What Cut Brush Does Around New Orleans
The land around New Orleans is mostly city and suburb on low ground, with wetland at every edge and Chinese tallow filling whatever is left alone. Cut Brush offers four services here: mulching overgrown lots where the growth stands, full parcel clearing to an agreed finish, tallow and understory clearing beneath the trees you keep, and lot preparation for a new house. Below is what each one leaves behind, when it is the wrong tool, and the smaller jobs people ask for by name.
For money, see the New Orleans pricing guide; for city rules and the Coastal Zone, the New Orleans land clearing page. Request a free quote and we'll contact you to discuss your property, access and the clearing you need.
Forestry Mulching
The machine runs on tracks and carries a toothed drum that chews brush, vine and saplings into chips right where they stand. Stems up to roughly eight inches feed straight in; bigger trees come down first and their tops are ground where they land. There is no pile, no fire and no truck.
On an overgrown city lot that is most of the job. You are left with ground you can walk and mow, under a chip layer, with stumps at ground level and their roots still holding the soil. The tracks spread the weight on soft ground, and the chips keep a bare lot from washing in the next heavy rain. It also means no burn pile, which Louisiana keeps at least 1,000 feet from any other dwelling.
It is the wrong choice when a builder needs bare dirt, since the chips stay behind, and it is only half a tallow job, because the roots live through it. Plain grass is cheaper to mow.
Land Clearing
Full clearing is priced from the end result you want: which trees survive, where the open ground stops, and how low everything is cut. Our crew grinds trees, brush and stumps into mulch on site, leaves the stumps flush with the ground and hauls nothing away. Full stump removal below grade and cut-and-haul of very large trees are discussed and priced in the quote. Grading and build pads are not part of our price: we clear to the ground so a builder can grade.
This scope suits a wooded parcel being split into lots, a double lot going back into use, and commercial sites on the edges of town in Jefferson or St. Charles Parish. A single overgrown fence line does not need it; understory work costs less. Hours depend on stem size, how wet the ground is and how far the machine travels from the street.
Larger sites and low ground can bring in the city's Stormwater Code or a coastal use permit; the New Orleans land clearing page sums up both. Requirements vary by parcel, scope and jurisdiction, and the governing authority makes the determination.
Chinese Tallow & Understory Clearing
The U.S. Geological Survey calls Chinese tallow a common tree in the old fields and bottomland swamps of coastal Louisiana, and notes that it handles flooding and salt better than many native trees. Around New Orleans that puts it on vacant lots, along fences and ditches, and in the back halves of lots, often under oaks worth keeping.
Our crew takes out the tallow, vine and saplings with the mulching head while steering between the trees you flag. A rotary mower only cuts a young tallow back to sprout again. Afterwards you can see through the lot and walk it, with the canopy still in place.
Plan a second step. Tallow resprouts from its roots, and treating the regrowth is work for a licensed applicator, not for us. Wet ground is worked when it is firm enough. If the big trees should go too, that is land clearing.
Lot & Homesite Preparation
Opening a lot for a house means clearing the footprint and yard, a way in from the street, room for the utility lines and a place for delivery trucks to park. On low south shore ground the highest corner often decides where the house sits, and the oaks you keep are flagged with room left around their roots.
Settle the finish before work starts: a chip-covered lot if building is a year away, or the trees and brush mulched down to ground level. Fill, grading and build pads are not part of our price: we clear to the ground so your builder can grade. Ask the state's Office of Coastal Management for a Solicitation of Views early; it costs nothing and tells you whether the lot sits in the Coastal Zone.
Jobs People Ask For by Name
People on the south shore ask for the work under these names. Each is one of the four methods above, aimed at a particular problem. Storm debris haul-off and hurricane cleanup are not on the list.
Fence Line Clearing
Back and side fences on lots in Metairie, Harvey or Marrero disappear under vine and young tallow. Grinding the strip back uncovers the fence so it can be repaired or replaced.
Brush Hogging
A lot with one season of soft growth is a mowing job, not a mulching one, and the quote says so when a mower is cheaper. Mowing tallow saplings, though, only makes them sprout again.
Invasive Species Removal
Here that mostly means Chinese tallow, which Louisiana law lists as a noxious plant. Our crew brings a stand down with the mulcher; a licensed applicator treats the regrowth that follows.
Trail Cutting
Walking paths and four-wheeler lanes on the larger tracts toward Hahnville, Luling or Belle Chasse, laid along the firmest ground rather than through the spots that hold water.
Commercial Clearing
Business and multi-lot sites, planned around the city's Stormwater Code on sites of an acre or more and the state's construction stormwater rules from LDEQ.
Property Maintenance
A planned return visit a season or two after the first pass. Tallow comes back from the root, and catching the sprouts small costs far less than clearing the lot again.
Tick & Snake Habitat Reduction
Brush grown up against a house, shed or raised foundation gives snakes and rodents cover. Opening a wide strip around the buildings takes that cover away.
Defensible Space
Thinning dead growth and brush away from a house, shed or fence, so less of it sits against the walls and the margin is easy to keep mowed.
Selective View Clearing
Opening a sight line from a homesite toward a bayou, a canal or open ground, with the oaks and other trees you want kept flagged before the machine moves.
Food Plot & Shooting Lane Clearing
Less common this close to the city, but plots and lanes on private hunting ground in St. Charles or Plaquemines Parish are the same mulching work, done on firm ground.
Horse Pasture & Paddock Reclamation
Paddocks lost to tallow and briar brought back to grass with no brush pile to fence off. Tallow berries and sap contain toxins, so the regrowth plan matters on grazing ground.
HOA Compliance & Vacant Lot Clearing
A lot over the city's 10-inch grass and weed limit, or one an association wants cleaned up, cleared to the property line with any city trees in the right of way left alone.
Sell-Ready Lot Cleanup
Opening a lot before it is listed, so buyers can see the building spot, the street frontage and where the ground sits highest.
Which Method Does Your Lot Need?
Leave that to us. Request a free quote or call (919) 525-3950, and we'll contact you to discuss your property, access and the clearing you need. The written price names the method and the finish.
Read more: the four ranges are on the New Orleans pricing guide.
Let's Get Started on Your Land
Request a free quote. We'll contact you to discuss your property, access, and the clearing you need.
Get a Free QuoteOr call us directly: (919) 525-3950