Forestry Mulching
We grind standing brush, saplings and small trees into mulch with a mulcher head on our tracked loader. The chips stay on the ground and hold the soil in place.
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Moorefield sits where the South Fork joins the South Branch of the Potomac. The valley floor here is some of the flattest open ground in West Virginia. The ridges climb fast on both sides of it. Ground that gets left alone closes in fast. Old pasture and river bottom fill in with multiflora rose, autumn olive, briars and locust sprouts in a few seasons. Fence rows widen every year until a tractor cannot get down them.
Marloy Hill Enterprise is a land clearing and excavation company based in Augusta, in Hampshire County. Moorefield is a straight run south for us, down US 220 through Romney. We open up overgrown lots, old fields and fence rows here in Hardy County. We also grind standing brush and saplings into a chip layer with forestry mulching. That chip layer keeps the soil covered. Estimates are free. Call or text (540) 327-1400.
Tell us about the job and the ground. We will get right back to you.
Clearing work around Moorefield splits into two kinds of ground. The bottomland along the South Branch and the South Fork is level and deep. It grows brush back fast, and it carries equipment well most of the year. The ridge ground on South Branch Mountain and the hills west of town is a different job. It is steeper, rockier and thinner, and the timber on it is hardwood.
We bring two machines to a clearing job. A tracked loader carries a mulcher head that grinds standing brush and small trees where they stand. A mini excavator carries a brush cutter for heavy brush and a bucket for digging. The tracks spread the weight, so both machines work on soft bottom ground and on side hills. Both ride down to Moorefield on our own trailer.
Which machine leads depends on what you want left behind. Fields and old pasture headed back to mowable ground usually start with brush hogging. A lot being cleared for a house or a shop gets the brush ground down first. Then the stumps come out with the excavator and the ground gets leveled.
Hardy County is farm country and poultry country. The town has been a poultry center since the 1940s, and the plant in Moorefield is the county's largest employer. More than forty percent of the poultry raised in West Virginia comes from this county. About a hundred local farms grow birds under contract. Those farms run hay ground, pasture and long field edges. Every foot of it grows in when it is left back.
Grown up fence rows are one of the most common calls we get in this county. A line that has not been cut in years turns into a wall of locust, briars, rose and volunteer trees. We take those lines back to the wire with fence line clearing. A new fence can then be built, or an old one can be seen again. Farm lanes and gate approaches get the same treatment.
Poultry houses, equipment sheds and hay storage all want flat, dry ground under them. Once the brush is off, we cut and shape the pad. Then we grade it so water runs away from the building. Stumps in the way come out with the excavator, and the holes get backfilled and leveled.
Two rivers meet in Moorefield, and the town knows what they can do. The flood of November 1985 tore through the South Branch valley. It damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes in this area. Flood control dams went in on the South Fork, and levee work followed around the town. A lot of ground in and near Moorefield still sits in mapped floodplain.
The smaller water problems are the ones we get called on. Water comes off the ridges and stands where the ground flattens out. Springs break out partway up a hillside and run toward a house or a barn. Clay and shale hold that water instead of letting it soak away. We dig french drains and drainage trenches with the mini excavator and run pipe out to daylight.
Wet ground also changes how the clearing gets done. Bottom fields dry out slowly in spring, so we plan the heavier digging for firmer ground. Tracked machines keep working where a wheeled machine would rut a field.
Hardy County is one of only seven counties in West Virginia estimated to have gained population in the 2020s. Corridor H, the four lane US 48, runs just outside Moorefield. It carries traffic east toward Wardensville and west toward Davis. Land around town gets bought for houses, cabins and hunting tracts. Most of it needs opening up before anything goes on it.
A new lot on a ridge usually needs a lane before it needs anything else. We cut in gravel driveways on rural lots and crown them so rain sheds off the middle. We also regrade drives that have washed into ruts. On a long mountain lane the ditch line matters as much as the gravel does.
Outside the town limits of Moorefield and Wardensville, the Hardy County Planning Office handles permits, including floodplain development permits. Check your parcel with them before work starts, especially on river bottom. We clear and shape the ground, and you keep the paperwork with the county in your name.
Communities and areas we serve around Moorefield: Old Fields, Fisher, Durgon, Rig, Milam, McNeill, Walnut Bottom, Kessel, Peru, Rockland, Baker, The Trough.
Moorefield ZIP codes served: 26836, 26845, 26818, 26838.
Free estimates throughout Hardy County and the surrounding area.
(540) 327-1400 We grind standing brush, saplings and small trees into mulch with a mulcher head on our tracked loader. The chips stay on the ground and hold the soil in place.
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We cut overgrown fields, pastures and fence rows back down to open ground. A brush cutter on the mini excavator reaches banks, ditch lines and fence rows from level footing.
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We dig stumps out with a mini excavator, root ball and all. The hole gets backfilled and bladed level so the spot can be mowed or built on.
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Mini excavator digging for trenches, ditches, driveway cuts and dirt work. We clear and dig on the same trip across Hampshire County and the Eastern Panhandle.
Learn More We level pads, smooth rutted ground and shape lots after clearing. The finished grade sends water away from your buildings instead of toward them.
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We cut in new gravel driveways and lanes on rural lots, and regrade drives that have rutted or washed out. The surface gets crowned so water runs off the drive instead of down it.
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We install French drains and drainage trenches that move water away from houses, cabins, barns and driveways. The mini excavator digs the line, then pipe and washed stone go in so the ground drains.
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We clear grown up fence rows and property lines on farms and acreage across Hampshire County. The row comes back to a clean line your fence crew can work from.
Learn MoreA few of the questions we hear most around Moorefield. If yours is not here, call or text and ask.
Tell us where the property is and what you want the ground to do. Call or text (540) 327-1400, or fill in the form and we will get back to you.
Tell us about the job and the ground. We will get right back to you.