Residential lot prep
For new builds, additions, pools, barns, and detached shops. No acreage minimum — quoted from on-site assessment.
Land & lot clearing · Treasure Coast
Land & Lot Clearing On Florida's Treasure Coast
Maybe you bought a wooded acre and the survey stakes are buried under palmetto and invasive pepper. Maybe you’re a builder mobilizing on a Martin County subdivision. Maybe you just want a back third of the property opened up without losing the live oaks. You need land cleared by a crew that knows Treasure Coast soils, knows what stays and what goes, and shows up with the right equipment the first time. St. Lucie County Land Clearing Certificate of Competency held in-house · Free same-day assessment · Written scope in 4 hours.
Clearing projects over $1,500 qualify for $0-down Wisetack financing. County vegetation removal notices handled in-house — builder COI on every project.
Why Treasure Coast builders and homeowners choose Swift
Why Treasure Coast Builders & Homeowners Trust Swift For Clearing
- Family-Owned by Johnathan Portillo & Danny Ramirez — not a franchise, not a roll-up
- St. Lucie County Land Clearing Certificate of Competency — named contractor of record inside the county
- Fully Insured — General Liability, Workers’ Comp, Commercial Auto (COI before any equipment touches the property)
- ISA Certified Arborist On Staff — FS §163.045 risk documentation when applicable
- ISA Certified Arborist with Wisetack Financing for Residential Scopes
- COI with Additional-Insured Endorsement · Debris Manifests · Phased Scheduling for Builders
- Same-Day On-Site Assessment · Written Scope in 4 Hours · Mon–Sat 7 AM – 7 PM
- Kenya Ministry Partnership — a portion of every job funds orphan schools
Swift is the only Treasure Coast tree-care company that brings the St. Lucie County Land Clearing Certificate of Competency to your project — not as a sub waiting on someone else’s license, but as the named contractor of record. Builder-grade fleet, sandy-soil ground-protection planning, and the paperwork trail your project file actually needs.
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Who Swift clears land for
Residential. Builder. Investor. Acreage. Different Scopes — Same Standard.
Land clearing on the Treasure Coast is rarely one job. Each audience needs a different scope, a different debris plan, and a different paperwork trail. Swift works with all of them.
Builder & developer
COI with additional-insured endorsements, debris manifests, phased schedules aligned to your construction calendar.
Acreage cleanup
Absentee owners, estates, and 1031-exchange properties. Volume scopes handled with the same single-point-of-contact rigor.
Selective clearing
Keeps specimen oaks, mahoganies, and gumbo limbos. Walk the lot with us and tell us what stays.
Invasive removal
Brazilian pepper, Australian pine, melaleuca — cut-stump treatment, not cut-and-leave. The lot stays clear for years.
What's included
Every Job Comes With This — In Writing.
- Forestry mulching — in-place reduction of brush, palmetto, and small-diameter trees into a mulch layer left on the soil
- Full clear with haul-off — complete removal of vegetation, stumps, and root mat to a licensed disposal or recycling site
- Selective clearing — flagged specimen trees retained, root zones protected during heavy equipment work
- Grubbing & root removal — stump and root mat extraction below grade so the pad is ready for fill and footings
- Invasive species removal — Brazilian pepper, Australian pine, and melaleuca with cut-stump treatment
- Permit research and submittal via Swift’s in-house permit handling on every qualifying job
- Certificate of Insurance delivered before any equipment touches the property
- Written scope in 4 hours of the same-day on-site assessment
How it works
From Your Call To A Clean Property — Four Steps.
Walk the parcel
Same-day on-site assessment. Review of survey corners, what stays, what goes, access points, debris staging, wetland/shoreline tree flags.
Written scope in 4 hours
Method (forestry mulching · full clear · selective · grubbing), equipment plan, debris handling, permit pathway, COI. No vague estimates.
Paperwork + COI
Permit research and submittal handled in-house. Certificate of Insurance with additional-insured endorsement issued to your entity before mobilization.
Mobilize + clear
Builder-grade fleet sized to the parcel. Sandy-soil ground protection where needed. Debris manifests for your project file. Final walk before crews leave.
The details
Clearing Methods Swift Uses
Forestry mulching
In-place reduction of brush, palmetto, and small-diameter trees into a mulch layer left on the soil. Low-impact, no haul-off, fast on dense scrub. Common for back-of-lot acreage cleanup.
Full clear with haul-off
Complete removal of vegetation, stumps, and root mat. Material trucked to a licensed disposal or recycling site with documented manifests. Required for most building pads.
Selective clearing
Crew flags specimen trees to retain, removes everything else, and protects root zones during heavy equipment work. The Treasure Coast standard for preserving live oak, mahogany, gumbo limbo.
Grubbing & root removal
Stump and root mat extraction below grade so the pad is ready for fill, compaction, and footings. Combined with full clear on building-envelope scopes.
Permits & county code
Permit Rules Vary By City, By County, And By Parcel Size Across The Treasure Coast.
Thresholds shift depending on parcel size, tree DBH, protected species, wetlands proximity, and whether the lot sits inside a municipal boundary or unincorporated county. Swift handles the paperwork in-house so you are not the one calling the planning desk. Worth knowing: Florida Statute §163.045 (amended July 1, 2022) allows a single-family residential homeowner to skip the local tree-removal permit when an ISA Certified Arborist documents the tree as dangerous under ANSI/ISA Best Management Practices for Tree Risk Assessment. Does not apply to shoreline trees, HOA common areas, or commercial property. Shoreline Trees fall under exclusive FDEP authority statewide.
