The Weed Wrench is an all-metal tool originally designed to pull broom plants in California. It is very effective at pulling small to large trees out of the ground, even out of dry, hard soils. It has a set of jaws which clamp strongly onto the stem, and let you lever the plant out of the ground. Remember that when you yank (er, wrench) plants out of the ground you can disturb the soil and encourage new weeds to sprout, so monitor your sites after treatment. Four models are made (Heavy, Medium, Light, and Mini), and I have used them all except for the Light model. They work great. The only problem with them is that they are heavy and also pretty expensive. However, they are sturdy, will last, and even if you do figure out how to damage them they can be repaired.

I cannot say enough good things about weed wrenches. I love 'em. Volunteers love 'em. You can pull really big plants out of the ground.

Of course, some plants have deep roots that are not very sturdy. If you use the Weed Wrench (or the Root Talon) on these plants, you will just snap the root below-ground. If the plant can resprout from the roots, you may be wasting your time.