If you own acreage, you know how quickly brush, small trees, and invasive species can take over. When it comes time to reclaim that space, most landowners assume they need to bring in a bulldozer, scrape the earth bare, and light a massive bonfire.
But I can tell you there is a much better, more cost-effective way: forestry mulching.
Using a forestry mulching attachment on a tracked skid steer, we can clear overgrown land without the mess, the mud, or the massive haul-off fees. Here is why this method beats the old-school ways of clearing land, how it can save you money, and what you need to know before you hire a contractor.
Why Forestry Mulching Beats Bulldozing and Burning
The traditional method of bulldozing brush into giant piles causes a lot of hidden problems. First, it disturbs massive amounts of dirt. In areas that get a lot of rain, scraping the topsoil leaves the ground completely bare, turning your property into an undrivable mud pit.
Second, you have to deal with the piles. You either have to pay expensive fees to have the debris hauled off-site, or you have to burn it. If you choose to burn, you are at the mercy of "burn season," which usually happens later in the year. That means the landowner has to take over the burn permit, wait months, and take on the liability of managing a massive fire themselves.
Forestry mulching solves all of this by processing the brush exactly where it stands. Instead of scraping the soil, the mulcher grinds the brush and small trees down to the ground, leaving a protective layer of natural mulch behind. This method:
Requires zero hauling off-site.
Requires zero burning or burn permits.
Increases the quality of the topsoil as the mulch breaks down.
Mitigates erosion, preventing your land from washing away in the rain.
A Real-World Case Study: Saving a Client Over $20,000
To put the cost savings into perspective, let’s look at a job I did last year.
A client needed 9 acres cleared for a new development. They had received a quote from another contractor for $65,000 to clear the brush and trees. Digging into that quote, $32,000 of it was just for piling up the brush—and it didn't even include the cost to haul it away!
By bringing in our tracked skid steer and mulching all the brush and small trees in place, I was able to cut their overall project costs by 42%. The client got their land cleared beautifully, with zero haul-off fees and zero burn piles left behind to manage.
How to Prepare Your Land for Clearing
While tracked skid steers are incredibly efficient, they do have enemies: uneven terrain, massive downed logs, and hidden obstacles.
The biggest mistake landowners make before hiring a clearing contractor is forgetting what was on the ground before the brush took over. Hidden rocks, old metal debris, and chunks of concrete can severely damage the mulching attachment, slowing down the project and driving up costs.
Pro Tip: Before your contractor arrives, walk the property. If you know of any old junk piles, large rocks, or concrete hidden in the overgrowth, mark them clearly with flags or bright paint so the operator can safely navigate around them.
Will the Brush Grow Back?
Once your land is beautifully mulched and cleared, what should you expect long-term? I’ll give you the honest truth: All brush grows back.
Just look at the clearing done every year on the sides of highways. The state cuts it, sprays it with chemicals, and it still grows back. However, forestry mulching gives you a massive head start.
Because we grind the brush in place, it creates a thick layer of mulch across the forest floor. This heavy mulch bed naturally suppresses weeds and significantly slows down the regrowth of the brush.
The Best Way to Maintain Your Cleared Land: Once the initial heavy clearing is done, maintenance is easy. To keep the land open, you just need to:
Run a mower or a light mulcher over the property once a year.
Alternatively, allow livestock or animals to graze the land down once a year.
By staying on top of it annually, you'll never have to pay for heavy land clearing on that acreage again.
