On this page
- Land Clearing Services Across Six Counties: Ten Pages, One Price Sheet
- Forestry Mulching: One Pass, No Burn Pile, No Haul
- Lot Clearing for New Homes in Duval, St. Johns and Clay County
- Stump Grinding and Stump Removal After the Clearing
- Clearing Palmetto, Pine Flatwoods, Wax Myrtle and Live Oak Hammocks
- Land Clearing Cost in Jacksonville per Acre and per Lot
- Wetlands, Permits and Protected Species Before You Clear a Lot Here
- Storm Debris Clearing After Irma, Matthew and Nicole
- How Land Clearing in Jacksonville Works: Pick a Slot, Walk the Lot, Clear It
- Counties and Communities We Serve From the Middleburg Yard
- Questions I Get on Every Walk-Through
Land Clearing Services Across Six Counties: Ten Pages, One Price Sheet
Ten pages, one price sheet, open prices on every one. We are clearing contractors, not a construction company based in Jacksonville with a clearing division on the side. Clearing is the whole business.
- Clearing lots and acreage: this page, plus six county pages and 18 community pages.
- Forestry mulching: palmetto and pine mulched in place, $1,400 to 2,300 an acre.
- Lot clearing: quarter-acre infill lot $1,900 flat, half-acre in one day.
- Brush clearing: underbrush out, pines and live oaks kept.
- Stump grinding: $4.25 per inch of diameter, $160 minimum.
- Tree clearing: large trees and small trees down and out, under the county codes.
- Site prep and dirt work: rough grade, pads, driveway cuts, root rake grubbing.
- Cost guide, the what-is page, and forestry mulching vs bulldozing: the reading pages.
What we do not do: concrete, wells, septic, house demolition. I know people who do. Pick the page that fits and read its price first.
Forestry Mulching: One Pass, No Burn Pile, No Haul
Forestry mulching grinds palmetto, gallberry and pine up to 8 inches into a mulch layer, in one pass. $1,400 to 2,300 an acre on flatwoods by density. Nothing leaves your lot: no burn pile, no dump run, no haul trailer. The root mat stays in the sand, so the soil does not blow or wash. On wet flatwoods the mulcher wins over a bulldozer every time. A tracked skid steer floats on saturated flatwoods sand. A dozer blade cuts to hardpan and the cut fills with water by lunch. Our mulchers run a drum head with carbide teeth, the right equipment for palmetto root crowns. A rotary cutter alone shreds the fronds and leaves the crowns to resprout. Swampy ground, cypress domes and bayheads stay out of the footprint. This is the method on nine out of ten lots.
Lot Clearing for New Homes in Duval, St. Johns and Clay County
The Census Building Permits Survey counted 3,732 single-family permits in Duval in 2025, 3,611 of them inside the city. St. Johns County wrote 3,554, and 3,471 of those were unincorporated: Nocatee, SilverLeaf, RiverTown, World Golf Village. Clay County wrote 1,240, mostly Middleburg, Lake Asbury and the First Coast Expressway side. Nassau 887, Flagler 1,950 with 1,356 in Palm Coast. Residential lot clearing on this site is priced flat. Quarter-acre infill lot, $1,900. Half-acre lot, one day on the skid steer, $2,700. The house pad is quoted per pad: rough grade and 12 inches of compacted fill above crown of road, three passes with the roller. We clear it and prepare the pad in one visit. Clearing and site preparation is one trip when the builder wants the lot ready for construction on a date. Send me the plot plan and the development's CDD rules.
Stump Grinding and Stump Removal After the Clearing
$4.25 per inch of stump diameter, $160 minimum per stump. Lots with 10 or more stumps go by the day. Grinding is for a yard: 8 to 12 inches below grade, chips backfilled, sod over it in a month. A pad is different. A ground stump leaves the root ball under your slab, and it rots and settles. For a pad we remove the stumps with a root rake on the dozer, $165 an hour with operator. A farm tractor and a chain will not pull a 30-inch slash pine stump out of hardpan. Tell me yard or pad and I price the stumps the right way.
