Good pix! Having lived in a hurricane zone, I've seen similar results. Too many trees too close to make a bonfire safe. Suggest look for a commercial company with heavy-duty chipper. Why pollute the air when there is all that potential mulch available?! If a chipper is too expensive, pile up the roots (cut into more-or-less manageable pieces) and heap dirt over them at least 12" deep. It'll take a few years, but they will decompose and you'll have wonderful compost. You can plant bulbs in the dirt - they will love the decomposing roots, and make the mound look like a deliberate gardening plan: a small hill of crocus, early/mid/late daffodils, hyacinth, early/mid/late tulips, allium, asiatic/aurean/oriental/formosan lilies (with some clematis as a ground cover) and fall asters would give you color from early spring to late fall with very little effort.

Josh, it's the classic variety and he's not thirsty, just had a rough start. The top 3" rotted away and left that nice scoop shape on top. I re-potted it about 2 months ago and there were no roots yet but the growth has boosted very recently so I think it's good. Those new leaves started fresh on the bare, rootless stump before it rotted.

No easy fix that I can think of as we've always had to dig them out removing as much as possible and cutting roots with a saw or ax. A pick ax also is useful in the digging. The process is a lot of work & an amazing amount of depth to be dug to get the bulky parts out, but once you're done you'll be pleased with the soil loosened by the roots. Sometimes, the stumps sprout again like with maples & digging them out is the only option. You could also cut the stumps closer to the ground & use as pedestals for pots or garden ornaments. The roots take a long, long time to decompose & might cause frustration when digging & planting. In this past year we've dug out a douglas fir 12" diameter, left 2 cherry tree stumps, & are working on a huge maple stump. The maple stump is surrounded by a 6' diameter pit & we're still not close to getting the bulk of it out as it grows at an angle & is still 2' diameter. Good luck!

"Be careful with triclopyr, it has the potential to damage adjacent plants (via soil uptake)." Good point. Or if you use enough of the ester form in certain kinds of weather, via vaporization. (or in some cases, even enough of the amine. But it is safer in this regard than the ester) "triclopyr is more effective on woodies than is glyphosate." I don't think as a blanket statement, that's entirely true. It could be partly true. Triclopyr seems to kill faster leading people to believe it's better. It might have a little more penetration power in certain cases but you could certainly overcome that with how you formulate the mix. I have killed large poison ivy vines with _either_ glyphosate, 3 way, OR triclopyr. So depending on the approach you take with the stump/shoots/etc. glyphosate will work just as well and be cheaper on a per unit product basis. For my preferred "cut, drill and fill" method, glyphosate + surfactant always works. For the treatment of Ailanthus, specifically, yes some "academic"/"technical" sources do claim triclopyr is better than glyphosate, but right here we've had people report generic roundup worked for large scale Ailanthus control. If I had one or two Ailanthus, I'd just use glyphosate if that was the cheapest to buy, which it probably is in the required concentration. For a large number, yes I would go with the proven technique of tcp ester in a non-polar carrier. I am almost sure the prevention of suckers has more to do with the technique than the plant killing chemical used. (See other posts Shaxhome and I made: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1649416/how-to-kill-ailanthus-aka-tree-of-heaven) Ultimately, it probably is true that both triclopyr and imazapyr have more raw plant killing power than glyphosate, but they also have more attendant risks. Especially the latter. But glyphosate has plenty of activity if you apply it correctly, as Shaxhome's experience showed!