Forestry Mulching
Forestry mulching grinds brush and small trees into a mulch layer right where they stand. One machine, one pass, and no burn piles left behind.
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Category 5 Land Management does land clearing in Southport, NC, and across the rest of Brunswick County. Southport sits near the mouth of the Cape Fear River. It was founded as Smithville in 1792 and took the Southport name in 1887. The old name lives on in Smithville Township, which takes in the city. Smithville was also the county seat from 1808 to 1977. We clear wooded homesites, overgrown lots, lanes and trails here, plus blowdown after a storm. All of it gets mulched in place. Land clearing from our base in Longs, South Carolina reaches Southport and the rest of the county.
Southport is about 48 road miles from Longs. We also work Boiling Spring Lakes, which shares Southport's 28461 ZIP code, and St. James and Oak Island. A forestry mulching pass is how we clear that ground. Our Bobcat T300 compact track loader carries a forestry mulcher head. It grinds brush, saplings and small trees where they stand, up to roughly 6 to 8 inches across. The chips stay on your lot as ground cover, and the mulcher can work around trees you want to keep. Rubber tracks spread the machine's weight on soft coastal ground, and standing water waits for a dry stretch. Every estimate is free and done on site.
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Southport keeps its tree rules in its development ordinance, adopted in 2020. Section 3.18 encourages protection of the existing canopy, and it includes lot clearing provisions and enforcement. Taking out a regulated tree in a setback brings replanting requirements. So does taking out a specimen tree anywhere on the lot. Live oaks carry their own replacement rule. You or your builder check with the city before any clearing starts. After that, clearing a homesite around the trees you keep is our part. We mulch the brush and saplings the plan allows, and the kept trees stay standing.
Boiling Spring Lakes adds a federal step. Much of the city is longleaf pine, where the red-cockaded woodpecker lives. The bird digs its nest cavities in living pines. The city's tree permit is required before any tree over 7.9 inches across at breast height comes down. Taking down any pine also needs authorization from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The city will not issue a pine permit until that authorization is submitted. The federal review covers the project area plus 200 feet, since nests need little to no disturbance that close. You line up those approvals first. We clear only what they allow, outside woodpecker habitat.
Hurricane Isaias came ashore at Ocean Isle Beach just after 11 p.m. on August 3, 2020. Earlier that evening, an EF2 tornado ran over eight miles from Bald Head Island to Southport. It was the strongest of six confirmed tornado touchdowns from Isaias in this part of the Carolinas. The Weather Service put its likely winds at 115 mph. Storm surge from the same storm damaged a hundred or more boats moored at Southport's marina. Storm cleanup on a wooded lot mulches downed brush and small trees where they fell. Trees on a house or a power line belong to a tree service and the utility.
Outside the city limits, Brunswick County still has farm and woodland ground. Its farms covered 45,150 acres in 2022, with 9,874 acres of woodland and 4,272 acres of pasture. Lanes, trails and fence lines on that land close in with brush and vines. We mulch them back open to the width you mark. Pasture that has gone to brush comes back the same way. Where a lane runs toward low, wet ground, we stop at the dry edge. We stay out of wetlands and Carolina bays.
Communities & areas we serve around Southport: Boiling Spring Lakes, St. James, Oak Island, Caswell Beach, Smithville Township, Bolivia, Winnabow.
Southport ZIP codes served: 28461.
Free, no-obligation estimates throughout Brunswick County.
(843) 385-1090 Forestry mulching grinds brush and small trees into a mulch layer right where they stand. One machine, one pass, and no burn piles left behind.
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Heavy bush hogging for fields and pastures that got away from you. A tracked machine with a mulcher head cuts what a tractor bush hog cannot.
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Thick undergrowth, briar and vines cleared off yard edges, wood lines and the understory under standing trees. Ground into mulch on site with a forestry mulcher.
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Lot clearing for single residential and small commercial lots. We mulch brush and small trees in place, so your lot stays clean and usable.
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Fields that went to briar and saplings, mulched back to open ground. We bring lost pasture back to where a mower can handle it again.
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We mulch the growth off overgrown fence lines and private lanes. One tracked machine out of Longs, SC and the farm country around it.
View DetailsA few of the questions we hear most around Southport. Don't see yours? Call us. We're happy to help.
An overgrown lot, a field that got away from you, a fence line you can't see anymore? Call or send the form. We come look at the property, talk through what you want the ground to do, and price the job before any work starts. Estimates are free.
Tell us about your land — we’ll get right back to you.