It is a good idea. But to accomplish it I need some bridge beams probably 40’ long. This is how wide is the gap between stable land on the top level. Some things are just not possible in the normal terms. But we have a big yard on the main side and huge vegetable garden. When I am close to 90(if!) I will not have enough power to maintain it anyway. So if I do not have enough of honey berries at that time I can ask my kids to plant some on the former vegetable garden.
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I would use 40 foot trees for the beams if you have them. My mother always told me to live like there is a tomorrow because there normally is one. Plan many years out on everything even when i believe it doesnt apply to me. I might believe i will never be 90 but i must entertain the idea my mother might be right and it is possible.
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We have couple of large pines on the shore of the gap. But first, we are not allowed by conservation agency to cut any trees 100’ from the creek. And even if we do so despite the restriction, how can you move 40’ tree that will fell across the creek but most likely not where you need it and especially not two of them in parallel? Also, pine rots pretty fast. without any protection, the bridge will be gone by the time I am 90 most likely. I do plan for tomorrow. And I realize that tomorrow(OK, after many tmorrows) I will not be able to maintain all I am maintaining now anyway, bridge or no bridge. So in my opinion you need to calculate the cost and the outcome. I will have my non-handicap bridge and use it while I am not handicap . After that - I will keep it in memory. If I still have one. 
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maybe consider contact your local D.O.T and see if you can purchase some old telephone poles. usually even though they are still sound they will swap them out. they even have the equipment to move them. maybe even place them for you. just a thought.
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One trick is to paint the logs in tar they will keep a very long time. Then nail boards to the top side. A 4 wheeler or one strong person can move logs around by rolling them and sliding them. When i was younger i could lift 700 pounds and i can move one. Many guys are bigger and stronger than me. Telephone/electric poles are very heavy and can barely be budged.
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my father used old engine oil. spruce fence posts soaked in it lasted 40+ years. sometimes he added some gas to speed up the process.
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again, great idea, but not possible at the location. To bring the posts you need a very long truck. I have raised bed garden and trees on one side of the house and trees on other side. There is enough space to get through on pick up track, but even flat bed will not get through. Also we have our well right around the access point to the other side. So any heavy equipment may damage it. Really, it is too large of a price for having that bridge.
And one more point. Sometimes the difficulty of the project is more than you want to designate to it. Going through the bureaucratic procedures, permits, or dealing with fines and courts later, looking for contractors, spending time on the fruitless visits, and this is all above paying huge money? And for what? To have a bit more convenient access to a patch of honey berries that are not even planted yet? Who knows how they will grow there?
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Thanks everybody, I think we can close the bridge topic 
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After seeing the pictures, I think the ideal tool here is a 2-stroke bushwhacker. Think weedeater, but bigger, with a circular sawblade instead of a wire spool.
Since this is a long term project, you are going to need a tool to control vegetation this year, next year, 20+ years from now, so the upfront costs (a few hundred bucks) are worthwhile.
I’ve spend countless hundreds of hours with a bushaxe, snips, and pitchfork manually clearing thickets of grape vines, poison ivy, blackberries, sweet gum, elderberry, sumac, privet, virginia creeper, and the like when I was younger. Wasted time. After my dad bought real farmer tools (a tractor with a bush hog, the aforementioned bushwhacker, etc) clearing the fence lines around the pastures went from a week-long project to an afternoon’s work.
The bushwhacker is light enough you’ll be able to carry it across and up that incline reasonably safely (well, as safe as that “ladder” will allow…) and will cut through anything you’re legally allowed to cut up there. And, since it is a sawblade rather than a flying string, you won’t get covered in bits of shredded plant material like you do when using a weedeater. Just cut stuff off at the base and around the sides or top as needed (vines…) and use a sturdy pitchfork or the billhook on a bush axe to pull the offending tangle away. And for the stuff that’s more weeds than woody vines, just leave it on the ground. It’ll rot, and if it hasn’t rotted enough by next year, move what’s left of it then. This is all more work than using a bush hog (the tool that you really ought to be using but can’t), but it’s vastly faster than doing the cutting by hand, and safer, since you’re not directly handling poison ivy.
Afterwards, once everything begins resprouting, hit the fresh new growth with several applications of glyphosate, spread out in at least week-long increments. With woody or strongly rooted plants, glyphosate is not usually a one hit kill. It will kill, but you need to be patient and reapply over time. The way roundup works is that it merely blocks the production of certain amino acids within the plant cells–the plant only dies once it runs out of those amino acids. Fast growing plants with little in the way of reserves, like grass, run out quickly. Woody plants? Takes a while. And since glyphosate just isn’t very persistent, it’s all broken down and gone before the woody plant has had time to die. Spray, wait a week or two, spray again, wait, etc. And just spray the leaves, spraying stems or the ground is a waste of money and just means more herbicide going where you don’t want it. But be relentless. If it’s the wrong plant, kill it, and don’t be afraid to kill off any of the bittersweet or poison ivy plants that are growing on the border of your site. For old vines already up in the trees, dip some cutters in concentrate and just snipe the vines. Use tools to speed things up, and be thorough the first time, so that in the future you can be lazy.
