River country timber
Land near the Mississippi River and Lake Ferguson grows bottomland hardwoods: oaks, green ash, sweetgum and the like, with willow and cottonwood on the lowest, newest ground. Those woods come back thick after they are cut, so a lot of clearing around Greenville is really reclaiming ground that was open once and grew back. Vines, cane and saplings can make a tract almost impossible to walk.
For that kind of growth, the forestry mulcher is usually the fastest way back to open ground. Bigger timber is often better pushed up and windrowed with the track loader. If you hunt the land, we can open shooting lanes, clear a spot for a stand or camp, and cut trails to get a truck back in without taking down the whole woods.
Flat ground, slow water
Washington County is about as flat as Mississippi gets, and much of it is heavy clay. The USDA describes Sharkey clay, one of the main Delta soils, as very slowly permeable, with cracks that open 20 inches deep or more in dry years. When it is wet, it stays wet. That affects when we can run equipment without rutting your ground, and it affects what you should do with the land after it is cleared.
If the cleared ground will hold a house, shop or camp, think about drainage before the trees come out. Parts of the county are in mapped flood zones, so check the FEMA flood map and talk to the city or county floodplain administrator before you build. We can follow clearing with pad work, ditch work or grading so water has somewhere to go.
Rules before you burn or dig
Plenty of landowners want to burn windrows. Under MDEQ's open burning rule, land-clearing debris cannot be burned within 500 yards of an occupied dwelling without a forced-draft system like an air curtain burner, and not within 50 yards even with one. No burning during a Forestry Commission High Fire Danger Alert, a county burn ban, or where local ordinances prohibit it. Inside Greenville city limits, ask the city first.
The Mississippi Forestry Commission issues burn permits for forestry and agricultural burns. It notes that land-clearing burns follow local ordinances, so check with Washington County or the city about your location. If stumps are being dug or any ground is being excavated, Mississippi 811 needs at least two working days of notice so utilities can mark their lines.
