Land Clearing in Bradfordville, FL

Land Clearing on Red Hills Acreage in Northeast Leon County

Bradfordville sits in the Red Hills, a belt of rolling clay hills north of Tallahassee. The ground here is red clay and sandy clay, cut by ravines and small drains. That is different from the flat sandy pine ground south of the county. It changes how a machine works and where it can sit.

The old cover here was shortleaf pine, oak and hickory, and much of this land is still wooded. Loblolly pine, live oak, water oak and sweetgum are what we see on most tracts. Under them comes the brush: privet, wax myrtle and pine saplings. That understory is the part that closes a property in.

Northeast Leon County still holds large tracts, horse pasture and old plantation land. Pisgah Church Road runs past moss covered oaks and horse pastures on both sides. On a five or ten acre place, the work is usually an understory clear with a keep list of trees. We mark what stays before the machines start.

Lot Clearing Along Bradfordville Road and Bannerman Road

Northeast Leon County is where most of the county's new housing is going. Major planned developments in the northeast sector could add more than 7,000 homes. Bannerman Village at Bannerman Road and Bull Headley Road is one piece of that. Leon County began rebuilding Bannerman Road in 2025 and is working through it in sections.

That growth means building lots. Some are infill inside Killearn Lakes Plantation, Ox Bottom Manor or Summerbrooke. Others are raw acreage off Centerville Road where somebody wants a house and a barn. A lot clear here means brush, small trees, stumps and roots out, with the ground left open for the builder.

Leon County protects its canopy roads, and several of them run through this area. Centerville Road, Old Centerville Road, Pisgah Church Road and Sunny Hill Road are on the county's list. The county protects the land within 100 feet of the centerline of a canopy road. If your frontage touches one of those, check with Leon County before trees come down.

Wet Ground, Ditches and Drainage on Leon County Clay

Tallahassee and Leon County get about 60 inches of rain a year. Clay sheds water instead of taking it in, so it runs across the surface and pools low. Leon County calls that sheetflow flooding, and it shows up where ground was never shaped to move water. On a wooded lot, the low spot is usually the piece you cannot use.

The county also has closed basins, where water leaves only by soaking in, evaporating or draining to a sinkhole. Water can sit at flood stage in one of those for weeks or longer. Lake Iamonia, northwest of Bradfordville, drains through a sinkhole on its north shore and dries down at times. Ground like that needs the water routed as well as the brush cut.

We cut and clean drainage ditches and swales so water leaves a field, a pasture or a driveway. Old ditches here grow shut with privet and saplings, and the excavator mulcher opens the banks from up top. We also dig ponds on private land and shape the banks while we are in there. Sunshine 811 marks buried lines, so call 811 before any digging starts.

Storm Debris and Downed Trees in Bradfordville

Hurricane season puts trees on the ground here. Hurricane Helene came ashore in Taylor County in September 2024 as a Category 4 storm. Leon County reported more than 50 roads blocked by downed trees in the days after. Two tornadoes crossed the county on May 10, 2024, and most of that damage was to trees too.

Big oaks and pines on large lots leave limbs, trunks and root balls behind. We load it with the excavator or skid steer and haul the debris off by dump truck and trailer. Old piles count too, including brush pushed up years ago and left at the back of a property. We take land and storm debris, and the ground gets left clean.