What to Know Before Clearing Land Around Gautier
Two offices, two permits. Inside the city, Gautier's fee schedule lists a site
clearing and land disturbance permit from under one acre up, with mowing or bush hogging alone
exempt. Live oaks, magnolias and other significant trees are protected, and removing one takes a
separate permit. In unincorporated Jackson County, the county building department issues a
development and land disturbance permit for clearing that is not tied to a building permit, and
starting before a required permit costs five times the fee. Requirements vary by parcel, scope and
jurisdiction, and the governing authority makes the determination. The
Gautier and Jackson County
permit guide covers both.
Wet ground may be regulated. Jackson and Harrison counties sit in the Mississippi
Coastal Zone, where the Department of Marine Resources is the point of contact for wetland permits,
working with the Army Corps of Engineers. Low savanna ground that looks dry in October can still be
wetland. Gautier is also home to the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge, set up in
1975 to protect wet pine savanna for a critically endangered crane. If a tract holds water or runs
down to a bayou, the agency answers the wetland question before a machine is scheduled.
Tallow comes back from the root. Mississippi State University Extension describes
Chinese tallow tolerating fresh to salty waterlogged soil, spreading by water and birds, and sending
up suckers from shallow roots. Mowing saplings turns one stem into several. Mulching opens the ground
and makes the regrowth easy to reach; a treatment on that regrowth is the step that keeps it down. The
Chinese tallow removal
guide sets out the order.