Land clearing and forestry mulching in the Finger Lakes

Land goes back to brush fast in this climate. An unmowed field in Bristol is a thicket of buckthorn and multiflora rose in five years and a young woodlot in fifteen. Clearing it by hand is miserable; clearing it with the right machine is a day's work.

Forestry mulching is the tool we reach for most. A drum mulcher on a tracked skid steer grinds brush, saplings, and small trees into a layer of chips right where they stood — no burn pile, no hauling, no bare dirt to erode, and you can walk the land the same afternoon. For building sites and driveways where the ground has to be truly clean, we clear conventionally: fell, pull stumps, grub roots, and haul or bury the debris on site where the town allows.

We also do selective clearing — opening up a view corridor to the lake, thinning a woodlot, or cutting a trail — where the point is what stays, not what goes.

Clearing in lake country: slopes, watershed rules, and what grows back

On the steep lake lots — Middlesex, Vine Valley, the South Bristol shore — clearing is as much about what you leave as what you cut. Stripping a 30% slope to bare dirt sends it into the lake with the first big storm, and the towns and the Canandaigua Lake Watershed Council have rules about that. Forestry mulching shines here because the chip layer holds the soil while new growth comes in.

If you're clearing for a view, be honest with yourself about the regrowth. Sumac, box elder, and honeysuckle come back from the roots within two seasons. Mulching them off is the first step; keeping the view usually means a second pass or converting the slope to something you can mow or manage.

Ash trees are a special case. The emerald ash borer has killed most of the ash in Ontario County, and dead ash is brittle and dangerous to fell. If your lot has a lot of standing dead ash, tell us — it changes the equipment and the approach.