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

Land clearing in New Albany is mostly thinning: honeysuckle, dead ash and grape vine out of a maple woodlot, trees left. Kettering Brush & Land provides land clearing for that, for residential land clearing on a new lot, and for commercial land clearing services where commercial development is pushing commercial sites east. Brush removal, tree removal, stump grinding, cleanup and rough grading are ours. Excavation, concrete and septic we refer out. Property clearing for a horse barn and land improvement on the last CAUV fields run the same machines. Our insured crews learned this silt loam over till clay in the pad years, 14 years of warehouse pads along I-71.

Forestry mulching is a land clearing method that uses specialized equipment to grind trees, brush and vegetation into mulch where they grow, and it is the way to clear a woodlot without losing the trees. The skid steer mulcher takes stems to 8 inches for $2,500 a day. Brush clearing runs $1,200 to 2,000 an acre, and a mixed understory with dead ash runs $1,800 to 2,600. Honeysuckle resprouts from the crown. We grind the crown, not just the stem, and leave a 3-inch mulch mat that holds it down. Callery pear gets a cut-stump treatment within minutes or it comes back. Honeysuckle never read a landscape code and never will. Selective clearing in areas with dense understory keeps the oak; we remove brush and nothing with a trunk. Frozen ground, December to February, is when a woodlot floor takes a mulcher without a mark.

New Albany pulled 43 single-family permits in 2025 in the Census Building Permits Survey, split across both counties, with Franklin County at 1,829. Lot clearing for one of those homes is a half-acre in one skid steer day, $2,500, or a quarter-acre infill lot at $1,700 flat. On a lot in Gahanna last winter the frost held 30 inches and the crew never left a track. Site prep for an estate lot is site clearing to the build envelope, stumps out, rough grade; the remaining site work is the builder's. Site preparation at 1 acre of disturbance or more brings the Ohio EPA construction permit and a Franklin SWCD review. Drainage on these flat lots runs through unmapped tile, so we grub stumps with the bucket. Send the plat.

Land clearing costs near New Albany run $1,200 an acre for light honeysuckle to $5,000 an acre to dirt. The number depends on the size of the stems.

• Skid steer mulcher to 8-inch stems: $2,500 a day, transport included within 60 miles of Delaware.
• 300-hp mulcher to 12-inch stems: $3,900 a day plus transport.
• Honeysuckle 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 with stumps: $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.

The mud-season rule comes before the price on every project: March and April add a day or we wait. December through February carries no mud surcharge. A half-acre lot in Plain City, fencerow honeysuckle and two dead ash, was one day and $2,500. Large acreage clearing drops the per-acre rate. Call (740) 729-8625 with the acreage, or send the form, and I email a budget range and two dates before the end of the day.

No open burning inside the city limits, under Ohio EPA rule OAC 3745-19, so a cleared lot is mulch or haul. In Plain or Jersey 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 closes daylight hours, 6 to 6, in March, April, May, October and November. The New Albany landscape code and tree preservation rules apply on development sites; the city wants the tree survey first. Wet pockets along Rocky Fork are isolated wetlands: an Ohio EPA Level 1 permit comes with fill, not with mulching. Clearing township acreage needs no permit; a pad needs the county building department on its side of the line, plus a township zoning certificate. Anything over 3 inches on a wooded acre or more is cut October 1 to March 31, the Indiana bat window. OUPS 811 marks the gas pipeline before a bucket goes in.

Our land clearing company serving New Albany covers Franklin County, OH and the surrounding area, and the Licking side to Johnstown and Pataskala. Gahanna and Westerville sit in the Columbus metro on I-270. The Intel corridor up SR 161 is farm woodlots turning into pads, and we know pads. Land clearing services throughout the New Albany area are transport included from Delaware. Land clearing projects across Central Ohio within 60 miles are too.

Our land clearing service in New Albany starts with photos of the woodlot and ends with my email. Send the form or call (740) 729-8625. By the end of the day a budget range and two dates are in your inbox. The on-site look costs nothing in the Columbus area; I walk the property with you and count dead ash. Residential and commercial properties hear the same two numbers. Land clearing FAQs below.