable vegetation. "

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's Access & Habitat Board find the "SLASHBUSTER"® an effective tool for big game forage restoration in wildfire dependent ecosystems.

"The "SLASHBUSTER"® head chops the decadent ceanothus right down to the ground and the operators are skilled enough to work around small trees that will eventually become valuable for both timber and wildlife"

The Union Democrat publishes an article on GH Ranch's 2,600 acre forest fuels reduction contract.

Located in the Stanislaus National Forest's Groveland Ranger District, the contract is part of the Granite Stewardship Project. This five-year pilot project will perform multiple resource management activities for demonstrating enhanced ecosystem health and water quality, and will significantly reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire in the Granite Project Area.

The Emerald People's Utility District's "SLASHBUSTER"® XL 480S is featured in Transmission and Distribution World Magazine, Jun 04.

"EPUD's annual line clearing budget is $1.5 million, which is $500,000 less than before it purchased the new cutter machine. Crew sizes are smaller, overtime is down and EPUD is ahead of schedule for the first time in clearing ROW."

The Medford Mail Tribune publishes an article on the forest fuels reduction cost-share work Jack Brown and Son Contracting is doing with local land owners and the Bureau of Land Management and the Oregon Department of Forestry.

"In response to President George W. Bush's forest health initiative..."<br>GH Ranch and associates presented the following brochure at a recent wildfire conference. Entitled: "Slashbusting® For Forest Fuels Reduction" (PDF, 250k), the brochure details methods and costs of "SLASHBUSTER"® treatments for thinning, wildland urban interface clearing and contingency fire line building.

"SLASHBUSTER"® brush cutter attachments are exhibited at the Oregon Logging Conference in Eugene, Oregon.

The Hometown Press of Winnie, Texas reports on two new "SLASHBUSTER"® equipment purchases by the Trinity Bay Conservation District. The conservation district is deploying them for vegetation management in and around drainages as a means to increase water flow rates and thus decrease the likelihood of flooding.

To read the article in a new window,
(PDF format, 270k)

Congratulations to Jack Brown and Son Contracting, Inc. for their wildfire risk reduction success story article in the November/December 2002 issue of Timber West magazine.