How to Prepare Your Property for Land Clearing

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You've scheduled your land clearing project — now what? A little preparation on your end can make a big difference in how smoothly the job goes and how happy you are with the results. Here's our checklist for Oklahoma landowners getting ready for a forestry mulching crew.

1. Walk the Property and Mark What Stays

This is the most important step. Before we show up, walk your property and clearly mark any trees, structures, or features you want preserved. Use survey flagging tape, spray paint on trunks, or T-posts with ribbon — anything visible from a distance. Our operators are skilled at selective clearing, but they need to know your intentions before the mulcher starts spinning.

Common things to mark: shade trees you want to keep, fence posts and corner posts, well heads or septic cleanouts, buried utility markers, property boundary pins, and any landscape features you want preserved.

2. Identify Underground Utilities

Call 811 (Oklahoma's one-call system) at least 48 hours before your scheduled clearing date. They'll send utility locators out to mark buried gas lines, electric lines, fiber optic cables, and water lines on your property. This is free, required by law, and protects both you and our equipment.

If you have private utilities — septic lines, well lines, irrigation — that won't be marked by 811, flag those yourself and let us know where they run.

3. Secure Livestock and Pets

A forestry mulcher is loud and throws debris. Keep cattle, horses, dogs, and other animals well away from the work area. If the clearing zone borders a pasture with livestock, make sure fences are secure and gates are closed. We'll coordinate with you on the best approach for your specific property layout.

4. Clear Access to the Work Area

Our professional-grade equipment needs a clear path to get from the trailer drop point to the work area. Make sure gates are wide enough (at least 10 feet), remove any temporary fencing or wire that might be in the way, and let us know about any soft spots, creek crossings, or terrain challenges we should know about in advance.

5. Remove Personal Items and Loose Materials

Anything in the clearing zone that isn't a tree or brush should be moved. Old equipment, scrap metal, fence wire, feed troughs, water tanks, lawn furniture — if the mulcher hits it, it's gone. Take 30 minutes to walk the zone and pull out anything you don't want mulched.

6. Discuss Expectations with Your Operator

Before work begins, we'll do a walkthrough with you to confirm the scope. This is your chance to point out anything specific — a particular tree you want saved, an area you want cleared to the property line, a spot where the brush is hiding an old fence. The more we know upfront, the better your result.

7. Plan for After the Clearing

Think about what comes next. If you're planting grass, you may want to overseed shortly after clearing while the mulch layer is fresh and retaining moisture. If you're building, coordinate with your contractor so they're ready to move in quickly after we finish. If you're improving hunting property, plan your food plots and stand locations before we clear so we can build access into the job.

Questions about preparing your property? Reach out anytime — we're happy to walk you through it before your project starts.