Common questions
Frequently Asked About This Service.
Do I Need a Permit to Clear My Lot on the Treasure Coast?
It depends on the city, the county, the parcel size, and what is being removed. Swift handles the permit research and submittal in-house so you are not navigating three different jurisdictions. For city-specific details, see the Land and Lot Clearing page for your city.
How Long Does It Take to Clear a Typical Residential Lot?
Most quarter-acre to one-acre residential lots clear inside one to three working days, depending on density, access, and whether the scope includes haul-off or in-place mulching. The written scope after your assessment gives a firm timeline.
What Happens to All the Debris?
Your choice. Forestry mulching leaves a clean mulch layer on the soil. Full clearing hauls everything off to a licensed disposal or recycling site with documented manifests. Selective clearing typically chips smaller material on site and hauls the rest.
Can You Keep Specific Trees Standing While Clearing Around Them?
Yes. Selective clearing with flagged retain trees and critical-root-zone protection is one of our most-requested residential scopes. Walk the lot with us and tell us which trees stay.
Do You Work with Builders and Developers on Multi-Lot Subdivisions?
Yes. We provide a COI with additional-insured endorsement, debris manifests, and scheduled phasing aligned to your construction calendar.
Do You Handle Invasive Species Removal as Part of Clearing?
Yes. Brazilian pepper, Australian pine, and melaleuca removal with cut-stump treatment and stump grinding is standard scope on most Treasure Coast clearing jobs.
Are You Licensed to Clear Inside St. Lucie County?
Yes. Swift holds the St. Lucie County Land Clearing Certificate of Competency, which is the credential required to perform land clearing inside St. Lucie County jurisdiction.
What About Wetlands or Shoreline Trees on My Parcel?
Shoreline Trees fall under exclusive FDEP authority statewide and cannot be trimmed or removed under local permits. Wetland-adjacent clearing requires additional review. We flag both during the assessment and route the paperwork accordingly.
Builder & B2B terms
Builders Don’t Have Time To Chase Paperwork. Swift Runs Builder Work The Way Builder Work Needs To Run.
COI with additional insured
Issued to your entity before mobilization. Covers General Liability, Workers’ Comp, Commercial Auto.
Debris manifests
Volume, disposal site, and tipping receipts documented for your project file.
Scheduled phasing
Clearing aligns with survey, silt fence, SWPPP, and foundation calendars.
Single point of contact
From quote through final walk — no game of telephone, one name to call.
Same-day assessment
Written scope inside 4 hours so estimating is never the bottleneck.
The St. Lucie County Land Clearing Certificate of Competency means Swift is the named contractor of record on clearing scopes inside the county — not a sub waiting on someone else’s license.
Invasive species removal
Three Category I Invasives Show Up On Nearly Every Overgrown Treasure Coast Lot.
Cut-and-leave is not invasive removal. Swift removes the biomass, treats the stumps, and documents the work so the lot does not turn back into a thicket inside one growing season.
Brazilian pepper
Schinus terebinthifolius
The most common offender. Cut-stump treatment is required because pepper resprouts aggressively from cut stems and root crowns.
Australian pine
Casuarina equisetifolia
Brittle, shallow-rooted, a documented hurricane-failure species. Stumps and root systems sucker if not ground out — Stump Grinding is part of scope.
Melaleuca
Melaleuca quinquenervia
Wet-area invader. Removal timing and method matter to prevent seed dispersal during the work.
Equipment Swift uses for land clearing
The Right Machine On The Right Ground. Builder-Grade Fleet Sized To The Parcel.
Sandy Treasure Coast soils compact and rut differently than inland clay, so machine selection and ground-protection mats are part of the plan — not an afterthought.
Forestry mulcher
In-place reduction of brush, palmetto, and small-diameter stems.
Skid steer with mulching head
Plus grapple and bucket attachments — for tight residential access.
Excavator with thumb
Selective tree removal, stump extraction, root-mat work.
Chipper
Limb and small-trunk processing on selective clearing scopes.
Grapple truck
Haul-off of larger material and stump debris.
What happens to specimen trees
Selective Clearing Only Works If The Keepers Actually Survive.
Heavy equipment compaction inside a critical root zone kills slow — an oak that looked fine at certificate of occupancy can die two summers later from construction injury. Swift flags retained trees before equipment moves, fences off critical root zones, routes machine traffic around protected canopy, and documents the protection plan. When a specimen tree is too damaged or too close to the build footprint to keep, we route the work to Tree Removal inside the same mobilization — so you’re not paying for two trips.
What customers say
Real Reviews — This Service.
Overgrown half-acre lot I inherited. Swift handled the St. Lucie County permit, the mitigation plan, and cleared the lot in two days. Pad-ready when they finished — the permit coordination alone was worth hiring them.
✓ Verified customerTwo acres of dense Brazilian pepper and melaleuca. Swift brought the forestry mulcher — one pass and it was done. Invasive removal permit was filed before a single plant was touched. Everything by the book.
✓ Verified customerBuilder prep on a new-construction lot. Swift maintained the surveyed corners, preserved the two heritage oaks I wanted to keep, and finished on schedule with the GC. Debris manifests delivered same day.
✓ Verified customer
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Same-day on-site assessment · Written quote in 4 hours · Fully insured · Family-owned