Forestry Mulching or Traditional Land Clearing: Which Does Your Land Need?

If the land will stay pasture or open acreage, forestry mulching is usually the better fit. If you will build on it or dig a pond in it, the stumps and roots must come out. That calls for traditional land clearing with an excavator.

We do both kinds of work from our base in Parker, Kansas. Our forestry mulching uses a mulching head on the skid loader. Clearing with the roots out is excavator work. This guide covers what each method leaves on the ground and what drives the cost.

What is the difference between forestry mulching and traditional land clearing?

Forestry mulching grinds standing brush and small trees into chips right where they grow. The chips stay spread over the ground. The stumps and roots stay in the soil, and so do the topsoil and the grass.

Traditional land clearing takes the trees out, roots and all. On our clearing jobs, the excavator pulls the stumps, and the brush gets piled on site. One national cost guide says this method removes everything above and below ground but disturbs the soil heavily.

When is forestry mulching the better choice?

Mulching fits ground you want to keep in grass. It suits eastern red cedar well, and cedar keeps spreading into eastern Kansas pasture. In 2019, trees cost some eastern Kansas counties up to 30 percent of their grassland forage, K-State reports.

Cedar is the easy case. K-State says a cedar cut off near the ground, below its lowest green branch, will not grow back. The roots die too, because a cedar has no sprouting buds below the soil. So on pasture, the cedar roots can stay where they are.

Mulching also keeps the topsoil and the grass roots in place. K-State’s guide to wood chip mulch says a mulch layer holds soil moisture and cuts erosion. Once cedars are cut, Oklahoma State University’s extension service says the ground does not need reseeding. Native grasses come back with enough rain and proper grazing.

The wood stays on the ground as mulch, so there is no brush pile to burn. Oklahoma State warns that burning cedar piles send embers hundreds of feet downwind. Thickets and briars on overgrown pasture are the job of our brush clearing service.

When do the stumps and roots need to come out?

A house pad is the clearest case. The 2018 International Residential Code has a rule for homes with a concrete floor on the ground. It calls for all vegetation and topsoil to come out from inside the foundation walls. Miami County, Olathe, Gardner and Louisburg have adopted that code.

So a pad on mulched ground still needs the mulch and the roots taken out. That is why lot clearing for a building site goes roots and all. The excavator pulls each stump, and the main roots come with it.

A pond site is the same story. The NRCS pond standard calls for the dam’s whole footprint to be cleared of stumps, roots, brush and sod. On a new pond, that clearing is the first step.

A driveway route works the same way. A drive needs firm ground under its base, so the stumps and roots along the route come out.

Pulling stumps moves earth, so Kansas law treats it as excavation. The contractor doing the digging must notify Kansas 811 at least two full working days ahead. Utilities mark only their own lines, so point out any private line to a barn or a well.

Expect bare dirt and brush piles when the excavator is done. Bare ground like that usually needs reseeding to stop erosion, K-State’s range guide notes. On a building lot, site prep comes next and levels the ground.

Burning the piles brings its own rules. Brush from a building-site clearing needs state approval before it burns, on top of local fire rules. Miami County requires a burn permit, and Franklin County requires one for most burning outside city limits. In Linn County, call the county before you burn.

Does brush grow back after mulching or clearing?

Cut cedars stay dead after either method. Hardwood brush is different. K-State says hedge and honey locust sprout back from parts below the ground.

Mulching leaves those roots in place, so expect sprouts. K-State’s range guide says most woody brush needs two or three years of well-timed cutting to die. It adds that a herbicide on a freshly cut stump can stop hedge and honey locust sprouts. Your county extension office can recommend one.

Pulling the stumps takes the main roots out with them. Even then, K-State notes that roots left in the soil may sprout.

New cedars come back from seed either way, because birds spread it along fence lines and pastures. K-State suggests a prescribed burn about every three years in eastern Kansas to hold new cedars back.

What drives the cost of each method?

Both prices start with how thick the growth is and how big the trees are. Acreage, slopes, rocks and wet ground matter too. A U.S. Forest Service bulletin says mulching costs vary widely with the terrain and site conditions. Big trees take longer to grind, so they raise the mulching price.

Wet ground is a real factor around Parker. The federal soil survey shows silt loam over tight clay that holds water from late fall into June. Forestry guides note that very wet ground may not suit machine mulching.

Traditional land clearing adds steps after the cutting. Pulling stumps takes machine time, and the brush has to be piled. Burning the piles or paying a hauler adds cost, and so does seed for bare ground.

National cost guides list forestry mulching at a lower per-acre range than a full land clearing. For market numbers, see our guide to land clearing cost per acre in Kansas. Those are market figures, not our price list.

Which one fits your land?

Start with what comes next for the ground. If it stays pasture or open acreage, mulch it. If a house or a pond is going in, clear it with the roots out. Many properties need some of each.

We look at the job and put the quote in writing. Read how our forestry mulching works, then call or text (620) 252-9314.