Land Clearing and Forestry Mulching in Hudson, OH: Lot, Brush and Honeysuckle Clearing

Land clearing in Hudson is mostly selective clearing: take the honeysuckle, buckthorn and dead ash, leave the beech and oak the tree ordinance protects. Our land clearing service in Hudson also covers residential land clearing for a house pad, brush clearing on an overgrown ravine edge, commercial land clearing services on SR 91, and full site clearing to dirt where the city permit allows. Kettering Brush & Land provides land clearing with insured crews on residential and commercial properties, and the land clearing process begins with the city tree permit, not the mulcher.

Tree removal on dead ash is its own line; the tops drop before the trunk is touched. Stump grinding is $4 an inch, $150 minimum per stump, and ten or more we grind by the day. Excavation is $160 an hour. Cleanup is the last hour of every project; we leave the site raked under the trees you kept. No concrete, no wells, no septic, no house demolition.

Forestry mulching is a land clearing method that uses specialized equipment to grind trees, brush and other vegetation into mulch where they stand, and under a protected beech it is the one method that leaves trunk and roots alone. Honeysuckle and brush removal near Hudson runs $1,200 to 2,000 an acre by density; beech-maple understory with dead ash runs $1,800 to 2,600. The 2 to 4 inch mulch layer holds the slope.

Beech woods look expensive and clear cheap. Honeysuckle is the other way around. It resprouts from the crown, so a bush hog alone just thickens it, and it will overgrow a ravine edge in three summers. The mulcher grinds crown and stem in one pass; in areas with dense buckthorn we remove brush in two passes. On our jobs in Summit County the ravines set the season: hemlock slopes are worked from the top on frozen ground and left alone in April when the clay slides.

Hudson issues its own permits and is missing from the Census Building Permits Survey places file, so the county count, 453 single-family permits in 2025 with 298 in the townships, is the proxy. Lot clearing for a house pad is one skid steer day on a half-acre, $2,500, or $1,700 flat on a quarter-acre infill lot; the tree permit decides which stems come out. Frozen ground carries no surcharge; March and April mean a day for mats or a later date.

Site preparation follows: grubbing, rough grading, a swale. I learned frost depth building pads on I-71, 32 to 36 inches, and I learned what a footing poured into a thaw does by May. Site work on our side ends before the first form is set. The same crews handle commercial development on commercial sites along SR 8, with a county SWCD erosion plan over 1 acre. Property owners who send photos in October get January dates.

Land clearing costs in Hudson start at $2,500 for a skid steer day plus transport from Delaware, about 115 miles. The number is in writing before a machine is loaded.

• Skid steer mulcher day: $2,500, transport added, stems to 8 inches.
• 300-hp mulcher day: $3,900 plus transport, stems to 12 inches.
• Per acre, honeysuckle and brush: $1,200 to 2,000. Beech-maple understory with dead ash: $1,800 to 2,600.
• Per acre to dirt with stumps, where the permit allows: $2,800 to 5,000. Large acreage clearing runs by the day.
• Stump grinding: $4 an inch, $150 minimum a stump. Grubbing, grading and site prep: $160 an hour.
• Hauling: $600 to 1,100 per 10-yard load. Most lots here are mulched in place.

The bill depends on the size of the tract and the month; the same acre prices differently depending on site access in January and April. Acreage and photos to (740) 729-8625 or the form, and the budget range reaches your email before the end of the day.

Hudson has a city tree ordinance, so clearing inside the city starts with a tree permit, and we walk the lot with the city's list before any stem is cut. No open burning of land-clearing brush inside city limits under Ohio EPA rule OAC 3745-19; in Boston or Northfield Center township the pile must sit 1,000 feet from a neighbor's house with written notice to Ohio EPA, and ODNR bans daytime burning in spring and fall. Mulch or haul. Outside the city a pad takes Summit County Building Standards and township zoning.

The ravines drain to the Cuyahoga, USACE Buffalo District water, with the Cuyahoga Valley National Park boundary on the west. Wet flats can be isolated wetlands; clearing them is allowed, filling them takes an Ohio EPA isolated wetland permit, Level 1 up to half an acre, which we flag and file with you after we walk the property. Trees over 3 inches on a tract over 1 acre are cut October 1 to March 31 for the Indiana bat. Drainage on the flats means unmarked old tile; OUPS 811 before grubbing, and we probe for tile or a gas pipeline.

Kettering Brush & Land is a land clearing company serving Hudson, OH and the surrounding area from Delaware: Stow, Twinsburg, Richfield and Peninsula, the rest of Summit County, and the north half of the Akron metro. We run land clearing services across the Akron area and services throughout northeast Ohio on one trailer, so two days in the Hudson area cost less per acre than one. Site conditions change fast: Stow and Twinsburg are flatter clay, Richfield is ravine, Peninsula is park edge.

Overgrown land under good trees is the easiest lot to improve, and the cheapest way to clear land here is a frozen January with the tree permit in hand. Photos through the form, or the acreage by phone at (740) 729-8625. I email you a budget range and two dates before the end of the day. I do not charge for the on-site visit.