Clearing Palmetto, Pine Flatwoods, Wax Myrtle and Live Oak Hammocks
Most buildable lots here are pine flatwoods: slash pine over saw palmetto, gallberry, wax myrtle and fetterbush on flatwoods sand. Soil scientists call it spodosol. I call it 12 to 30 inches of sand over hardpan. Trail Ridge at Keystone Heights and Baldwin is sandhill and scrub on sugar sand. The St. Johns, Black Creek and Julington Creek carry live oak hammock, and the counties protect the big oaks. Density sets the price. Thin palmetto under 40-year pine mulches at the low end. A solid palmetto mat with wax myrtle runs the high end. Camphor is the one plant that laughs at a mulcher. It resprouts from the stump, and so does Chinese privet, unless the crew treats each cut within minutes. I walk the lot first and identify what we preserve: live oaks over the county size, the eagle nest, the tortoise aprons. Each keeper gets pink tape, and I keep track of them on the stake list.
Land Clearing Cost in Jacksonville per Acre and per Lot
Skid steer forestry mulcher, $2,700 a day, transport included inside Duval, St. Johns, Clay, Nassau, Baker and Flagler north of Palm Coast. That is the number most lots in the Jacksonville FL area come down to. The rest of the sheet:
- Dedicated 300-hp mulcher: $4,100 a day plus transport.
- Palmetto and pine flatwoods mulching: $1,400 to 2,300 an acre by density.
- Sandhill and scrub on Trail Ridge or the coastal ridge: $1,100 to 1,700 an acre.
- Live oak hammock, selective, protected oaks kept: $2,000 to 3,200 an acre.
- Full clearing to dirt with stumps out: $2,800 to 5,000 an acre.
- Root rake or dozer grubbing: $165 an hour with operator. Excavator and haul-off by the load, $650 to 1,200 per 10-yard load.
- Stump grinding: $4.25 per inch, $160 minimum.
- House pad, rough grading and 12 inches of compacted fill above crown of road: quoted per pad.
Two things go in the written price first. Wet season, June through September, adds one day on flatwoods. A gopher tortoise survey by a licensed agent runs $400 to 900 on sandy lots. Two jobs from the book. A 3-acre flatwoods lot off CR 218 in Middleburg: palmetto under slash pine, two tortoise burrows flagged at 25 feet, 2 days, $5,400. A half-acre Nocatee-area lot: 3 live oaks kept under the St. Johns County code, 1 day, $2,700. No surprises on the invoice. Call (904) 406-7990 for a written price, or pick a walk-through slot on the calendar.
Wetlands, Permits and Protected Species Before You Clear a Lot Here
Clearing by itself does not trigger an SJRWMD Environmental Resource Permit. Filling a wetland or changing where the water drains does. Here is the rest.
- SJRWMD ERP (FDEP Chapter 62-330, delegated): excavation and fill in anything wet needs the permit first, and wetland delineation under Chapter 62-340 before that.
- USACE Jacksonville District: federal Section 404 is back with the Corps since the state program was vacated in 2024.
- City of Jacksonville Chapter 656 Part 12: tree removal permit before protected trees come down in Duval, 11.5 inches DBH on residential lots, 6 inches on commercial sites, mitigation to the Tree Protection Trust Fund. I pull it for you, fee at cost.
- St. Johns County LDC, Article IV: protected trees at 8 inches, specimen live oaks, plus a clearing permit. Clay County LDC: clearing permit over 1 acre or before a building permit. Nassau County ordinance. City of Palm Coast: no clearing without a building permit.
- FWC gopher tortoise: survey within 90 days of clearing, no work within 25 feet of a burrow, relocation permit before clearing if burrows are found.
- Bald eagle: 660-foot nest buffer along the St. Johns, Julington Creek and Black Creek.
Every permit requirement goes in the scope of work before the price. A shed or any other structure near a protected oak changes the mitigation math. Send me the parcel number and I check the rules before we meet.
Storm Debris Clearing After Irma, Matthew and Nicole
Irma in September 2017 put the St. Johns River over its banks at San Marco and pushed Black Creek to 28 feet at CR 218. Laurel oaks and slash pine went down across every county. Matthew in 2016 hit the beaches from Fernandina to Flagler Beach. Ian and Nicole in 2022 took oaks off the Flagler and St. Johns coast. Storm cleanup is by the load: $650 to 1,200 per 10-yard load, dump fees included. After Irma we cleared 2 acres of blowdown on a Julington Creek lot, 11 loads hauled, $9,350. FEMA and the county pick up public roadside debris. Anything behind your property line is yours to remove, and a mulcher handles downed timber to 8 inches faster than a chainsaw crew can stack it. Laurel oak is the storm risk here, not live oak. Point yours out on the walk-through.
