Land Clearing and Forestry Mulching in Central Ohio: Honeysuckle Woodlots and Farm Lots from Delaware to Lancaster

Seven jobs run out of Delaware, and the first is the one most people need: honeysuckle out of a woodlot. Professional land clearing of understory, fencerows and pasture from $1,200 an acre. Lot clearing for a new house from $1,700 flat. Brush clearing of invasive brush on fence lines. Stump grinding at $4 per inch. Tree clearing and tree removal of dead ash inside the bat window. Site preparation for a pad or driveway at $160 an hour. Forestry mulching is the second service and does most of the first. We do not pour footers or dig septic. Forestry mulching services or stumps: pick the service and send photos.

Honeysuckle is the only thing in Ohio that grows in February. Amur honeysuckle lines every woodlot edge from Marysville to Lancaster. Let an old field overgrow along US 33 and callery pear owns it in six years. Multiflora rose and autumn olive hold the old pasture in Madison and Union. Dead ash stands in every woodlot. Those invasive species set the price.

Forestry mulchers grind brush, every sapling and small trees where they stand. The mulch layer protects the soil and slows regrowth. Honeysuckle resprouts from the crown, so a bush hog that can mow it cannot kill it; we mulch the crown to the dirt. Callery pear gets a cut-stump treatment within minutes or the overgrowth comes back thicker. Dead wood tops drop first, so an ash woodlot runs slower. Professional forestry mulching here is $1,200 to 2,600 an acre.

Delaware County issued 1,637 single-family permits in 2025, 1,119 in the townships, by the Census Building Permits Survey. Franklin 1,829, Union 595, Madison 404, Fairfield 389, Licking 153. That is the new home construction we clear for, infill in Delaware and Powell to township acres in Union. Quarter-acre infill, $1,700 flat. Half-acre, one day, $2,500. Residential land clearing to dirt with stumps out, $2,800 to 5,000 an acre. Clearing for residential pads needs 32 to 36 inches of frost depth and no stump pockets under the slab; I built pads along I-71 for fourteen years.

Farm woodlots and fencerows turning into subdivisions is the Central Ohio story. Intel in Jersey Township pulls acreage buyers out past New Albany. Honda's Marysville retooling does the same along US 33. Private landowners who kept a 10-acre woodlot for forty years now sit next to a plat, and the honeysuckle under it is the first call. Land clearing near Columbus is that call. North Central Ohio, Knox and Morrow, falls inside the same circle on the same Crosby clay. Utility companies and builders get the same sheet as a landowner. Frozen, mud or dust.

December through February is the season here. Frozen ground carries the 300-hp mulcher without a rut, the Indiana bat window is open, and there is no mud surcharge. March and April are mud: Kokomo flats hold standing water and a dozer sinks to the axle. Mud season adds a day or we wait. June through September is dust and hard clay. Farm fields open after harvest and close at planting. Trees over 3 inches on tracts over an acre get cut October 1 to March 31 unless a USFWS survey clears the site. Tile lines run 30 inches down; we find them with the bucket.

Clearing here costs $1,200 to 5,000 an acre, transport included from Delaware. Prices are based on acreage, density and dead ash.

• Skid steer forestry mulcher, stems to 8 inches: $2,500 a day, transport included.
• 300-hp mulcher, stems to 12 inches: $3,900 a day plus transport.
• Honeysuckle and dense brush: $1,200 to 2,000 an acre. Woodlot understory with dead ash: $1,800 to 2,600.
• Full clearing to dirt, stumps out: $2,800 to 5,000 an acre.
• Stumps: $4 per inch, $150 minimum. Grubbing: $160 an hour. Haul-off and cleanup: $600 to 1,100 a load. March and April add a day or we wait.

Three jobs from the log. Three acres of honeysuckle woodlot outside Sunbury: a day and a half on the skid steer, $3,800. A half-acre lot in Plain City, on the Madison and Union line: one day, $2,500. Fifteen acres of fencerow and pasture in Knox County: three days on the big mulcher, $11,700 plus transport. Call (740) 729-8625 or send the form with photos. I email a budget range and two dates before the end of the day.

Hauling or burning gets decided by the Ohio EPA before you decide it. No open burning inside corporation limits: Columbus, Delaware, Lancaster and every village. Outside them, land-clearing waste burns only 1,000 feet from a neighbor's house with written notice, and ODNR bans daytime burning March to May and October to November. Most lots are mulch or haul. Kokomo wet flats carry isolated wetland permits, Level 1 up to half an acre; fill triggers it, not clearing. Streams go to the USACE Huntington District. An acre of disturbance for a pad brings the NPDES plan and the county SWCD. Township zoning needs no permit to clear acreage; a pad needs the county building permit and a zoning certificate. OUPS 811, 48 hours ahead.

Six county land pages, each with its own soil and permit desk. Franklin: Columbus, Grove City, Hilliard. Delaware: Delaware, Powell, Sunbury. Union: Marysville, Plain City. Licking: Pataskala, Johnstown. Fairfield: Lancaster, Pickerington, Canal Winchester. Madison: London. Land clearing in Columbus follows the city tree preservation rules on development sites; the townships do not. Commercial projects and a half-acre lot get the same crew.