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.
Learn More
South of Tallahassee the hills flatten into sandy pine flatwoods, and Woodville sits in the middle of it. Land here grows back fast. Saw palmetto and gallberry fill in under the pines, with wax myrtle in the damp spots. Low ground holds water for weeks after a summer storm.
EM Land Services is based in Monticello and travels into Woodville and Leon County. Land clearing is the main work here: underbrush, small trees, dead trees and debris off a piece of ground. We also run forestry mulching, excavation, pond digging, gravel driveways and ditch work on the same property. Estimates are free, so call or text (850) 815-0054.
Tell us about the job. We will get right back to you.
The flatwoods soils around Woodville are sandy and poorly drained. The federal soil survey for Leon County calls them nearly level, with sand more than 72 inches deep. A dense spodic layer, often called hardpan, sits within 30 inches of the surface. In a normal year the water table sits 6 to 18 inches below the surface for one to four months.
That soil changes how a clearing job runs. Ground that carries a machine in October can bog it down in February. We run a mulching head on the excavator as well as the skid steer. The reach lets us work soft ground and pond edges from firm footing above.
Palmetto and gallberry understory is a good fit for mulching. The head grinds brush and small stems in place and leaves a mulch layer on the sand. The material stays on the property instead of going in a burn pile. Where a landowner wants bare ground, we pull the stumps and roots with the excavator.
Woodville sits on the Woodville Karst Plain. It is low, flat country running from the Cody Scarp south to the Gulf, across southeast Leon County. Average elevation is about 20 feet above sea level. Limestone sits close to the surface, and in places the sand over it is thin.
That is why the ground here has sinkholes, swallets and springs. The Leon Sinks Geological Area west of town holds a set of them, wet and dry. East of Woodville the St. Marks River drops into a sinkhole and runs underground for about a quarter mile. That is the natural bridge the battlefield park on Natural Bridge Road is named for.
On a working property this shows up as low spots that hold water and never fully dry. Clearing alone does not fix a wet field. That is where cutting and cleaning drainage ditches comes in. The soil survey notes these soils drain slowly but respond well to ditching.
Woodville has been filling in. The census counted 2,978 people in 2010 and 4,097 in 2020. Leon County calls the area the Woodville Rural Community and is running central sewer into it. The project is planned to reach close to 1,000 properties and protect the groundwater that feeds Wakulla Springs.
More houses means more lots to open up. A wooded acre off Old Woodville Road takes real work before a slab or a barn goes on it. Clearing a building lot here means underbrush, small trees, stumps and roots. The debris gets hauled off or mulched in place.
Leon County has rules worth checking before machines roll. Its single family site plan asks for the limits of clearing and any sinkholes or wetlands on the lot. Removing a protected tree needs a county permit, and the size cutoffs are published. Call Sunshine 811 to get buried lines marked before any digging starts.
This corner of Leon County takes weather. Hurricane Hermine came ashore just east of St. Marks in September 2016. Woodville Highway runs from Tallahassee down through Woodville and ends in St. Marks, so the storm came in close. More than half the homes in Leon County lost power, and trees fell on houses and lines.
May 10, 2024 brought three tornadoes to Leon County. Two were rated EF2 and cut long tracks across Tallahassee. Straight line winds over 100 miles an hour ran alongside one of them through the south side of Tallahassee. Pines snapped and limbs came down for days of cleanup.
After a storm the mess is on the ground. That is the part we handle. We load brush, limbs, logs and root balls with the excavator or skid steer. A dump truck and dump trailer haul storm debris off the property.
Communities and areas we serve around Woodville: Woodville Highway (SR 363), Old Woodville Road, Natural Bridge Road, Oak Ridge Road, Taff Road, Register Road, Cemetery Road, Page Road, Lawhon Road, Natural Bridge Battlefield Historic State Park, J. Lewis Hall Park, Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad State Trail.
Woodville ZIP codes served: 32305, 32362.
Free estimates throughout Leon 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.
Learn More
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.
Learn More
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.
Learn More
We clear building lots and homesites down to open, usable ground. Brush, trees, stumps and debris come off so the next step can start.
Learn More
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.
Learn More
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.
Learn More
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.
Learn More
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.
Learn More
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.
Learn More
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 Woodville. 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.