Brush Piles After Clearing Land: Mulch It in Place, Pile It, Chip It or Haul It
The Gibson Environmental Services crew
More than 10 years clearing land, cutting trails, and running forestry equipment in Southeast Michigan.
The cheapest, cleanest thing to do with the brush from a clearing job is to never make a pile: a forestry mulcher chops the brush, the saplings and the stumps into chips where they stand and spreads them over the ground, so the job ends with a mulched surface instead of a stack of limbs. When a pile already exists, or the job is hand work, the choices are a wildlife pile that stays, a row that breaks down faster than a heap, chipping, hauling, firewood, or a burn on a damp, still day.
This guide walks through each option for Southeast Michigan land, with the trade-offs, how long each one takes to disappear, and what we do on our own brush removal, brush hogging and forestry mulching jobs.
Option 1: Mulch It in Place and Skip the Pile
A forestry mulcher turns standing brush into a chip layer in one pass. There is no cutting, dragging, stacking or second trip; the machine drives through the growth and leaves the ground covered. A forestry extension guide to logging slash lists mastication, which is the same method under its forestry name, as an alternative to pile burning after a harvest, and notes the machines work best on material that was never piled in the first place. That is the whole case for deciding before the brush is cut.
The chip layer is useful on its own: it holds the soil through the first rains, shades out the seed bank and turns into topsoil as it rots. Our guide to what happens to the mulch after forestry mulching covers the first year. On a brush hogging job the result is similar on lighter material: the chopped brush lies where it fell as a coarse mulch and is gone by the second summer.
Option 2: Build a Wildlife Pile
A pile left for wildlife is not a pile left by accident. That slash guidance says unburned piles shelter small wildlife and that smaller piles break down faster and leave less ground bare, which is the recipe: a few deliberate piles on a field edge or a woodlot corner, built to last, rather than one heap in the middle of the clearing.
- Base: crisscross the biggest logs and limbs first so there is open space underneath; rabbits, grouse, songbirds and snakes use the gaps, not the brush.
- Top: smaller brush over the base, loose, so rain and air get in. A pile eight to fifteen feet across and head high is plenty.
- Place: along an edge between cover and food, on the side away from the house and the drive, never under a tree you want to keep.
- Count: a pile or two per acre of edge does more than ten piles in a row.
On hunting land a brush pile along a travel route is cover deer and turkey use within a season. Our hunting land clearing page covers the rest of that work.
Option 3: Rows and Windrows
Pushing cut brush into a row instead of a heap is the old farm answer and still a good one. A row along a fence line or a field edge gets more air and more rain than a heap, so it rots faster, and it keeps the cleared ground open for seed or crop. The slash guide suggests the same for logging slash. The row can later be mulched in place once it has settled, which is often how we finish a job that started with hand work.
Option 4: Chip It
A chipper gives you a product: chips for paths, garden beds, a muddy gate, a trail or a driveway edge. Our guide to forestry mulch, wood chips and bark mulch covers what each kind of chip is good for. The cost is handling: every limb goes through the chipper by hand, so chipping fits a day of pruning better than an acre of clearing. Where the volume is an acre, the mulcher does the chipping in place and nobody lifts a limb.
Option 5: Haul It Away
Hauling is the right answer where there is no room for a pile and no reason for a chip layer: a small lot in town, a yard cleanup, brush along a street. It is the most work per cubic yard, because brush is mostly air and a dump trailer fills fast, so we do it on hand-clearing jobs where the volume is small or the client wants the ground bare. On those jobs the brush is hauled away or left in the spot you designate; both are fine.
Option 6: Firewood and Logs
Anything over about four inches is firewood or a log, and the woodland-owner guide to storm cleanup makes the point that timber value drops fast once a tree is down: staining, rot and insects start the first season. If you want the wood, say so before the clearing starts so the trunks are cut to length and set aside instead of mulched. Dead ash splits and seasons quickly; oak and hickory take longer but burn hotter. Our guide to dead ash trees on your land covers what dead ash is still good for.
