Land, brush and stump clearing in St. Augustine South, FL

Last Updated: November 8, 2026

St. Augustine South is an unincorporated community just south of the City of St. Augustine, about 22 miles north of Palm Coast, so St. Johns County’s rules apply here rather than the city’s. Most of what we do is brush and stumps around existing homes, with the occasional building lot. Sunward Palm Coast Land Clearing works this dry scrub sand the way it asks to be worked.

Is there a tortoise in my yard?

There might be. Much of the community sits on excessively drained scrub sand, exactly the ground gopher tortoises dig in. So every job starts with us walking the lot for burrows, and any work within 25 feet of one needs an FWC relocation permit first. If we find one, we plan around it rather than through it.

Why keep scrub cut back from the house?

On dry sand, the palmetto and scrub oak next to a home are the fuel a ground fire would use to reach it. We cut them back from walls, decks, fences and the driveway with a brush cutter or small mulcher and keep them low as they regrow, which takes away most of that fuel without clearing the whole lot. Keepers get fenced, and we leave the chips as a layer that holds the sand, because bare scrub sand dries out and blows. Our brush clearing page covers the work.

Palmetto will come back. It regrows from trunks lying along and just under the sand unless they’re pulled, as our palmetto guide explains, so we recut cut areas as they grow back.

Should the stumps be ground or pulled?

Ground, in a sandy yard. Pulling a stump tears up the dry sand around it and leaves a patch that blows. We grind below grade, let the grindings fill the hole and top it with soil before you plant. Our stump grinding cost guide shows what moves the price, and our forestry mulching cost guide does the same for brush work. We haul debris, since a pile burn can’t meet Florida’s 300-foot residential setback on a street of homes.

What if I’m building on the lot?

Then the county’s tree count comes in. Your site plan has to meet a minimum number of tree inches set by zoning, and existing trees of 2 inches and up, measured at 4.5 feet, can count toward it; trees in easements or wetlands and exempt invasive species don’t. Every healthy oak and pine we keep outside the footprint means less planting later, which is why we start with selective clearing. The footprint itself still gets grubbed to clean sand, as on any lot clearing job, and we do the burrow walk well before the house permit date so there’s time to deal with one.