What Is Brush Clearing?

Plenty of land in this country just sits, undeveloped and unusable. It would be perfectly good land for building, farming, or even just for planting a grove of trees or other plant life, except that it’s become completely covered in brush and other debris. If you have land that has become cluttered in this way, you may want to reclaim it and put it to its fullest possible use.

To do this, you’ll have to begin with brush clearing. Depending upon the size of the property and how much brush and debris have accumulated there, this can either be a simple project or a major one requiring the assistance of a professional with specialized equipment.

Read on for information on what brush clearing is and how to go about doing it on your property:

What’s Involved

Essentially, brush clearing is the removal of vegetation and other obstacles from a plot of land. If a property hasn’t seen any use in a long time, it will often become overgrown with local weeds, grasses, and even groupings of small trees. There may also be tree stumps, large rocks, and other large obstacles taking up space in the land.

Removing all this vegetation and other obstacles can be a major project, often requiring specialized equipment. For this reason, most people hire professionals to do brush clearing for them. But it’s also possible to do the job yourself, provided you have the time, patience, and access to the necessary machinery.

See What You’re Dealing With

The scale of a brush-clearing project can vary wildly, depending upon exactly what needs to be removed from your property. For example, if you’re simply going to be clearing away plant matter and not much else, the job will be easier than if you have to remove tree stumps and large rocks.

Before beginning any brush clearing project, you’ll want to survey the area and see exactly what you need to clear away. Large obstacles, such as boulders, will most likely require specialized equipment to remove, and therefore necessitate the services of a professional. You may also decide that you don’t want to remove everything. For example, maybe there are some trees on the property that you want to keep. If so, you’ll have to come up with a plan to work around them.

Get Your Paperwork in Order

In many cases, it’s not legal to simply start removing debris from a plot of land without first securing a permit. This can hold true even if the land is legally yours, due to factors such as needing to bring in dumpsters or clearing away trees. So it pays to do a little research before beginning a brush-clearing project. The last thing you want is to deal with a citation or a big fine from the local government.

Research your local zoning laws to find out what’s required. If you discover that you do need a permit, it will most likely come with a fee attached. How much the fee costs depends upon your area, but it can be as high as $200. Note that if you hire a professional contractor, such as Mr. Tree, to perform your brush clearing for you, they’ll often do the work of securing the permit for you as well.

Make Sure You Have the Right Equipment

For some smaller brush-clearing projects, you may just be able to put on a pair of gardening gloves and walk around the property yanking out weeds. However, most projects are going to be a good deal more complicated than that. This is because some of the larger obstacles, such as tree stumps and boulders, require specialized equipment to remove.

Before beginning your brush clearing, make sure you have an inventory of everything you might need to get the job done. Safety equipment is key: a long-sleeved shirt and long pants, a heavy-duty pair of gloves, a helmet, and eye protection are all necessary, maybe even ear protection. A variety of cutting tools are also required: a pruner for trimming branches, a weed whacker, and some type of saw should all be made available. For tree stump removal, you’ll need a stump grinder. You may also want a mulcher to grind up all the plant matter and allow it to turn into fertile soil.

Most of the equipment you need can be purchased at a local hardware store. Some larger and more specialized pieces of machinery, such as the stump grinder, will most likely need to be rented.

Start with the Larger Obstacles

You’ll want to start the process by removing the largest obstacles first. Tree stumps should be ground away with the stump grinder. The remains can be put into trash bags or simply allowed to decompose into new soil. Large boulders may need to be split into smaller parts that can be carried away.

If there are small trees on the property, you may be able to cut them down yourself. However, removing larger trees should always be performed by a trained professional. Contact Mr. Tree and ask for professional assistance if there are any trees large enough to require a ladder to climb into.

Then Move On to the Smaller Ones

The smaller vegetation can be a simpler, albeit more tedious, task to remove. You can cut away shrubs using your pruning shears and remove weeds and grasses using your weed whacker. Some plants you can simply pull out by hand, bit by bit. Make sure that if there are any smaller rocks hidden among the plant matter, you remove them and carry them off of the property in a wheelbarrow. These small rocks can interfere with your mulcher should you choose to use it.

Finally, once you’ve removed all of the large obstacles and pulled away most of the smaller ones, you can drive over the plot with a mulcher. This will grind up all the plant matter, which will them decompose into healthy soil you can now freely plant your new garden or grove of trees upon.