The BRONTOSAURUS: 10-Ton "Weedeater" Arrives in Time for Fire Season

by Jim Evans

There is an old joke that goes like this: A man is walking his short, stubby yellow dog one day when he notices the neighborhood bully coming toward him walking his vicious pit bull.

The big bully confronts the man and threatens him menacingly, "Move out of the way, little man, or my dog will tear your dog to pieces!"

Suddenly the short, stubby yellow dog lunges toward the pit bull and bites off its head.

"What kind of dog is that?" cries the frightened bully.

"Well," replies the man, "before I cut off his tail and painted him yellow, he was an alligator!"

Ramona resident Kevin Pender doesn’t exactly have an alligator at his disposal, but he does have what he calls his "10-Ton Rough Terrain Weedeater" — a big yellow mower head mounted on a Cat 307 Excavator. It takes a big bite out of brush and trees up to 6 inches in diameter and grinds them into a fine mulch.

Named after a large herbivorous dinosaur, the Brontosaurus 2.9, as it is officially called, is a rugged machine with a voracious appetite for clearing small trees and dense undergrowth.

"It sure beats just cutting," Pender said, "because otherwise you would just have a big pile of brush and branch cuttings that are still combustible and have to be hauled away."

Manufactured by John Brown & Sons of Wayne, N.H., and built almost entirely by hand, it is the first
piece of real forest-clearing machinery to come to California, according to Pender.

Pender, an engineering con-tractor by trade, successfully fought to save his home during the Cedar Fire last year by clearing a wide swath around his 20-acre property with a bulldozer — but he is not taking any chances this year.

"They cancelled my insurance last year just before the fire, so I cleared the land right down to the dirt to create a fire barrier. But my new ‘Weedeater’ is more environmentally correct, because it leaves the roots intact."

Pender says his lean machine can clear a section of dense brush and undergrowth 10 feet by 50 feet by 5 feet in about 31 minutes or "about an acre a day."

"It’s a lot faster — and in most cases less expensive — than trying to do it by hand," he said.

The "Weedeater" works effectively on virtually all kinds of terrain, although extremely rocky terrain can sometimes present a problem, because the brush must be cut at a higher level to avoid damaging the machine or dulling the blades, Pender said.

The "Weedeater" is headed for Julian in the next few weeks, where Pender will work with local residents to help clear some dense brush and smaller trees in anticipation of the already-arrived fire season.

"We’ll be ready this year," Pender said. "When we get done, there won’t be anything left but mulch."

For more information about the "Weedeater," call (760) 789-3112 and watch for Pender’s big yellow alligator coming down the road.