Can You Clear Brush and Trees to Make a Level Yard?

Scope of the Problem

• Removing a few small trees and invasive shrubs is a feasible weekend project involving saws, clippers, shovels, mattocks and a lot of sweat. With serious motivation and persistence -- and the help of herbicides -- clearing up to 1/8 acre of invasive vegetation by hand is a reasonable goal. A larger project inevitably involves heavy equipment and may require a permit, making it a questionable endeavor for a do-it-yourself approach.

Heavy Equipment

• A small machine called a skid steer is useful for scooping brush into a pile or loading it into a truck or dumpster for disposal off-site. It also can be used to smooth soil after the land is cleared, though it won't turn a sloped yard into a flat one. Mini-excavators sculpt and grade the earth into terraces ready for planting and also come in handy for digging out stumps. Those machines are available for rent at many tool rental centers, but they are extremely dangerous if used improperly; read the owner's manual thoroughly and follow all safety instructions if you use one of the machines.

Herbicide Use

• Broad-spectrum, systemic herbicides, such as ready-to-use glyphosate, reduce the labor of brush removal and keep the vegetation from coming back if used repeatedly. Spraying once kills leaves and small stems, making it possible to enter areas of thick vegetation and cut everything to the ground. Then paint the concentrated herbicide onto the stumps of trees, shrubs and vines to prevent regrowth. Use the herbicide as soon as the vegetation is cut so it is better absorbed through the woody tissues. Unless removed manually or sprayed regularly, vegetation is likely to sprout from roots hidden underground for several seasons.

Legal and Environmental Concerns

• Because clearing land exposes soil and makes it vulnerable to erosion, a land disturbance permit is required for projects above a certain size, which varies according to local regulations. The sedimentation of urban streams is an environmental epidemic, requiring specialized erosion-control procedures to be used in the process of clearing land. The use of herbicides on land adjacent to waterways damages aquatic ecosystems downstream and should be avoided. Many communities have tree ordinances that protect trees above a certain size from being cut on private property without a permit, as tree canopy plays an important role in wildlife habitat and maintaining air quality.