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

Land clearing in Pickerington is dead ash first, honeysuckle second, and the lot third. Kettering Brush & Land provides land clearing for all three: residential land clearing on a new lot, a woodlot thinned behind a house, commercial land clearing services for commercial sites along SR 256, where commercial development wants dirt. Brush removal and tree removal, then stump grinding, cleanup and rough grading, one invoice. Excavation, concrete and septic we refer out. Property clearing for a paddock and land improvement on the last CAUV fields, same mulchers. Our insured crews learned flat till clay from me; I learned it in the pad years, 14 years of warehouse pads along I-71. Violet Township drains like a pad: not until it freezes.

Forestry mulching is a land clearing method that uses specialized equipment to grind trees, brush and vegetation into mulch where they stand, and here it takes the honeysuckle and the dead ash in the same pass. The skid steer mulcher is $2,500 a day for stems to 8 inches. Brush clearing prices at $1,200 to 2,000 an acre; understory with dead ash, $1,800 to 2,600. Because honeysuckle resprouts from the crown, the head goes to the dirt and leaves a 3-inch mulch mat. Dead ash is brittle. The top drops before the trunk is touched, so the crew takes tops first, head high. Selective clearing keeps the maple; we remove brush and nothing with a trunk. Frozen ground is when a Violet Township flat takes a machine without a rut. The half-acre lot we did in Plain City, same clay, was one day.

Pickerington pulled 132 single-family permits in 2025 in the Census Building Permits Survey, Violet Township 129, Fairfield County 389. For one of those homes, lot clearing on a half-acre is one skid steer day at $2,500, and a quarter-acre infill lot is $1,700 flat. Site prep is dead ash down, then site clearing to dirt, stumps out, rough grade; the builder's site work starts on a clean footprint. Site preparation at 1 acre or more brings the Ohio EPA construction permit and a Fairfield SWCD review. On a lot in Lithopolis last fall the drainage tile sat at 32 inches, and the bucket found it first. Send the plat.

Land clearing costs in Pickerington run $1,200 an acre for light honeysuckle to $5,000 an acre to dirt. It depends on the size of the stems and the dead ash count.

• 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 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.

On frozen ground, December through February, there is no mud surcharge. March and April on the flats add a day or we wait, said before the price on every project. Large acreage clearing drops the rate. The 3-acre honeysuckle woodlot we did in Sunbury ran a day and a half, $3,800; dead ash adds a little. Call (740) 729-8625 or send the form with the acreage and the ash count, and I email a budget range and two dates before the end of the day.

Ohio EPA rule OAC 3745-19 bans open burning inside the city limits; lot debris is mulch or haul. In Violet or Bloom 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 never in daylight during March, April, May, October or November, per ODNR Forestry. Sycamore Creek falls under the USACE Huntington District in the channel. Wet pockets on the flats are isolated wetlands: fill needs an Ohio EPA Level 1 permit; a mulch mat does not. Clearing acreage needs no permit. A pad needs the Fairfield County Building Department plus a Violet Township zoning certificate. The Indiana bat window runs October 1 to March 31 for trees over 3 inches on more than an acre; dead ash is a hazard tree, and we still call it in. OUPS 811 marks the gas pipeline; we grub nothing before the flags are in.

Our land clearing company serving Pickerington covers Fairfield County, OH and the surrounding area. Canal Winchester on the Franklin line west. Reynoldsburg and the Columbus metro north. Baltimore south, toward the Lancaster area. Land clearing services throughout the Pickerington 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 Pickerington starts with photos of the dead ash and ends with my email. Send the form or call (740) 729-8625. Before the end of the day my email gives you a budget range and two dates. The on-site visit is free this close to the Columbus area; I walk the property with you and count the ash. Residential and commercial properties are priced off the same sheet. Land clearing FAQs below.