Homesite & site prep

What it is

The scope is vegetation and access. The footprint, the working room equipment will need, and the lane are marked. Trees to keep are marked. Brush and unwanted stems inside those marks are cleared, usually by mulching in place. City tree rules and floodplain permits, where they apply, belong to the city or county. The town pages name the desks.

When a landowner needs it

It fits a house, shop, or barn site that is still in brush, including Ashe juniper on a Hill Country lot or mesquite on a more open tract. A whole ranch is a broader scope. Say which one it is on the walkthrough so the marks match the build.

Process and machines

Mark the corners of the pad area, the trees, the lane, and anything that must not be hit, including utilities you can point out. Then clear inside the marks. A skid steer or compact track loader with a forestry mulching head is the common machine between retained trees. Tight lots inside a city limit can rule out a large carrier. That is settled on the ground.

What changes the price

Footprint size, brush density, how many trees stay, how long the lane is, and how hard the access is all change the hours. Rock at the surface adds time and can stop a mulching head.

Season

Homesite work next to live oaks is a common way those trees get wounded. Keep the cutting out of February through June when the build can wait, and paint every oak wound immediately.

Do not wound oaks from February through June. Sap beetles that spread oak wilt are most active then, and a fresh cut is how the fungus gets in. Paint every oak wound immediately, in any month. Texas A&M Forest Service counts land clearing and cedar clearing as wound sources, the same as pruning. Texas Oak Wilt sets the window as February 1 through June 30 and includes fresh stumps and damaged roots.

Mulching leaves chips on the ground. If that material is piled to burn later, a county burn ban can stop the burn. A county judge or the commissioners court sets the ban, and Texas A&M Forest Service posts a statewide map of which counties are under one.

On the Edwards Plateau, golden-cheeked warblers nest in juniper-oak woodland. They return in early to mid-March, lay eggs in April, and leave from late June to mid-August. If the tract is that woodland, look at the calendar before opening it in spring.

Hill Country and South Texas ground

A Boerne or Bandera homesite may sit on shallow limestone with Ashe juniper and live oak. A Helotes lot can be the same Eckrant ground, with trees close to the work. A Seguin or Floresville site is more often sand or clay. A Castroville site may be mesquite and huisache. The town page is where to read the local soil and the permit note.

Kendall, Bandera, and Comal counties sit on the Eastern Edwards Plateau: shallow soil over limestone, with Ashe juniper, honey mesquite, Texas red oak, and yaupon. Ashe juniper is the tree people call cedar. Guadalupe and Wilson counties are Post Oak Savannah, oak woodland and grassland on sand and clay. Medina County is South Texas Plains, where the brush is mesquite, acacia, and prickly pear. Huisache (Acacia farnesiana) is on the South Texas browse list, and it sprouts again on disturbed ground. The town pages describe the soils in each place.

What the land looks like afterward

Inside a city limit, a tree rule can apply. Boerne requires a permit before removing a protected tree larger than 8 inches at breast height, and that rule stops at the city limit. Other cities differ. Confirm the desk before a protected tree comes out. The clearing leaves an opened footprint, working room, and a lane, with mulch on the soil and marked trees still up. Mesquite sprouts from a buried crown if only the top is cut, so a mulched stem can grow back. Follow-up is part of keeping a field open.