On this page
- Land Clearing Services in Julington Creek
- Lot Clearing for New Homes in Julington Creek, Fruit Cove and Mandarin
- Brush Clearing and Forestry Mulching Near Julington Creek
- How Much Does Land Clearing Cost in Julington Creek?
- Permits, Gopher Tortoises and Wetlands Before You Clear in Julington Creek
- Serving Julington Creek ZIP Codes 32259 and 32223 and Nearby Mandarin, Fruit Cove, Switzerland and St. Johns
- Julington Creek Land Clearing FAQs
Land Clearing Services in Julington Creek
Whitfield Clearing & Grading provides land clearing for five kinds of job around the creek: lot clearing for a new house, forestry mulching on acreage, brush clearing on a lot that has gone to vine, stump grinding after a storm, and site preparation with a pad. Residential and commercial properties get one clearing service, one crew for the site work and one price list. Tree removal on protected oaks runs through the county permit first. Concrete, wells, septic, utility excavation and house demolition are not my trades. I know people who do them.
Lot Clearing for New Homes in Julington Creek, Fruit Cove and Mandarin
Julington Creek is a census-designated place with no permit count of its own, so the St. Johns County unincorporated figure is the proxy: 3,471 single-family permits in 2025 by the Census Building Permits Survey. Most new houses here go on infill or teardown lots under heavy oak, so residential land clearing is selective clearing by default.
The order on a lot off Race Track Road: stake the envelope and the drive, flag every oak over 8 inches DBH, mulch the palmetto and vine inside the lines, grub the stumps under the pad only, then build the pad. Rough grade, 12 inches of compacted fill above crown of road, three passes with the roller, quoted per pad. As a Seabee I learned that the string line is cheaper than the second truck of fill. Site prep stops when the grade checks.
Brush Clearing and Forestry Mulching Near Julington Creek
Forestry mulching is a land clearing method that uses specialized equipment to grind trees, brush and vegetation into mulch, and near Julington Creek it does three things a chainsaw crew cannot: it takes palmetto out by the root mat, it turns vine and camphor into a mulch layer that stays put, and it leaves the live oaks standing.
- Palmetto, gallberry, wax myrtle: mulched in place, 3 to 4 inches deep.
- Camphor and Chinese privet: cut low and stump-treated within minutes, or they are back in a year.
- Grape vine: pulled off the oaks first, then mulched.
- Laurel oak with rot at the base: flagged for tree removal; live oaks stay.
In areas with dense palmetto under slash pine the crew runs about an acre a day. June to September adds a day on the inland flatwoods, where the hardpan holds water a foot down. Brush removal stops at the landscape beds: we remove brush, not plantings. Overgrown land on the creek side needs the oak flags first, so if a lot has started to overgrow, book the walk-through before the machine.
How Much Does Land Clearing Cost in Julington Creek?
A half-acre lot runs $2,700 for one day of skid steer mulching with transport included; a quarter-acre infill lot is $1,900 flat. Land clearing costs on larger ground come off the per-acre list: palmetto flatwoods $1,400 to 2,300, live oak hammock kept selective $2,000 to 3,200, full clearing to dirt with stumps $2,800 to 5,000, large acreage clearing with the 300-hp mulcher $4,100 a day plus transport. The number depends on the size of the lot and the oak count.
The wet-season day and the gopher tortoise survey, $400 to 900 by a licensed agent, are stated before the price, never after.
The job I point to here is not a clearing job. It is the Irma cleanup: 2 acres on Julington Creek in the fall of 2017, laurel oaks and pines down across the lot, 11 loads hauled, $9,350. The county picked up public roadside debris; the lot was the owner's. Mosquitoes here file for overtime in June; that fall they worked a double. No surprises on the invoice. Pick a walk-through slot on the calendar or call (904) 406-7990 and the written price is in your texts the same evening.
Permits, Gopher Tortoises and Wetlands Before You Clear in Julington Creek
Two tree codes meet at the creek. On the county side the St. Johns County Land Development Code, Article IV, protects trees 8 inches DBH and up and specimen live oaks, and a clearing permit is needed before a building permit. On the Mandarin side the City of Jacksonville Chapter 656 permit applies, 11.5 inches DBH on residential lots, and I pull it for you at cost.
SJRWMD holds the Environmental Resource Permit. Clearing does not trigger it; fill or a drainage change does. The hardwood swamp on Julington and Durbin creeks stays out of the footprint or waits on the permit, after a Chapter 62-340 delineation.
FWC gopher tortoise rules cover the sandy inland lots: survey within 90 days, no work within 25 feet of a burrow, relocation permit before clearing if burrows are found. Sunshine 811 marks the gas pipeline and power before any stump comes out. On platted lots a Florida Forest Service burn authorization is not realistic, so the usual way to clear one is mulch it or haul it.
Serving Julington Creek ZIP Codes 32259 and 32223 and Nearby Mandarin, Fruit Cove, Switzerland and St. Johns
ZIP 32259 is the creek side of Julington Creek, FL and the surrounding area down SR 13 to Switzerland; 32223 is Mandarin, in Duval. The same crews and prices run south along CR 210 and on to the St. Augustine area. We are a company serving property owners with land clearing services across Northeast Florida, with services throughout the Jacksonville metro from one yard in Middleburg. Land clearing Julington Creek owners ask about is mostly oaks and vine.
Julington Creek Land Clearing FAQs
What does land clearing in the Julington Creek area usually include?
The tree flags, the machine work and the haul. A professional land clearing service in Julington Creek marks the protected oaks, mulches or grubs the rest, grinds the stumps under the pad and hauls what will not mulch. Land clearing projects here end the same way, every project: a grade check.
Can you remove large trees and stumps during the clearing?
Yes. Oaks over 8 inches DBH need the county tree permit, and specimen live oaks usually stay. We cut what is permitted and grind the stumps at $4.25 per inch of diameter, $160 minimum, or by the day on lots with 10 or more. Sunshine 811 marks the lines before the first grind.
Can you work the wet side of the lot?
With the mulcher, yes; with a dozer, no. The mulcher floats on tracks over wet flatwoods where a dozer cuts ruts to the hardpan. The land clearing process adds one day from June to September depending on site conditions, and anything that is true wetland waits on SJRWMD regardless.
Do you handle commercial clearing along SR 13?
Yes. Commercial land clearing services cover outparcels on SR 13 and Race Track Road, commercial sites and any commercial development that needs site clearing before civil work. Commercial properties in Julington Creek carry the 6-inch DBH threshold, so commercial clearing and land improvement start with the tree survey and a site visit.
Why hire a land clearing company instead of a tree service?
Because a tree service leaves the stumps, the palmetto and the grade. A land clearing company doing professional clearing takes the lot to a buildable pad: property clearing, stump grinding, compaction. To clear land and make your property ready for a slab, walk the property with me; the frequently asked questions answer themselves out there.
