Land Clearing, Mulching and Grading Questions

Our main line is forestry mulching for overgrown lots and wooded acreage. We do brush hogging on fields and pastures, and we clear the underbrush and buckthorn beneath mature trees. We also open hunting paths and clear brush along utility lines on private land. Once the brush is down, we grade building pads and gravel driveways.

The mulching head grinds them into mulch right where they stand. The mulch stays on your land and covers the ground where the brush grew. The University of Wisconsin extension service says mowed material mulched on the soil can cut down on new buckthorn seedlings.

We price each job after we look at the land. The acreage and the thickness of the brush drive most of the price. Bigger stems and steep or wet ground add to the work too. The quote comes in writing before any work starts.

Felling and removing big mature trees is work for a tree service. Stump grinding belongs to another trade as well. Our mulching heads handle the brush and the smaller trees around the big ones.

Not by itself. Mulching knocks a buckthorn thicket down, but the stumps sprout again and need follow-up cutting. The Wisconsin DNR lists cut-stump treatment in late fall as a control method. We leave that treatment to a licensed applicator from another company.

Work near water or in a wetland can fall under county shoreland rules and the Wisconsin DNR. Your local zoning office answers the permit question for your land, and we point you there. For grading, Wisconsin's one-call law counts it as excavation. Buried lines get marked through Diggers Hotline, at 811, at least three working days before it starts.

Yes. For site preparation, we mulch the brush off the building site and the drive. The mature trees you and your builder want stay standing. We can grade a rough pad after that, and other contractors handle the foundation and the septic system.

Our service area runs about 40 miles around North Prairie, across Waukesha County and Southeast Wisconsin. It takes in Waukesha, New Berlin, Muskego and Pewaukee, plus Lake Country towns like Oconomowoc, Hartland, Delafield and Nashotah. To the south, it reaches Mukwonago, East Troy, Burlington and Elkhorn. See the towns we serve for the full list.

For buckthorn, the extension service suggests mowing in winter where possible. That spares the plants you want and keeps the soil from packing down. The Wisconsin DNR says oak wilt spreads most easily from April through July, when beetles carry spores to fresh wounds. Near oaks, the months outside that window carry less risk.