Land clearing in Shawnee almost always means Cross Timbers ground. Post oak and blackjack oak grow thick on the sandy uplands here. Cedar fills in behind them on any pasture that stopped getting burned or grazed. We run a Cat D6 dozer, a 30,000-lb excavator and a tracked skid steer out of Ada. Shawnee sits about 47 miles north of us in Pottawatomie County. Moving machines that far costs real money. So we set up best on full jobs. Several acres at a time, with the stumps coming out of the ground.
Most of the calls come off the section roads rather than from town lots. Acreage around Tecumseh, Bethel Acres, Dale and McLoud sells as a home site. The buyer takes it over and finds a pasture that went to cedar and brush. That is why taking cedar back off grazing ground runs alongside most clearing work here. Other calls come from working places trying to get grass and fence line back. We clear it mechanically, pile the debris and burn it on site where rules allow. Call (580) 344-7473 with your acreage and what you want the ground to do.
Tell us about your property and we'll get back to you fast.
Two kinds of ground show up on nearly every job here. The uplands are sandy soils formed over sandstone. That is the ground post oak and blackjack oak like, and they stand close together on it. Blackjack oak makes up more of the mix the farther west you go. Forest inventory work puts Cross Timbers woods at about 110 trees per acre at five inches or bigger. A tract can look open from the road and still bid heavy. Sandy ground pushes and digs easy when it is dry, so stumps come up whole. It also cuts into gullies fast once the cover is gone. We leave grade and some cover along the draws where water already runs.
The North Canadian River runs past Shawnee, and the bottom ground beside it acts nothing like the uplands. Down there you get elm, hackberry and pecan on softer soil. Abandoned farm ground is common in these valleys, and it grows back to brush. The water table sits close through spring. Wet bottom ground is excavator work more than dozer work. The excavator picks material up where a blade wants to push it and smear it into ruts. We watch the forecast on those jobs and often run them in late summer. We schedule heavy dirt work and grading the same way. Anything close to the river may sit in the floodplain, so check with Pottawatomie County before dirt moves.
Both, and it depends on where the tract sits. Inside the Shawnee city limits, burning takes a permit from the fire marshal. The city inspects the site before that permit counts. Inspections are listed for Wednesdays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. That turns a burn day into something we schedule ahead. The city also holds winds under 15 mph including gusts. Piles stay 50 feet off any structure, and only brush and natural wood go in the fire. Outside the limits the rules run differently, so check with Pottawatomie County and the local fire district. A state burn restriction cancels any permit already in hand. When burning is off the table, the material gets loaded and hauled away.
Storm wood is the other half of this market. The April 19, 2023 tornado tracked 15.5 miles across this area. It started southeast of Bethel Acres, crossed Shawnee and lifted in Lincoln County. At its widest the damage path ran 2,300 yards across. An EF3 touched down south of Pink the same evening. Timber hit that hard fails slowly. Split trunks and leaning trees keep dropping over pasture and fence line for years afterward. Clearing them means taking the stump out with the top, so the ground mows clean. A cleared tract usually needs something built on it next. That is where the rest of what we run in the Shawnee area picks up.
More about the service itself is on our Land Clearing page, and everything we do around town is on the Shawnee service-area page.
Free, no-obligation estimates throughout Pottawatomie County.
(580) 344-7473Answers specific to land clearing work around Shawnee. Something else on your mind? Call us.
Cedar taking the pasture, a pad to build, an old house to take down, or a pond you have been thinking about for years? Call or send the form. We come look at the property with you, and the estimate is free, from the owner who runs the machines.
Tell us about your property and we'll get back to you fast.