How Land Clearing in Jacksonville Works: Pick a Slot, Walk the Lot, Clear It
- Pick a walk-through slot on the online calendar. I confirm by text the same evening. That is the only contact step.
- I walk the lot with you. Free on-site estimate in all six counties. We find the wet spots, the protected oaks and any tortoise burrows.
- You get a written price. The wet-day rule and the tortoise survey are in it before the number, not after.
- Stake it, string it, check the grade. Pad corners and the clearing limits are staked before the machine starts. The Navy taught me to measure twice and dig once.
- Our crews clear it. Insured crews, professional operators, and most of the time the project runs on one trailer.
- Final grade check at completion. Then I text you the invoice.
Installation of the driveway culvert or silt fence comes after the grade check if you want it. Call (904) 406-7990 or pick a slot. Either way you have a date by tonight.
Counties and Communities We Serve From the Middleburg Yard
Six counties, one yard in Middleburg, Clay County. Transport is included across Duval, St. Johns, Clay, Nassau and Baker, and Flagler north of Palm Coast. South Palm Coast, Flagler Beach and Bunnell carry a transport line on the price.
- Duval County: Mandarin, Oceanway, Cecil, Argyle, Baldwin, the Beaches.
- St. Johns County: St. Augustine, Nocatee, Ponte Vedra, St. Johns, Julington Creek.
- Clay County: Middleburg, Orange Park, Fleming Island, Green Cove Springs, Keystone Heights.
- Nassau County: Yulee, Fernandina Beach, Callahan, Hilliard.
- Baker County: Macclenny, Glen St. Mary, Sanderson.
- Flagler County: Palm Coast, Bunnell.
Residential lots, agricultural tracts under greenbelt classification, commercial pads and industrial sites along US 301 all run on the same sheet, and so does clearing land for a strip center. Navy families at NAS Jax, NS Mayport and Kings Bay: I served at the first two and I know the move timeline. Pick your county page for the jobs we cleared there.
Questions I Get on Every Walk-Through
What does land clearing include?
Clearing takes everything off the footprint you mark: palmetto, brush, small trees and large trees, stumps if the plan calls for it, and the roots under a pad. On most lots here that means one pass with a forestry mulcher, then a root rake only where the slab goes. Haul-off, rough grade and the pad are line items, priced separately so you see each one.
How much does land clearing cost in Florida?
In Northeast Florida, figure $1,400 to 2,300 an acre to mulch palmetto flatwoods and $2,800 to 5,000 an acre for full clearing to dirt with stumps out. A half-acre lot is one day on the skid steer, $2,700. Density, stumps, haul-off and wet-season timing move the number.
Do I need a permit to clear my lot in Duval County?
Yes, if protected trees come down. Chapter 656 Part 12 requires a permit at 11.5 inches DBH on residential lots and 6 inches on commercial sites, with mitigation to the Trust Fund. Mulching palmetto and brush under the size limit needs no permit. I pull the permit for you, fee at cost.
What is forestry mulching and how is it different from traditional clearing?
Forestry mulching grinds standing vegetation into a mulch layer in one pass and leaves it on the ground. Traditional clearing pushes everything into piles with a bulldozer, then burns or hauls them and leaves bare sand. Mulching keeps the topsoil and the root mat in place, costs less, and needs no burn authorization. A pad still gets grubbed afterward.
How much does forestry mulching cost?
$2,700 a day for the skid steer mulcher with transport included, or $1,400 to 2,300 an acre on palmetto and pine flatwoods by density. Scrub on Trail Ridge runs $1,100 to 1,700 an acre because it is thinner. The 300-hp mulcher is $4,100 a day plus transport for tracts over 5 acres.
Can I burn the piles after clearing?
On a platted lot inside the city limits, Nocatee, Fleming Island or Palm Coast, effectively no. Any pile from clearing needs a Florida Forest Service Open Burning Authorization, and setbacks from houses rule most lots out. Baker and west Nassau tracts are the places burning is sometimes practical. Everywhere else, mulching in place is why there is no pile to burn.
How do I book a walk-through?
Pick a walk-through slot on the online calendar, or call (904) 406-7990. I confirm by text the same evening, every time. The walk-through is a free on-site estimate anywhere in the six counties, and the written price follows by text within two days.