Brush Clearing & Reclamation
Brush clearing in Moncton and southeastern New Brunswick
Alder, scrub, raspberry and sapling regrowth taken back off fields, pasture, yards and woodlot. Land you already own, made usable again.
Why it happens
Land here closes in fast, and reclaiming it is cheaper than buying more
Stop haying a field and you have alder in five years and spruce in ten. Stop grazing and it's faster. A yard that was open when you bought the place is a thicket by the time the kids are in school. This climate grows brush at a rate that surprises people who moved here from anywhere drier.
The useful thing to notice is that this is good land gone dormant. It's already yours, it was cleared once before, and the soil under the alder is usually better than whatever you'd buy next. Reclaiming it almost always costs less than clearing virgin ground: the stumps are small, the material is soft, and the field surface is still there underneath.
Clearing it is a day or two of machine time. Keeping it clear is a management decision, and we'd rather you knew that before you spend the money than after.
Half-finished fieldThick alder on one side of frame, clean mulched ground on the other, machine working. Sells the service on its own.
What we take on
Reclamation work
Overgrown property cleanup
You bought a place and half of it is impenetrable. We open it back up so you can see the shape of your own land, find the corners, and decide what to do with it.
Field & pasture reclamation
Old hayfields and pasture lost to alder, hawthorn and spruce regeneration, mulched back to a mowable surface with the sod left intact underneath.
Underbrush & understory
Removing the small stems and understory from wooded property while the mature trees stay. Turns impassable bush into land you can walk, hunt and use.
Woodlot improvement
Mulching competing softwood and junk stems to release the trees you're actually growing, and making the woodlot navigable at the same time.
Fence lines & boundaries
Clearing along fences, ditch banks and property lines — worked from one side with the boom, so nothing crosses onto anyone else's ground.
Road frontage & sightlines
Opening up the frontage on a rural property, both for the look of it and for seeing what's coming when you pull out of the driveway.
Timing
When to do it
| Season | Conditions | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Winter | Best of the year — frozen ground, no leaves, minimal rutting | Deep snow is the only real limit. Often the best value. |
| Early spring | Poor — frost coming out, soft and rutty | Worth waiting a few weeks. Also peak nesting season. |
| Late spring / summer | Good, but full leaf hides what's underneath | Busiest season, longest lead times. Book ahead. |
| Fall | Excellent — leaves down, ground firm, good visibility | The mat sits over winter and suppresses spring growth. |
What keeps it clear afterward
Mow it, graze it, hay it or drive on it. Any of those, once or twice a year, and the regrowth never gets established. The clearing is the reset; the use is what makes it stick.
Straight answers
Brush clearing questions
How overgrown is too overgrown?
There isn't really a limit for a machine. Alder thickets you can't walk into, fifteen-year spruce regeneration, raspberry canes over your head — all of it is a day's work rather than a project.
What actually slows us down is what's hidden inside it: old fence wire, scrap metal, rock piles, and dumped junk. Tell us what you know about before we start.
Will the grass underneath survive?
Usually, and this is the main reason to mulch rather than push with a dozer. Because the head cuts at grade instead of scraping, the existing sod and root mat stay intact. Old pasture that's gone to alder very often has viable grass sitting dormant underneath, shaded out.
Once the canopy is off and light gets back to the ground, that grass frequently comes back on its own in a single season. Plenty of reclamation jobs never need reseeding.
Will the brush grow back?
Some of it will, and anybody who tells you otherwise is selling something. Alder, poplar, willow and raspberry all sucker from surviving roots. The mulch mat suppresses most of it through the first season.
What settles it is use. Mow it once or twice a year, graze it, hay it, or drive on it, and the regrowth never establishes. Leave it entirely alone and you'll want a touch-up pass in three to five years — which is a fraction of the original cost.
If you want it gone permanently with no maintenance, the roots have to come out, and that's grubbing.
What about old fence wire and rocks?
Tell us before we start. Old farmland here is full of both, and a mulching head that finds a coil of page wire has an expensive day.
Where we know there's wire or an old fence line, we work around it or pull it first. Rocks we can generally work over, but on a badly stony field we'll set the head higher and you'll get a slightly rougher finish — which is the right trade rather than a compromise.
Can you clear along fence lines and boundaries?
Regularly, and the excavator is particularly good at it. The boom lets us work a fence line from one side without driving over the fence or onto the neighbour's ground, and without needing a corridor to get in.
Same goes for ditch banks, road frontage and brook edges — the last of those subject to the 30-metre watercourse rules.
Is this worth doing before selling a property?
Often, yes. A buyer who can walk the land and see its shape, its frontage and its slope will pay more than one squinting at a wall of alders from the road. Clearing enough to make the property legible is usually money back.
Clearing all of it, on the other hand, can reduce value — mature trees and privacy are worth real money on a residential property.
Related services
Free, no-obligation
Take the property back
Free on-site quote on brush clearing and reclamation anywhere within about an hour of Moncton.