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

Land clearing in Massillon splits between township acreage and in-city lots, and the ground decides the machine. Our land clearing service in Massillon covers residential land clearing for a house pad, brush clearing on fencerows and old pasture, selective clearing in oak-hickory woodlots, commercial land clearing services on US 30 and SR 21, and full site clearing to dirt with stumps out. Kettering Brush & Land provides land clearing with insured crews on residential and commercial properties, every project the same land clearing process: free site visit, then the machine.

Tree removal on dead ash is its own line, because the tops drop before the trunk is touched. Stump grinding runs $4 an inch, $150 minimum per stump; ten or more and we grind by the day. Excavation for a pad is $160 an hour. Cleanup is the last hour and we leave the site raked. We do not pour concrete, drill wells, set septic or take down houses.

Honeysuckle, rose and brush removal near Massillon runs $1,200 to 2,000 an acre by density, and oak-hickory understory with dead ash runs $1,800 to 2,600. Forestry mulching is a land clearing method that uses specialized equipment to grind trees, brush and other vegetation into mulch where they stand. The 2 to 4 inch mulch layer keeps the clay from washing in April.

Multiflora rose roots where the canes touch, honeysuckle resprouts from the crown, and either one will overgrow a bush-hogged field in two summers. The mulcher takes crown and cane together; in areas with dense rose we remove brush in two passes. We cleared 6 acres of EAB-killed ash and honeysuckle in Medina County last February on frozen ground, two days on the big mulcher, $7,800, and a Perry Township woodlot is the same job on the same clay. The bottoms are different: those wait for frost or August.

Massillon reported no months to the Census Building Permits Survey in 2025, so the Census estimate of 50 single-family permits stands in, with Stark County at 472 and 350 of those in the townships. Lot clearing runs one skid steer day, $2,500, on a half-acre; a quarter-acre infill lot is $1,700 flat; a wooded acre with ash is two days and the stumps. Frozen ground has no mud surcharge; March and April cost a day or a wait.

Site preparation follows: grubbing, rough grading, a swale. Fourteen years building pads along I-71 taught me frost runs 32 to 36 inches here and a footing poured into a thaw heaves by May. The concrete is somebody else's; our site work ends at rough grade. The same crews handle commercial development on commercial sites along US 30, with a county SWCD erosion plan over 1 acre. Property owners who send photos after harvest get the frozen weeks.

Land clearing costs in Massillon start at $2,500 for a skid steer day plus transport from Delaware. The written range comes before the trailer.

• One day of skid steer mulching: $2,500 plus transport, stems to 8 inches.
• One day of the 300-hp mulcher: $3,900 plus transport, stems to 12 inches. The dead-ash machine.
• Rose, honeysuckle and brush: $1,200 to 2,000 per acre. Understory with dead ash: $1,800 to 2,600 per acre.
• Cleared to dirt, stumps out: $2,800 to 5,000 per acre. Large acreage clearing is quoted by the day.
• Stumps: $4 per inch, $150 minimum per stump. Grubbing, grading and site prep: $160 per hour.
• Haul-off: $600 to 1,100 a load. Mulched in place is the cheaper finish.

The bill depends on the size of the lot and the week; one acre carries two numbers depending on site access, January or April. Call (740) 729-8625 or send the acreage and photos, and I email the budget range before the end of the day.

No open burning of land-clearing brush inside Massillon city limits, under Ohio EPA rule OAC 3745-19. Township lots can burn only 1,000 feet from a neighbor's house, with written notice to Ohio EPA and no daytime fires in ODNR's spring and fall months; in practice brush is mulched in place or hauled. Clearing needs no permit. A pad takes the city, or the Stark County Building Department plus a township zoning certificate. Farm use is exempt from township zoning under ORC 519.21.

The Tuscarawas and Sandy Creek are USACE Huntington District water on this side of the county. Wet pockets in the bottoms can be isolated wetlands; it is the fill that needs the Ohio EPA isolated wetland permit, not the mulching; Level 1 runs to half an acre, and we walk the property, flag it and file alongside you. Because of the Indiana bat, stems over 3 inches on any tract over 1 acre are cut in the October 1 to March 31 window. Drainage on old fields means unmarked tile; OUPS 811 before grubbing, and we probe for tile or a gas pipeline.

Kettering Brush & Land is a land clearing company serving Massillon, OH and the surrounding area from Delaware: Canton, Navarre, Dalton and Canal Fulton, the rest of Stark County, and the west half of the Canton metro. We run land clearing services across the Canton area and services throughout northeast Ohio on one trailer, so two days in the Massillon area cost less per acre than one. Site conditions change at the river: Dalton and Navarre are tiled farm ground, Canal Fulton is bottomland.

Overgrown land on the plateau gets a bracket thicker every summer, and the cheapest way to clear land here is a frozen January. Call (740) 729-8625 with the acreage, or send the form with photos. I email you a budget range and two dates before the end of the day. The on-site visit is on me.