Best way to clear thick brambles for trails in the woods?

[sketchyluke]

Title says it all really. I'm reviving our old trails but a lot of the old lines are a good 4-5ft under brambles after a decade of inactivity.

It's a one man building operation at the moment so any advise on how best to get rid of them and keep them gone would be great.

[LukeTom]

been forever since I have logged onto this site, but I do have some experience in brambles.

If the brambles are really thick, they will need to be broken up with a spade/long stick to a more manageable size. Generally under the new green growth it is just dead bramble. Once you have hit them down to about waist/knee height, you can pile them up and burn them where they are, or you can just move them to the side, they rot down fairly quickly.

Depending on how much time/effort you want to spend, you can either dig out the roots if they are really big, or just cover them with a tarp, which should kill them eventually.

But if you are at the trails often, it is quite easy to just dig up any roots which are sprouting, and they should be gone reasonably quickly.

[a.k.]

Long reach hedge trimmers are ideal.  You should be able to get a set on weekend hire for about £25 to £30. Chop the stems up to between 6 or 12 inches in length for easy removal to a suitable area/burn site.  A spray onto the remaining clump with a general herbicide will kill the root ball easily enough.