Option 7: Burning
Burning is the traditional answer and still common on farms. It needs a damp, still day, a ring cleared to bare soil, water on hand and someone watching until the pile is cold, and it leaves a bare scar for a season. Three safety points before anyone lights one: smoke from poison ivy, poison sumac and wild parsnip carries their irritants, so sort those out of the pile; a pile that has dried a full summer goes up fast and hot, so keep it well away from buildings, the woods edge and overhead lines (the federal conservation practice standard for land clearing puts debris piles at least 100 feet from adjacent woodland, buildings and roads); and green brush smolders for days. For most of the lots we clear, mulching in place removes the reason to burn at all.
How Long a Brush Pile Takes to Break Down
| Material | Time to disappear | What speeds it up |
|---|---|---|
| Chips spread as a layer | Two to four growing seasons | Ground contact, moisture, nitrogen from clover or grass seeded through it |
| Chopped brush left by a brush hog | One to two seasons | A second mowing pass that cuts it finer |
| Loose brush in a row | Three to five years | Keeping the row low and in contact with the ground |
| A tall heap of limbs | Five to ten years, the middle longest | Pulling it apart into a row, or mulching it in place once it settles |
| Trunks and stumps | A decade or more (the extension figure for a stump is often more than ten years) | Cutting low, keeping it damp, letting the fungi work |
The spread is the point: the same cubic yard of brush is gone in two seasons as chips and standing in ten as a heap. That is why the decision is best made before the first cut.
What We Do With the Brush on Our Jobs
With the forestry mulcher, everything is mulched down to the ground and stays as a chip layer; nothing is piled. With the brush hog, the stumps are cut as close to the ground as possible and the rest is chopped where it stands unless you tell us otherwise. On hand-clearing jobs, the brush is hauled away or left in the area you designate, as a wildlife pile, a row or a firewood stack. Tell us on the walk-through what you want the ground to look like and what you want kept, and the job is planned around it. The storm cleanup page covers the version of this where the brush arrived overnight.
Common Questions
What is the cheapest way to get rid of brush piles?
Never making the pile. Forestry mulching chips the brush where it stands in one pass, so there is no stacking, hauling or second trip. An existing pile is cheapest to pull into a low row and let rot, or to mulch in place once it has settled.
How long does it take for a brush pile to decompose?
Chopped brush and chips in contact with the ground go in two to four seasons. A loose row takes three to five years. A tall heap takes five to ten, and the trunks and stumps in it a decade or more.
What do I do with a large brush pile?
Pull it apart into a low row along an edge, build a deliberate wildlife pile out of the best of it, and mulch or chip the rest. A heap left in the middle of a clearing is the slowest option and shades out whatever you planned to grow there.
Should you burn brush piles?
It is one option, and the one with the most ways to go wrong: it needs a damp, still day, a cleared ring, water and a watcher until the pile is cold, and the smoke from poison ivy or wild parsnip in the pile carries their irritants. Mulching in place removes the need on most lots.
Are brush piles good for wildlife?
A pile built for it is. Big logs crossed at the base for open space, loose brush on top, placed along an edge between cover and food. Rabbits, grouse, songbirds and deer use it within a season. A heap dumped in the open is used far less.
Are brush piles a fire hazard?
A pile that has dried through a summer is a stack of kindling, so keep piles away from buildings, the woods edge and overhead lines, and keep the ground around them mowed. A chip layer spread over the ground holds moisture and is the opposite problem.
Do you haul the brush away?
On hand-clearing jobs, yes, or we leave it where you designate. On forestry mulching and brush hogging jobs the material is chopped in place and stays as mulch, which is the point of those methods.
Sources and Further Reading
The piling, decay, salvage and pile-placement points above draw on these pages; what we do with brush on our own jobs is stated in the text.
Oregon State University Extension: Other options for treating slash after a timber harvest
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service: Conservation Practice Standard 460: Land Clearing (debris pile placement)
University of Minnesota Extension: After the storm: a woodland owner's guide to managing wind-damaged forests
Iowa State University Extension and Outreach: How to Remove Tree Stumps (decay times)
Where We Do This Work
The work in this guide is done across eight Southeast Michigan counties from our base in Royal Oak. Every county page lists the townships we work in most, with a page for each.
Have Brush to Deal With?
Tell us what the ground is for and we will tell you whether it mulches in place, rows, piles or hauls. The quote is free.