Land Clearing in Cottondale, Florida
Forestry mulching and clearing around Cottondale and the middle of Jackson County. The biggest job on our Panhandle record is here: fifty acres, taken down over twenty two machine days.
- Fifty acres cleared here over 22 machine days
- Day count agreed in full before the machine moved
- From $3,000 a machine day
What we clear in Cottondale
Eight things we are actually asked for on this ground. If your job is not on this list, say so and we will tell you straight whether it is ours.
One machine cuts standing growth and grinds it back into the ground as chip in the same pass. No pile, no burn, no trucks.
Tens of acres rather than one. The fifty acre block here is the biggest single piece of ground we have taken on anywhere in the Panhandle.
Palmetto, gallberry and briar taken out from under pine you are keeping, so a block becomes ground you can walk rather than a thicket.
You mark what stays and we cut round it. On a big block that list is usually longer than the list of what goes.
Where the roots have to come out rather than the top growth being ground off. Our 30 inch excavator mulcher.
Building envelope, drive and pad taken down to workable ground before your builder arrives.
A way in from the road, and lanes through a block big enough that getting a machine to the far corner is its own job.
A line you can run wire along or walk, cut without disturbing what is either side of it.
Who calls us in this part of Jackson County
The block here had gone unworked long enough that walking it was not really possible. Three weeks of machine time turned it back into something measurable.
A job of this length is not something to begin on a handshake. The day count was worked out and agreed before anything came off the low bed, and that is how we would do yours.
Pasture going back into use, old rows, firebreaks and the ground between timber rotations. Opening ground back up rather than clearing it for the first time.
Ground nobody can walk is ground nobody prices properly. Opening it changes what a buyer is looking at and what they will pay for it.
Envelope, drive and pad taken down before the builder mobilises, so the site is ready rather than a delay.
Fifty acres at a flat acreage rate assumes the whole block is the same. It never is, and on ground this size that assumption is worth a lot of money to somebody.
How the work runs
Four steps. On a job of this length the first two matter more than anywhere else.
Pictures from the road, from inside, and something in frame for scale. On a large block send them from more than one corner, because the far side is rarely the same as the frontage.
Usually the same day. On a multi week job you get the count before anything moves, and it does not change unless the ground turns out to be different from the photographs.
The mulching head cuts, grinds and spreads as it goes. Across fifty acres that means no stacking, no burning and nothing waiting at the gate for a truck.
Not bare sand and not a field of cut stems. On a block this size that layer is what holds the surface together through the first wet season after clearing.
Photographs from our jobs
Photographs from jobs we have run. Nothing here is stock photography and nothing here is generated.
What it costs
We sell machine days, not acres, and we publish the rates. The Cottondale block was twenty two of them. What we work out from your photographs is how many yours needs.
Stems to 8 inches. Transport included. The machine that does most of our day work
Stems to 30 inches, and grubbing. Plus transport
Stems to 24 inches. Plus transport. The dearest machine we run
What moves the day count
The rate follows the machine rather than the size of the stem, which catches people out: the dedicated mulcher costs more than the excavator even though the excavator takes bigger timber and pulls roots. Transport is the cost of getting the bigger two machines to you and is separate from hauling material away, which is quoted per job.
What we have actually done in Cottondale
One job, and it is the largest single tract we have cleared in this half of the state.
| Nov 2023 | Fifty acres, 22 machine days |
| Rate that works out to | A little over two acres a day, which is normal for us on ground that has stood |
| Machine on the scope | Recorded only as a mulcher, without saying which of the three |
| Across Jackson County | Four finished jobs and 25 machine days |
We would rather tell you the machine was not written down than guess at it. The day count and the acreage were, and those are the two numbers that decide what a job like this costs.
What Panhandle ground does to a day count
| Rolling clay and sand | The Panhandle is not flat the way the peninsula is. Slope changes how a machine works a block and it changes where the water sits. |
| Planted pine | Rows already spaced for a machine. Fast work under an open stand, slow in a bay bottom that has filled in. |
| Old pasture | The quickest ground we get. How many seasons it has stood is most of the day count. |
| Hardwood branch bottoms | The creek lines through this country carry heavier timber than the ridges either side, and they slow a machine right down. |
| Palmetto and gallberry | Standard understorey work and predictable to price. |
| Ground that has stood ten years | The single biggest multiplier on a day count, and the reason the block here took three weeks rather than one. |
Machine days on the fifty acre block at Cottondale, November 2023. It is the longest single booking on our record, and the day count was agreed before the machine left our yard rather than discovered halfway through.
What customers say
FloridaLandClearing.com was beyond helpful in getting our property cleared. They were spot on with their quote, their crews arrived on time, and the machines they used were impressive to watch.
Jenny AndersonWe had a difficult project a few other companies attempted and left. Florida Land Clearing was able to get the job done and a day earlier than quoted.
Joseph KellyThese guys are pros. Watching these machines just devour acres of underbrush in a day was one of the coolest things I have seen. I cannot believe how this transformed my property.
Adam WilsonPermits in Jackson County are yours
Every county and city in Florida writes its own tree rules and they are not the same. What is protected depends on the species, the size of the trunk and how your parcel is classified.
Land in genuine agricultural or silvicultural use is usually treated very differently from a residential homesite, and a great deal of the ground around Cottondale is one or the other. Which category your block sits in is the first thing to establish, because it changes both the answer and which office gives it.
If your parcel sits inside a city limit then the city is your authority rather than the county, and municipal rules in Florida tend to be the stricter of the two.
We are a clearing contractor, not the permit office, and we do not file applications. Confirm your own parcel and your own trees with Jackson County or your city before you commit.
Cottondale questions
What does it cost to clear a large block near Cottondale?
From $3,000 a machine day, and on acreage the day count is the whole question. The fifty acre block here took twenty two days. We will not quote a large tract without photographs of the whole of it, because the far side is rarely the same as the frontage.
How long does fifty acres take?
Ours took twenty two machine days, which is a little over two acres a day. That is a normal rate for us on ground that has stood a while. Open pasture goes considerably faster and closed hardwood considerably slower.
Which machine did that job?
The scope recorded it only as a mulcher without saying which of the three, so we are not going to tell you. What was recorded is the acreage and the day count, and those are the numbers that price a job.
Do you take stumps out?
Mulching does not. It grinds off what is standing and leaves the root plate in the ground. Taking roots out is grubbing, it is the excavator, and it is a different rate.
Do you work the rest of Jackson County?
Yes, and there are four finished jobs on the county page with their acreages and day counts printed next to them.
Are you licensed and insured?
Insured, and we send the certificate before the machine moves. Florida does not issue a contractor licence for forestry mulching, so nobody holds one. Insurance is the document worth asking every contractor to produce.
Around Cottondale
Get a price on your Cottondale lot
Send a few photographs, the acreage and a note on what you want left standing. You will get a day count against a published rate, usually the same day.
Call or text 813-733-6607