On this page
- Land Clearing Services in Middleburg
- Lot Clearing for New Homes in Middleburg and Lake Asbury
- Brush Clearing and Forestry Mulching Near Middleburg
- How Much Does Land Clearing Cost in Middleburg?
- Permits, Gopher Tortoises and Wetlands Before You Clear in Middleburg
- Serving Middleburg ZIP Code 32068 and Nearby Lake Asbury, Green Cove Springs, Orange Park and Keystone Heights
- Middleburg Land Clearing FAQs
Land Clearing Services in Middleburg
Whitfield Clearing & Grading provides land clearing, forestry mulching, lot clearing, brush clearing, stump grinding and site preparation on residential and commercial properties across the Middleburg area. One clearing service for all the site work; the Clay County page has the long list.
- Full clearing to dirt with stumps, $2,800 to 5,000 an acre.
- Skid steer forestry mulcher, $2,700 a day, stems to 8 inches.
- Brush removal and selective clearing with the county oaks kept.
- Stump grinding, $4.25 per inch of diameter, $160 minimum.
- Root rake grubbing and rough grading, $165 an hour with operator.
Not on the list: concrete, wells, septic, utility excavation, house demolition. I can point you to people who do them.
Lot Clearing for New Homes in Middleburg and Lake Asbury
Middleburg is a census-designated place and reports no permits of its own, so the Clay County unincorporated count is the proxy: 1,108 single-family permits in 2025 by the Census Building Permits Survey, down 33 percent from 2024. Most of those are pine lots between Blanding Boulevard and Lake Asbury, and most of them need clearing before the builder will quote.
Residential land clearing on a CR 218 lot goes in this order.
- Stake the building envelope, the drive and the drainfield area. String the setbacks.
- Flag heritage oaks and any gopher tortoise burrow at 25 feet.
- Mulch the palmetto and small pine inside the lines. Cut and grind the big pine.
- Grub the stumps under the pad only.
- Build the pad: rough grade, 12 inches of compacted fill above crown of road, three roller passes, quoted per pad.
Site prep ends with the pad checked against the string line. Twelve years in the Navy and I still cannot get the sand out of my boots.
Brush Clearing and Forestry Mulching Near Middleburg
Forestry mulching is a land clearing method that uses specialized equipment to grind trees, brush and vegetation into mulch, and on flatwoods it is the right tool nine jobs out of ten. The skid steer handles palmetto, gallberry, wax myrtle, vine and pine to 8 inches. Everything is mulched in place. The mulch layer, 3 to 4 inches, holds the sand and slows the palmetto resprout; a rotary cutter alone leaves the root mat and the fans are back by fall.
Overgrown land here usually means ten years of palmetto under planted pine. In areas with dense palmetto the crew slows to about an acre a day. From June to September the hardpan holds water a foot down and we add one day. If the lot has started to overgrow around a house, we remove brush up to the landscape beds and leave the live oaks and the drip lines alone.
How Much Does Land Clearing Cost in Middleburg?
Three acres off CR 218 ran $5,400. Land clearing costs on the rest of the pine lots come off this list, and the written price depends on the size of the lot and the density of the palmetto.
- Palmetto and pine flatwoods mulching: $1,400 to 2,300 an acre by density.
- Live oak and laurel oak hammock on Black Creek, selective: $2,000 to 3,200 an acre.
- Full clearing to dirt with stumps: $2,800 to 5,000 an acre.
- Large acreage clearing with the dedicated 300-hp mulcher: $4,100 a day plus transport.
- Haul-off: $650 to 1,200 per 10-yard load.
The wet-season day and the gopher tortoise survey, $400 to 900 by a licensed agent, go in the number before the machine does. The CR 218 job: 3 acres of palmetto and slash pine, two tortoise burrows flagged at 25 feet, skid steer, 2 days, $5,400. No surprises on the invoice. Pick a walk-through slot on the calendar or call (904) 406-7990. The written number comes by text the same evening.
Permits, Gopher Tortoises and Wetlands Before You Clear in Middleburg
The Clay County Land Development Code requires a land clearing permit for clearing over 1 acre or before a building permit, and its tree protection rules cover trees 8 inches DBH and up plus heritage live oaks.
SJRWMD handles the Environmental Resource Permit. Clearing alone does not trigger it. Fill in a wetland or a change in drainage does, and every branch off Black Creek has a bayhead or cypress strand that counts. Black Creek hit 28 feet at CR 218 in Irma in 2017, so I keep pads out of that line and out of the ERP footprint.
FWC gopher tortoise rules run across the Jacksonville metro: survey within 90 days, no work within 25 feet of a burrow, relocation permit before clearing if burrows are found. Sunshine 811 marks the gas pipeline before a stump comes out. A Florida Forest Service burn authorization is required for any pile, and on a platted lot you will not get one. Mulch instead.
Serving Middleburg ZIP Code 32068 and Nearby Lake Asbury, Green Cove Springs, Orange Park and Keystone Heights
ZIP 32068 covers Middleburg, FL and the surrounding area from Blanding Boulevard to the First Coast Expressway. Lake Asbury, Green Cove Springs and Orange Park are inside half an hour of the yard; Keystone Heights and the Trail Ridge scrub are 40 minutes down SR 21. We are a company serving property owners with land clearing services across Northeast Florida, with services throughout the county and the Jacksonville area from this one yard. Land clearing Middleburg pine lots fills my dry-season calendar.
Middleburg Land Clearing FAQs
How long does it take to clear a 3-acre pine lot in Middleburg?
Two days with the skid steer mulcher, like the CR 218 job. A dense lot can run three depending on site conditions. The land clearing process adds a day in the wet season and a day if burrows need a relocation permit. Land clearing projects get a start date after the walk-through, every project.
Do I need a permit to clear land in Middleburg?
Yes if the clearing is over 1 acre or ahead of a building permit; that is the Clay County rule. Under an acre with no protected trees, no. A tortoise survey is a separate FWC item on sandy lots, and the frequently asked questions after that are about wetlands, which SJRWMD answers.
Can you remove large trees and grind the stumps?
Yes. Tree removal on pine to 8 inches runs through the mulcher. Bigger pine and oaks are cut and we grind the stump at $4.25 per inch, $160 minimum, or by the day on lots with 10 or more. Heritage oaks need the county permit first.
Do you handle commercial clearing in Middleburg?
Yes. Commercial land clearing services cover the Blanding Boulevard outparcels, commercial sites along CR 218 and any commercial development that needs site clearing and land improvement before the civil contractor. Commercial properties in Middleburg follow the same county tree rules, and commercial clearing starts with the tree survey and a site visit.
What is the cheapest way to clear a Middleburg lot?
Mulching, at $1,400 to 2,300 an acre on flatwoods: the one way to clear a platted lot with no burn pile. Property clearing to bare dirt costs about twice that. A land clearing company doing professional clearing once beats a rented machine stuck in the hardpan. To make your property buildable, walk the property first.
