Brush Hogging & Forestry Mulching in Lapeer County, MI

Brush hogging or forestry mulching

Brush hogging takes a field that has gone to weeds and saplings back to something you can mow. Forestry mulching goes further: the head cuts standing brush and small trees and leaves them as a layer of mulch, so there is no burn pile and nothing to haul. Nothing is dug up, so the ground stays firm. Anything bigger than the head can handle comes out with the excavator instead. The brush hogging vs. forestry mulching guide goes through the difference.

Headwaters country

Lapeer County sits at the top of several watersheds. The Flint River has its headwaters near Columbiaville and runs through the city of Lapeer on its way to Genesee County. The Belle River starts here too: the main branch rises in Dryden Township, and the North Branch rises at Long Lake in Attica Township and swings around the north side of Imlay City. Fence rows along creeks and drains are where brush gets thickest.

If a ditch on the property is a county drain, check with the Lapeer County Drain Commissioner before work is done on it. Work in a natural stream goes through Michigan EGLE.

Woods, wet corners and public land

Plenty of Lapeer County acreage borders wooded ground, including public land such as the Lapeer State Game Area and the Metamora-Hadley Recreation Area. Know where your line is before the mulcher goes into a treeline, and mark anything you want kept. Wet corners are often better cut in late summer or fall, or on frozen ground, when the machine will not rut them. That gets decided at the estimate.

When the field is going back to work

If the plan is pasture, mulch breaks down and feeds the ground. If the plan is a building site, full clearing with stumps out is the better fit. See land clearing in Lapeer County. Once a field is back, a seasonal cut keeps it there, and the sooner it is cut the less there is to take down.