It does seem like having trees makes the bids more uncertain. But it seems like the trees fall over on there own when they to big. I'm guessing because of the rocks they'll come out pretty easy besause the roots are shallow.
I'm getting a land survey done next week to find out where the farm line ends. Then I'll get a couple of more bids and ideas on how each contractor would build it.
I had a lot of old trees where my pond is now. I split the timber sales with the guys that helped me clear it. We got $12,000 for the timber. He kept half, and I turned around and gave him the other half for the dozer work, pulling the sheeps foot roller, and the track hoe. If you have a lot of older trees including white oak and or walnut. I'd get a professional forester to come in and look at it. They will do the survey and set up bids for the timber, and take a percentage. We only had a few really good white oaks, and no walnuts, so I didn't worry about it. Timber prices were up at the time, I would suspect they still are.
The stumps were hard to get out of the ground. We had a lot of hickory which went deep. They had to dig them out. Way to many to put in the pond basin, so we buried them. (Extra cost on dozer time..) but the wife wanted it to look cleaner.
