Land Clearing in the Catskills & Hudson Valley

What land clearing includes, and what it doesn't

Clearing is more than knocking down brush. A proper job has three parts: removing the vegetation, grubbing out the stumps and roots, and stripping the topsoil wherever something will be built. Skip the grubbing and you get a pad that settles as the roots rot. Skip saving the topsoil and you'll pay to bring it back when it's time to seed.

It also means deciding what stays. Before any machine moves, walk the lot and flag the trees you want to keep with ribbon. A mature oak or maple at the edge of a clearing is worth protecting, and that means keeping machines, fill and stockpiles off its roots, which spread at least as far out as the branches. Big trees leaning over the house or tangled in power lines are a job for a tree service or the utility's line crew. The excavator comes in after that to deal with the stumps and cleanup.

Mountain lots versus Hudson Valley fields

Up in Hunter, Windham and the hills around Palenville, lots are usually steep, wooded and rocky. Stumps grow wrapped around boulders, and pulling one often brings up a stone the size of a washing machine with it. Soil is thin over the rock, so there isn't much topsoil to save, which is exactly why it's worth saving all of it. On slopes, clear only what you need and only as far ahead of the build as you have to, because bare ground on a hill washes out fast in a summer thunderstorm.

In the flatter country toward the Hudson, around Germantown, Chatham and Kinderhook, the work is more often reclaiming old fields and hedgerows that have grown up in brush and saplings, or opening a long driveway corridor. The ground is easier to dig, but the clay turns greasy when it's wet and heavy equipment ruts it badly in spring.

What happens to the stumps, brush and logs?

That depends on what you want and what the site allows. Good logs can be cut and left for your firewood. Brush and stumps are usually hauled off or chipped, since open burning is heavily restricted in New York. The one thing you shouldn't allow is burying stumps where you'll build or drive: they rot and the ground sinks.

Cost and time follow from a few things: how thick and how big the growth is, how many stumps there are, how much rock comes up with them, the slope, and how easily trucks can get in to haul debris out. A lot full of scrubby saplings goes quickly. A hillside of big stumps wound around boulders doesn't. When the stumps come out, the rock often comes with them, so it helps to plan for rock and boulder removal at the same time.

Getting ready, and mistakes to avoid

Know your property lines before anyone cuts. If the pins aren't visible, have a surveyor find them. Clearing a neighbor's trees is an expensive apology. Find out whether any part of the lot is wetland or streambank too, because clearing near water can need a permit and can get you in trouble fast. Then settle on the end use: a house site, a driveway, a lawn and a pasture all get cleared differently.

The most common mistake is clearing everything at once and letting it sit through a wet season. Bare soil erodes, ruts, and sprouts a new crop of weeds and saplings within a year. Clear in step with the build, and get seed and mulch or proper erosion control on any ground that will sit bare for a while.