Land Clearing in Milwaukee, WI

Urban Loggers LLC clears small and medium-sized lots across Greater Milwaukee — building sites, overgrown backyards, fence lines, and acreage that needs to be opened up. We take down the trees, grind the stumps, and haul or chip the brush. And because Brian runs a portable sawmill, the good hardwood that comes off your land doesn't get chipped: it gets milled into lumber and live-edge slabs.

Short answer: we clear small and medium Greater Milwaukee lots, usually a few trees up to a few acres, with one crew handling felling, stumps, brush, and the logs worth saving. Every job is priced after a free walk-through, and the permit question belongs to your municipality, not to us.

What a Small Lot Job Looks Like

Plenty of lots need opening up without needing an excavation crew: a wooded back third of an acre, a building site, an overgrown fence line, or a yard you want clear for sun, a garage, or a pool. The sequence is the same on nearly every job. We walk the lot with you and mark what stays and what goes. Trees come down first, in sections near structures and whole where there is room. Logs are sorted from brush. Stumps are ground below grade. Brush is chipped or hauled, and the ground is raked out so it is ready for a grading contractor or seed.

What’s Included

• Free on-site walk-through and a written quote
• Tree felling and sectional removal, including trees near structures
• Brush and small-diameter wood chipped or hauled away
• Stump grinding below grade, so the lot is ready to grade or seed
• Valuable hardwood logs saved for milling, when the quality is there

Honest About Fit

We take on small and medium jobs only. If a project is bigger than our crew and equipment can do efficiently, such as a large commercial tract, we will say so and point you to a contractor with the machinery for it. We will also tell you if you do not need everything removed. Keeping a healthy shade tree at the edge of a new patio is often better for the property than a bare lot.

Equipment and Access Methods

Most of our clearing is done with climbing, rigging, chainsaws, a chipper, and a stump grinder rather than a bulldozer. That keeps the footprint small, which matters when the lot is behind a house, beside a neighbor’s fence, or reached through a narrow gate. Where a chipper can reach, brush is chipped on site. Where it cannot, we carry it out or haul it. Chainsaws, chippers, and falling timber are real hazards, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration publishes the workplace safety rules this kind of work is held to. Tree-care climbing and rigging practice is documented by groups such as the International Society of Arboriculture, which is a good reference if you want to understand how a crew should be working.

Winter, Frozen Ground, and Wet Springs

Wisconsin gives clearing crews a real advantage in winter: frozen ground carries the weight of a crew and a chipper without rutting your lawn or leaving a muddy trench. Hard-frozen soil is often the best window for lots that stay soft and wet the rest of the year. The tradeoffs are short days, snow to shovel before grinding, and the occasional stump we cannot finish the same day because the ground is locked up. Early spring thaw is the opposite: soft soil, deep ruts, and a slower job. Summer is workable, but dense leaf cover makes it harder to judge lean and balance. Check the forecast from the National Weather Service in Milwaukee before you commit to a start date, because high wind will postpone felling.

Permits and Rules to Check First

Whether you need a permit depends on your municipality, your lot size, and what is on the lot. We can tell you what we have typically seen locally, but the decision is theirs, so call your city or village hall before work starts. Lots near a lake, river, or stream may fall under state shoreland zoning rules, and wetlands or protected trees can change what is allowed. If you are disturbing soil on a larger site, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency outlines construction-site erosion and stormwater expectations, and your municipality may enforce its own version. Utility lines on or near the lot are a separate item: tell us up front and we coordinate with We Energies rather than working near lines ourselves.

Species, Ash, and Moving Wood

Southeast Wisconsin lots are often full of box elder, buckthorn, cottonwood, ash, and a few good oaks and maples. Buckthorn and box elder are mostly brush and firewood. Ash deserves a second thought because of the emerald ash borer, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources tracks where it has spread. Moving ash firewood or logs long distances is how the insect travels, so infested wood should stay local. Federal quarantine information comes from USDA APHIS. For broader guidance on managing a wooded lot, the UW–Madison Division of Extension is a good place to read before you decide what stays.

Why the Wood Matters

Most clearing contractors burn, chip, or haul everything. Because Brian runs a portable sawmill, sound oak, walnut, maple, cherry, and ash logs can be set aside and milled into lumber or live-edge slabs, and the value of that wood can offset part of what clearing costs. Not every log qualifies. Rot, embedded metal from old fences, and short crooked trunks get chipped. Read more on our log milling page, or see what we do with the lumber on our hardwood slabs page.

What Affects the Cost, and What Not to Expect

Price follows tree count and size, stump count, how far brush must be moved, whether debris is chipped on site or hauled, how soft or steep the ground is, and how many logs are worth milling. We do not price a lot we have not seen, so do not expect a firm number over the phone for a wooded lot. Do not expect us to grade, excavate, pull a foundation, or haul in fill either. We clear the trees and stumps; a grading or excavation contractor takes it from there. If you want the land opened with no leftover stumps, say so at the walk-through. Leaving some natural material in place is also an option and can lower the price.