Underbrush clearing in Schertz shows up in two places: on residential lots where the back section has filled in beneath mature trees, and along the greenbelts and creek corridors that run through the master planned areas. Both involve keeping what is worth keeping and removing what has grown up under it. Hill Country Land Clearing handles both across the city.
Out goes hackberry and chinaberry saplings, Chinese tallow, ligustrum, greenbriar, poison ivy, young mesquite and huisache, and the volunteer growth crowding the base of better trees. Staying are live oaks, post oaks, pecans, cedar elms, and the bottomland hardwoods along the drainages. We mark keepers with you before anything starts and ask where something is ambiguous rather than deciding for you.
The creek corridors here carry the best trees in the area and the heaviest understory, since there is more moisture and shade down in them. Pecans and elms along those bottoms are worth real money and worth protecting. Clearing understory there transforms how usable a property is more than the same work does anywhere else on it. It is also the most sensitive ground, so we work by hand and with minimal machine traffic and leave the vegetation that is holding banks in place.
The wooded strips running behind subdivisions here fill in fast and then become a problem for everybody. Residents cannot see into them, they become dumping ground and habitat for what nobody wants near the house, and access for maintenance disappears. Associations generally get better value from clearing the understory and keeping the canopy than from either leaving it alone or clearing it entirely. It stays wooded, it stays usable, and it stops being a place nobody looks at.
The bottomlands around here carry good pecans, and a mature pecan with brush grown up around its base is competing for water and impossible to work under. Clearing beneath improves airflow, makes the ground usable, and lets you actually assess the condition of the trees. It is inexpensive relative to what a mature pecan is worth, and on properties with productive trees it is one of the better investments available.
The species removed here nearly all resprout from the crown, and full grubbing is often inappropriate near trees you are keeping because it disturbs their root zones. That means understory clearing is a maintained condition rather than a permanent one. A short return visit every year or two costs a fraction of the first clearing and keeps a property from closing back in, which is the cheapest way to own wooded ground here.
Open ground beneath the canopy with the boundary visible and reachable again. On residential lots the usable area often increases noticeably once the back strip stops being a thicket. On greenbelts the change is more about function than appearance: a strip you can see into and walk through stops being a dumping ground and starts being an amenity again. Where light reaches soil, ground cover generally recovers through the following season.
Oak wilt is present in this region and live oaks are root grafted, so the standard caution applies. Understory work should not wound oaks at all, but where a cut or scrape happens during the high risk window in late winter and spring it gets painted the same day. If your area has a known history, mention it at the walkthrough so the sequence can be planned around it.
There is no need to clear everything at once. Starting with the fence line and the area nearest the house handles the most pressing problems, and the rest can follow in a later season. For associations, phasing a greenbelt across a couple of budget years is often easier to approve than a single large expenditure, and it lets everyone see the result on one section before committing to the whole thing.
Underbrush clearing across Schertz, Cibolo, Selma, Universal City, Live Oak, Converse, Garden Ridge, New Braunfels, Marion, Santa Clara, and throughout Guadalupe, Comal, and Bexar counties.
Tell us which trees matter and what you want to be able to reach. Call 210-942-1961.
Selective removal of what grows beneath the canopy, leaving mature trees, soil, and contour alone. Around Schertz that means taking out hackberry, chinaberry, tallow, ligustrum, and greenbriar while keeping oaks, pecans, and bottomland hardwoods. It is very different from clearing an area to bare ground, which is what land clearing does.
Yes, and carefully. The creek corridors carry the best trees and the heaviest understory, and they are also the most sensitive ground on most properties. We work largely by hand there with minimal machine traffic and leave the vegetation holding banks in place. Work near a creek may involve floodplain considerations depending on scope.
Regularly, for associations and property managers. Wooded strips behind subdivisions fill in fast and become places nobody can see into or access. Clearing the understory while keeping the canopy generally gives boards better value than either leaving them alone or clearing them entirely, since the strip stays wooded but becomes usable and visible again.
Generally yes, and it is inexpensive relative to what a mature pecan is worth. Removing brush from around the base reduces competition, improves airflow, makes the ground workable, and lets you assess the tree properly. On properties with productive pecans it is one of the better investments available for the money.
Most of it, and that is the honest expectation. Nearly everything in the understory here resprouts from the root crown, and full grubbing is often inappropriate near trees you are keeping since it disturbs their roots. Plan on a light return visit every year or two, which costs a fraction of the first clearing.
It can, particularly on clay. Working a machine near a mature tree on wet ground compacts the root zone, and that damage shows up in the tree years later rather than immediately. We keep equipment out of root zones where possible, hand work close in, and watch ground conditions around trees that matter to you.
Yes. It is common along fence lines and in the creek bottoms here, often climbing the trunks where nobody notices it. Crews work with proper protection and it leaves with the debris rather than being chipped, since chipping disperses the oil. Let us know at the walkthrough if you know it is present so we can plan for it.