Land Clearing
Clearing wooded and overgrown acreage, lots and pasture with an excavator and a skid steer, from underbrush and dead trees to stumps and debris.
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Most land clearing around Quitman starts with ground that got away from somebody. Fence rows fill with vines and saplings. Pasture edges creep in a little more every year. Old fields and cutover tracts go to brush before anyone gets back to them.
EM Land Services is based in Monticello, Florida, about 25 miles southwest of Quitman. We travel across the state line to work in Brooks County. Land clearing is the main job, plus forestry mulching where brush stays on the ground as mulch. Call or text (850) 815-0054 for a free estimate.
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Quitman is the Brooks County seat, a town of about 4,000 where US 84 and US 221 cross. Downtown holds a historic district of 417 acres, listed on the National Register in 1982. The 1859 courthouse still sits on the square. Nearly all of our work is outside that grid, on section roads and farm tracts.
The rest of the county is farmland. The 2022 USDA farm census counts 392 farms in Brooks County and 207,151 acres in farms. Cropland runs about 120,000 acres, and the average farm is 528 acres. Cotton covers the most ground, near 50,000 acres, with peanuts around 17,000.
Farms that size carry miles of edge. Turn rows, field borders and fence lines all fill in if they are left alone. Cattle add more, and the census counted 13,163 head of cattle and calves here. A fence run into vines and saplings gets opened first, and that is fence line clearing.
Water shapes a lot of the land work in Brooks County. The Withlacoochee River forms the eastern county line with Lowndes County and runs south into the Suwannee. Okapilco Creek drains 269 square miles and meets the Withlacoochee about six miles southeast of Quitman. Piscola Creek starts in Thomas County and cuts through Brooks on its way to that same water.
Between those creeks the ground is flat and farmed. Coastal Plain soil here is sandy on top with a heavier layer below. Water sits on that ground after a hard rain, and field ditches silt in and grow up. Cleaning and reshaping a ditch is land drainage work, and it is a normal part of farming this county.
We run a mulching head on the excavator as well as the skid steer. The reach lets the machine sit on solid ground and clear the bank below it. That keeps the tracks out of the soft stuff along a ditch or a creek.
Brooks County farms hold about 67,900 acres of woodland, by that same 2022 census. Loblolly and slash pine are the common planted species on Coastal Plain ground like this. Under a pine stand the understory keeps coming back. Briars, vines and hardwood sprouts take over a tract left alone for a few years.
Mulching is usually the fit on a timber or hunting tract. It opens trails, shooting lanes and view corridors without hauling anything off. A tract opened all the way, or a homesite cut out of family land, calls for a deeper clear. The excavator takes the stumps and roots out and the ground is left open.
Farm ponds are common out here, for stock water, for fishing and for catching runoff. An old pond silts in over time and the banks grow over. Digging or cleaning out a pond is excavator work. The dirt that comes out gets spread on the field or used to build up a farm road.
South Georgia has taken two bad storms in recent years. Hurricane Idalia crossed in late August 2023 and put trees down across Quitman and Brooks County. FEMA opened a disaster recovery center in Quitman for Idalia, serving Brooks and four other counties. Pecan growers in Brooks County were among the hardest hit, with uprooted trees through the orchards.
Hurricane Helene followed on September 27, 2024. The federal declaration for Helene named Brooks County for individual assistance and for debris removal. The Georgia Forestry Commission reported that most of the land Helene hit was private forestland. Storm debris left on private land is the landowner's problem to solve.
We handle that with machines. The excavator or skid steer loads brush, limbs, stumps and root balls. A dump truck and dump trailer haul it off. That is storm debris removal, and the work is whatever is already lying on the ground.
Communities and areas we serve around Quitman: Downtown Quitman, Quitman Historic District, Screven Street, Morven, Barwick, Dixie, Barney, Pavo, Grooverville, Nankin, Okapilco Creek, Withlacoochee River.
Quitman ZIP codes served: 31643, 31638, 31629, 31625, 31720.
Free estimates throughout Brooks County and the surrounding area.
(850) 815-0054 Clearing wooded and overgrown acreage, lots and pasture with an excavator and a skid steer, from underbrush and dead trees to stumps and debris.
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We mulch brush, underbrush and small trees in place with a skid steer mulching head and an excavator mulching head. The wood stays on the ground as mulch, so the tract opens up without burn piles or hauling.
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We run a mulching head on the excavator boom to clear ditch banks, creek banks and pond edges. The machine works from firm ground above, so the soft ground below stays put.
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We clear building lots and homesites down to open, usable ground. Brush, trees, stumps and debris come off so the next step can start.
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We clear brush, vines and saplings off farm and pasture fence rows so the fence can be seen and worked on. The excavator reaches in from the side and keeps the machine off your wire.
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General land excavation with the excavator: digging and shaping ground, pulling stumps and roots, cutting ditches and moving dirt. Free on-site estimates around Monticello and about 40 miles out.
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We dig new ponds and small lakes on private land around Monticello. As a pond contractor we also reshape banks and clean out ponds that have silted in.
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We build and rebuild gravel driveways, farm roads and access roads on rural property. We clear the route, shape a crowned base, cut ditches and lay gravel or limerock.
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We dig new drainage ditches and clean out old ones so standing water leaves your land. Excavator work on pastures, fields, lots and driveways around Monticello.
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We haul land debris off your property with a dump truck and dump trailer. Brush piles, limbs, stumps, logs and storm debris get loaded with a machine and taken away.
Learn MoreA few of the questions we hear most around Quitman. If yours is not here, call or text and ask.
Tell us where the property is and what you want cleared. Call or text (850) 815-0054, or send the form and we will set up a free estimate.
Tell us about the job. We will get right back to you.