burning laurel

I've been clearing the mountain laurel out from our woods. We have around six acres of land and I'd say that the great majority of it is taken up by thick patches of mountain laurel that doesn't allow you to even walk through the woods. You would have to literally crawl through the woods on your hands and knees to be able to get through the woods in most areas. I'm using an old Husky chainsaw that I got from Adam. The stupid saw throws the chain all the time so it's slow progress. I need to invest in a decent chain saw.

Apparently when they clearcut this part of the United States, the laurel was the first thing to grow back and it saved the land from being errored away. However, there were bad floods during that period of time and a lot of land slides. It's hard to imagine the area where I live to have been clear cut, but one of the old timers around here that is my neighbor has described the steam trains coming in on my land to pick up all the timber. He said the trees were massive in this area. That means that all the trees that are decent size are all new growth. Well, the laurel chokes all the life out of the woods and engulf most of the healthy trees so I've been clearing it out. Most people around here warn about burning the laurel, but Brandon has lived here his entire life, has burned his fair share of it, and he says just to get the fire hot and let it burn. Of course if you look it up on the internet, you'll get a million experts that tell you one thing or another. 

Jill has always liked the laurel because it stays green through winter, but I think she is finally on board with getting rid of it now that she can walk through the front woods. She even came out to help me burn one of the piles the other day. Brandon came by to assist as well. We had a healthy fire burning. 

There's more to burn though...