Land clearing and mulching work and crews
Land clearing takes woods and brush down to open ground. Crews cut and haul the timber, grub out stumps and roots, or run a mulching head that grinds it all in place. Lot clearing gets building sites ready for the excavator, and easement mulching keeps pipeline, power and fiber routes open.
Also searched as: forestry mulcher operator, land clearing contractor, clearing crew, brush cutting crew, right-of-way clearing crew.
No open land clearing and mulching work or crews yet. Pick a specialty to find or post it.
Open land clearing and mulching work
New work shows up here as soon as it's posted. List your crew and GCs looking for this trade can find you in the meantime.
List your crewWhat agencies pay per unit: unit prices from DOT bid data
Before you dig: 811 rules by state
Land clearing and mulching crews
Put your crew in front of the GCs and primes who post here. Trades, states, crew size, equipment. Free.
Be the firstKinds of land clearing and mulching work
Posts and crew profiles can name one or more of these. One that names none covers the whole trade.
- Clearing and grubbing
- Forestry mulching
- Right-of-way and easement mulching
- Lot clearing for building
- Brush mowing
Who hires for this
Site contractors and builders post lot clearing ahead of their dig. Utilities, pipeline contractors and fiber primes post right-of-way and easement work, and developers, towns and landowners post larger clearing and brush mowing.
What they ask for
- Forestry mulcher, or an excavator or skid steer with a mulching head
- A plan for stumps: grind them, grub them out or haul them off
- Trucks or a hauler for logs, stumps and debris
- Respect for the limits of disturbance and any trees marked to save
- Silt fence and other erosion controls in before clearing, when the plan calls for them
- Certificate of insurance and workers comp
How to land more of it
- List your mulcher, the machine it runs on and the kind of ground it can work. Wet, steep and rocky sites weed out a lot of crews.
- Say what you do with the wood. Mulch in place, chip and haul, and cut and sell logs are different jobs at different prices.
- Walk the site before you price it. Access, slope and what is under the brush change everything in clearing.
- Site contractors want the lot clear the day their excavator shows up. Hit that handoff and you get the next lot.
Common questions
Forestry mulching or cut and grub?
Mulching grinds trees and brush in place and leaves a mat of chips that holds the soil, but stumps usually stay at or near grade. Ground that is getting a foundation, driveway or utility trench normally needs the stumps and roots grubbed out and the topsoil stripped. Ask the site contractor what they expect before you price it.
Do I need a permit to clear land?
Often the owner or developer holds it, but clearing can need a town tree removal permit, a soil erosion and sediment control plan, or wetland buffer approvals depending on the site. Some permits also limit when trees can be cut to protect wildlife. Read the conditions and check your state's rules before you start, because clearing past the line is an expensive mistake.
Can I mulch power line right-of-way?
Utilities hire vegetation management contractors for their corridors and set their own training and clearance rules. Cutting anything that could fall into or reach an energized line is work for qualified line-clearance crews only. If your crew is not one, say so, and stick to work well away from the lines.
How do I find clearing and mulching subcontracts?
Post a crew profile on the TrackOver board with your machines, what you do with the wood and the area you cover. Site contractors, utilities and developers posting clearing work can see who is already set up for it.
Related trades: Excavation and site work · Demolition · Trucking and hauling · Septic installation
TrackOver keeps the photos, hours, daily logs, and invoice on the job so your closeout is done when the work is. Free to start.