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

Land clearing in Lancaster is acreage work: the city issued six house permits in 2025, so the jobs are in the townships. Kettering Brush & Land provides land clearing on pasture gone to rose, on wooded knobs opened for a house site, and on commercial sites along US 33, where commercial development wants dirt. Residential land clearing and commercial land clearing services share crews. Brush removal, tree removal, stump grinding, cleanup, rough grading, all ours. Excavation, concrete and septic I refer out. Property clearing for a cabin lot and land improvement on CAUV pasture, same mulchers. Our insured crews have cleared honeysuckle since 2017; I spent 14 years building pads along I-71 before that.

Forestry mulching is a land clearing method that uses specialized equipment to grind trees, brush and vegetation into mulch where they stand, and on a sandstone slope it is the only method that leaves topsoil. Stems to 8 inches: the skid steer mulcher, $2,500 a day. Brush clearing runs $1,200 to 2,000 an acre; honeysuckle under oak with dead ash, $1,800 to 2,600. Honeysuckle and multiflora rose resprout from the crown, so we grind the crown and leave a 3-inch mulch mat. On the knobs rock sits a foot down, so stumps get ground, not grubbed, $4 an inch. Selective clearing keeps the white oak; we remove brush and the ash that EAB left standing. Frozen ground is when the bottoms carry a machine. The knobs carry one most of the year. The 15-acre pasture reclaim we did on a farm in Knox County, same rose, ran three days with the big mulcher, $11,700 plus transport.

Lancaster issued 6 single-family permits in 2025 in the Census Building Permits Survey, nearly all infill, while Fairfield County issued 389. The acreage lots are in Berne and Hocking Township. Lot clearing is a half-acre in one skid steer day, $2,500, or a quarter-acre infill lot inside the city at $1,700 flat. Site prep on till is site clearing to dirt, stumps out, rough grade; on rock, stumps ground flush, and the site work stops there. Site preparation past 1 acre brings in the Ohio EPA construction permit and the Fairfield SWCD. On a lot in Carroll last fall the drainage tile ran at 32 inches; on a knob lot in Amanda there was no tile, only rock. Send the plat.

Land clearing costs in Lancaster run $1,200 an acre for light honeysuckle to $5,000 an acre for a lot to dirt. It depends on the size of the stems and whether you are on till or rock.

• Skid steer mulcher, stems to 8 inches: $2,500 a day, transport included within 60 miles of Delaware.
• 300-hp mulcher, stems to 12 inches: $3,900 a day plus transport.
• Honeysuckle, rose and brush: $1,200 to 2,000 an acre by density.
• Woodlot understory with dead ash: $1,800 to 2,600 an acre.
• To dirt, stumps out: $2,800 to 5,000 an acre.
• Stump grinding: $4 an inch, $150 minimum per stump. Ten or more, we grind by the day.
• Excavator grubbing: $160 an hour. Haul-off: $600 to 1,100 per 10-yard load.

Frozen ground carries no mud surcharge, December through February. March and April in the bottoms add a day or we wait, said before the price on every project. Large acreage clearing drops the rate: 3 acres of honeysuckle in Sunbury ran $3,800, and 15 acres in Knox County ran under $800 an acre. Call (740) 729-8625 with the acreage, till or rock, or send the form, and I email a budget range and two dates before the end of the day.

Open burning is banned inside the city limits under Ohio EPA rule OAC 3745-19, so city lot debris is mulch or haul. Out in Berne or Hocking Township a pile burns only more than 1,000 feet from a neighbor's house, with written notice to the Ohio EPA district office, and ODNR Forestry shuts daytime burning off in March, April, May, October and November. The Hocking River and its feeders fall under the USACE Huntington District. Wet bottoms are isolated wetlands, permitted at Ohio EPA Level 1 only if you fill them; mulching needs nothing. Clearing acreage needs no permit. A pad needs the city building department inside Lancaster or the county's outside it, plus a township zoning certificate. Live trees over 3 inches on a wooded acre or more are cut October 1 to March 31 for the Indiana bat. OUPS 811 flags the gas pipeline first.

Our land clearing company serving Lancaster covers southern Fairfield County, OH and the surrounding area. Carroll and Baltimore north on the till, toward the Columbus metro. Amanda west. Logan south into the Hocking Hills proper. Land clearing services throughout the Lancaster area are transport included from Delaware, and land clearing projects across Central Ohio within 60 miles bill the same way.

Our land clearing service in Lancaster starts with photos and ends with my email. Send the form or call (740) 729-8625. Before the end of the day, a budget range and two dates, from me. The on-site visit is free in the Columbus area and out here; I walk the property with you and find the rock. Residential and commercial properties, same two numbers, till or rock. Land clearing FAQs below.