In order to build our house in a location with nice views, good southern exposure, minimal septic construction and shelter from high prevailing winds we've sited the house nestled in the trees. Unfortunately this also means we have to cut down or move some of our lovely Norway Spruces and Scotch Pines. We are trying to not cut down any trees in the process of building our home but it is inevitable that we will, actually we had to cut one down already. One of the solutions was to hire Don Jefts/Native Landscape and Tree Service out of Scotia, NY and have him transplant some of our trees. He has a 60" tree spade and I have to say its one of the most impressive things I've seen in a long time. He came in with a very large truck with an equally large aparatus attached to it and pretty much MOVED the earth and the trees planted on it. We wanted to move about 20 of our trees but we only were able to move six. Turns out most of our trees are just to big to be moved by his machine. For a 60" tree spade the maxium diameter trunk should be no more than 6"; our trees are close to 12" in diameter. If the root ball is not big enough the tree will probably die or even tip over. We were just able to find six trees that his tree spade was able to access easily without hurting trees that wouldn't already be cut down.
Our plan at the moment is to plant another 15-20 trees (about twice as many as we'll need to down) on the sloping southeast side of our property so that we may create a bit of a privacy barrier with our neighbor and also give the property a very enclosed feel that will open itself up to the spetacular view.
If anyone knows anyone with a big tree spade in Upstate NY please let us know we don't want to cut down any trees if we can avoid it.