How to Clear Land Easily on Your Own

Find cost effective ways to clear brush and debris from your property

When it comes to land clearing methods there are plenty of ways to prepare your property for your next big project.

Whether you've got overgrown brush, large trees or waterways, there are great affordable options for clearing land by yourself, without needing to hire expensive contractors to come in. 

So what's the best way to do land clearing on your own? Let's go over it.

The Basics of Doing it DIY

So what's the benefit of doing land clearing yourself versus getting someone else to do it? While you could pay a professional to come in and clean up your acreage, there are lots of land clearing methods accessible to property owners.

Some of the advantages of doing it yourself include:

• • You are better able to control costs

  • You can effectively work around existing structures, roads and trees easier

  • You can tackle tasks that tree care companies might not do, like dealing with plant roots

  • You have a better understanding of the clearing process for future projects

  • You can keep the logs, branches and wood debris for reuse

While buying your own equipment may be expensive, it's the most cost effective method if you have a long-term plan for your property, you plan on doing work at several sites across your acreage and/or you need to revisit the site for further land clearing at a later point.

Because you have complete control over the land clearing projects you tackle, you have all the leftover byproducts, such as logs and branches to reuse. You can mill up the logs with a portable sawmill to get dimensional lumber or slabs, or chip the branches to use as wood chips in your garden or for your landscaping needs.

Turn any organic matter that would go to waste on your property into useful resources for later.

What Land Clearing Equipment do you Need?

Consider the size of your property and the scope of your jobs before investing in your equipment.

Any land clearing machine, whether you're talking about a PTO-driven stump grinder which can attach to your tractor, to a massive bulldozer, will have a cost you need to consider for your budget.

Today we'll be talking about property owners who need land clearing equipment, either for their own personal uses, or for small scale commercial, like owning a woodlot or running a tree care service.

Figure out a land management plan and research what are the best tools, for your budget, for the job. Land clearing equipment rentals are also available to fill the gaps, for any machines you don't think you'll need past the odd weekend job.

But when purchasing equipment, ask yourself:

• • How many times am I planning on using this tool?

  • Can I afford the purchase price of this tool?

  • Is the cost to buy it worth the amount of labor it will save me down the line?

  • Is there an affordable alternative, like borrowing one from a friend or neighbor?

If you've gone through all these questions and decided you've reached the point to invest in a new piece of land clearing equipment, now you have to figure out what is the best tool for the job.

Land Clearing Machines for You

Many rural property owners will have tractors or skid steers, as it's often an early investment for taking care of farms and country acreage.

So it may be wise to pick a land clearing tool that attaches to your tractor's three-point PTO, so you can easily haul it across your property, take advantage of your tractor's power source, and use it wherever you need. Another benefit of having a tractor power your equipment is it can help cross bumpy or uneven terrain, as opposed to tools which are walk-behind or need to be pushed.

Tree removal is often a common goal on land clearing job sites, so let's go over the steps and what you'll need as a property owner. To take down a tree you will need:

• • A chainsaw to cut down the tree

  • A tractor or other piece of equipment to move the log

  • A wood chipper for dealing with branches and debris

  • A stump grinder for tree stump removal

Those are the broad strokes of what you'll need to clear land. Large scale forestry operations will have more complicated equipment, like bigger, expensive backhoe loaders or dump trucks to move logs, dirt and debris, but most property owners don't need to invest in that type of heavy equipment unless they're clearing thousands of acres of land.

Skid steers and tractors are helpful because you can attach buckets, claws or root rakes to them to more easily clear vast tracts of land quickly.

Instead individuals should focus on equipment which is highly maneuverable and can perform the land clearing jobs they need for their property.

Working Around Environmental Concerns

There are times when you need to work around protected vegetation or bodies of water when land clearing, and caution must be taken to ensure you are following all of your local conservation laws.

Because breaking these laws could result in a hefty fine and damage to the surrounding environment, it's always good practice to consult your local conservation agency or bylaw department and make sure everything you're planning is above board. That includes getting the appropriate permits to clear land, if needed.

When it comes to working around protected vegetation, like environmentally sensitive forests or wetlands, here's what you should do:

• • Consult with local authorities to ensure your work is cleared to go

  • Before you remove trees, check to see what the impact will be on the surrounding environment

  • Make sure you're not contributing to soil erosion or anything that might deteriorate the land

In general, follow all the bylaws in your area for land clearing and make sure your project is environmentally friendly. While you may have to remove trees, there are ways of doing it that which minimizes the impact to the environment.

Being cautious also allows you to protect the natural resources of your property and keep other plants which you don't want to remove.

Wood Chippers for your Brush and Vegetation

When you have felled a tree, you'll be left with the branches and leaves, and this tree debris can often be challenging to work around. Whether you're tackling small trees or dense forests, you'll have branches you need to remove.

A wood chipper is an effective tool for efficiently getting rid of both the hard branches and the soft leafy material, especially if it has Woodland Mill's patented Twin Flywheel technology. This technology uses the one flywheel to chip material and a second spins twice as fast to more effectively discharge lightweight and leafy material out of the chute.

The benefits of a wood chipper are two fold: first you get rid of the leftover material from tree clearing, but you're also left with the wood chips, which can become a valuable resource for your property.

Wood chips can be used to create paths or trails on your property, or can be used as bedding in a garden to help keep out weeds and promote healthy growth. You could also let it dry out and use it as fuel for burning.

Owning a wood chipper means you're freely able to trim branches, brush and other vegetation from your property and turn it into a valuable resource for future uses. Some wood chipper owners even bag it and sell it at the end of their driveway.

Transporting Logs across your Property

It doesn't mean much to cut down a tree if you don't have a way of removing it afterward. Skid steers and tractors with a bucket are two common ways of loading logs, so you can remove them from your work area.

While many tree care companies will cut the tree up into small pieces to load into the back of a truck, that doesn't leave you with a useable log afterwards. If you want to keep the log whole so you can mill it up or use it for something else, it would be wise to have an option to haul it.

If you don't have heavy equipment to load your logs, that's okay! Even an ATV or UTV can be great log hauling tools, with the right attachments. An ATV trailer like the Pathlander or Multilander can help to move logs across your property.

Alternatively, a log arch could also be used, as it can be easier to snake your ATV through the tight spaces and steep slopes of your property to haul out individual logs.

If you're particularly dedicated, or if the logs don't have far to travel, you could even use a cant hook to roll your logs to wherever they need to go. Whatever your solution is for hauling timber, find something that works for you and your property, and won't break your back or the bank.

Let's Get Stump Grinding

If you want to landscape your property, or you want to clear a space for a future structure, you'll need to remove the stumps leftover from the felled trees. The root systems of trees can be buried inches underground and can be difficult to remove by hand.

Oftentimes contractors will cut trees down but leave the stumps and roots for you to deal with.

Stump grinders are powerful machines which can be used to efficiently remove the tree roots from even large trees and leave you with a satisfying hole in the ground which you can easily fill and level off.

Woodland Mills' stump grinders attach to your tractor's PTO, and can easily mow down hundreds of stumps with ease. While there are manual stump grinders, they can be exhausting to manually push, whereas with a PTO-driven grinder you can just drive your tractor back and forth.

That means you'll be making quick work of any tree stumps, and leaving the land ready for your next project.

Future Plans for Your Property

What's next for your property?

Maybe you want to reuse some of your felled trees for future projects? Turn those valuable hardwood trees you've cut down and turn them into boards with a portable sawmill.

Or transform your property with a new structure like a bunkie or a cabin? You have infinite possibilities, as well as the knowledge, tools and skills to do it.

So get out there and start clearing.