If you’re a tree this is the last piece of heavy equipment you want to see. You can’t tell from the photo but there is a giant saw blade at the bottom the attachment that can slice through a tree in seconds. The fingers in the middle allow the operator to grab the tree and control the fall. Death comes quickly.
If you were a fan of the Discovery show Swamp Loggers this Tiger Cat should seem familar.
After the tree is felled the Deere excavator picks up the remains while the “hydro ax” pulverizes any stumps and smaller wooded material.
Some of the wood is trucked off site intact but the majority of material will be fed into this giant chipper. The Morbark 30/36 has a hydraulic arm to help feed a steady supply of “biomas” into its 83″ disc, most likely an impressive stat. A neat video can be found here.
All of this equipment was seen working near the outskirts of the Syracuse International Airport to deforest land close to the runways per FAA regulations.