Once the main area is cleared and the plants have died, it should be pretty easy to use the weedwhacker to keep the perimeter clear. If you are consistent, you probably won’t even need to use any herbicide again. As noted plantsman and conservationist Tony Avett says: “spray chemicals in a way that lets you not have to spray chemicals again.”
Herbicides and other pesticides are a tool. When used correctly and smartly, they can prevent you from having to use them again.
Girdling was mentioned earlier in this thread. Judging by what you said about the conservation restrictions, I doubt there’s anything you are allowed to remove that is big enough to warrant girdling. And, well, girdling is a lot of work and, in my experience, marginally effective. Maybe up north y’all just have sissy trees. Sure, you can girdle a pine tree or a cedar, but sweet gum? Nope. Heck, even oaks, hollies, persimmons, etc, when still fairly young, will resprout like crazy. Cut it down and paint the stump with roundup. If you are going to do it, do it right, and do it once.
The bridge, yeah take care of it at some point, just be mindful you don’t twist an ankle or break a leg, but get yourself a safer ladder–that rotten log is going to kill you sooner or later.
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Thanks a lot! We brought home some materials yesterday for new bridge and ladder. All pressure treated ground contact, but anyway me husband is going to put concrete blocks under. Looks like the position of the project moved up a lot. I may have new access soon. For bushwhacker, is it something like this?
I just bought it, but didn’t use it. Kind of afraid that vines will wound on it. If it is not the right tool, can you give me an idea what should I look for?
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That’s essentially what I had in mind.
At that price point, the engine might be a little under-powered, but hard to say. And since you’re not working with a huge area, being under-powered probably isn’t an issue–and the lighter weight is definitely good.
It’s good it has the different attachments. For vines and sturdy weeds, you’ll want to use that metal three-toothed blade. It will throw material a bit more than the sawblade, but much less than string. And, more importantly, it should eat right through most of the stuff in your pictures.
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I have a bunch of weed challenges right now as well (mainly virginia creeper and nightshade with the added challenge of steep slopes; posted earlier in the thread about it) and I’d love to pick your brain also. Gonna come back to this in a couple weeks when I get home from working in the field and post some photos.
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You could always rent equipment for a day. It costs around $85. Something like this can knock down 3" trees and chew them up. Rental DR Field/Brush Mower walk Behind. Hit it all with a coat of crossbow and wrap it up in a day or two.
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A lot depends on the scale, your end goals, and the slope. Clarkinks makes a very good point, renting equipment is often a great option, depending on how much work needs to be done, how often or needs to be done, and how hard it is.
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Ah ok, found the comment.
How big is this area, and how sloped? If you’re going mostly orchard and bramble beds, I’d expect the easiest thing would be to keep it mowed. If it’s not too steep. Vines do not persist when cut often. What kind of mower do you have access to?
One thing that complicates your situation is the higher chance of erosion, so just spraying or ripping everything out might not be so good.
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The idea the guy had for a golf course was great. Could always use simulated grass. Just like carpet artificial grass kills everything underneath it. One thing is for sure that is one project i would only do once. @Richard yard looks like a golf course. That is a great landscaping project and irrigation system Irrigation combobulation.
I provided instructions for girdling sweet gum above and believe me, I’ve killed a bunch of them with girdling over the years. Make an 8 inch girdle when the tree has fully leafed out in the spring, chop down into the trunk to make a ring of chips sticking out from the trunk so sap bridges can’t complete.
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I’ll admit I was being a bit rhetorical. It’s not impossible, it’s just dang hard.
Even if the girdle have to be very wide and deep/roughly chopped, the stump itself might not die. Sweet gum, being the mutant cancer of the forest tree that it is, can form clonal colonies. Girdling just one stem isn’t a guarantee kill when the tree may have multiple other stems.
On the flip side, I’ve seen where cutting one gum tree and painting the stump with roundup also killed “other” gum trees growing nearby.
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My understanding is that glyphosate kills much better if applied in the fall when the plant is building reserves in the roots. So that’s when I spray perennials. On annuals it kills better on small actively growing plants. Which is when you need to kill annuals in order to prevent seed formation.
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The government program for bitter sweet calls spraying it not earlier than July 1, preferably later , just before it changes to fall color with a mix of glyphosate and triclopyr.
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