Land Clearing in Leakesville, MS

Land clearing on Greene County's pine and pasture ground

Greene County is timber country. USDA's 2024 land cover map shows about 55 percent of the county in evergreen forest. Another 12 percent is pasture and grass. An MSU Extension county report ties 475 jobs and about a fifth of the county's income to forestry.

A house site or a new pasture needs clean ground. For that, we take the trees down with the tree shear or the excavator. Then we clear the tract and root rake the stumps out, and the debris goes on our own trucks.

Hunting land and timber you plan to keep can go another way. The mulching head grinds the understory where it stands, and the roots stay in the ground. MSU Extension notes that mulched hardwood stumps can sprout back, so plan on some regrowth.

How high does the Chickasawhay River get at Leakesville?

The Chickasawhay River flows right past Leakesville. USGS says the river drains about 2,690 square miles above its Leakesville gauge. The National Weather Service sets flood stage there at 20 feet. At 22 feet, some low-lying roads get cut off, and at 26 feet flooding begins at the highway bridge.

The river topped 30 feet in January 2019, and the highest known stage is 38 feet, from April 1900. Of the 20 highest crests on record there, 17 came between January and April. NOAA's climate normals put Leakesville's rain at about 64 inches a year, with October the driest month.

Bibb, a creek-bottom soil, is mapped across Greene County. NRCS says its water table sits within 8 inches of the surface 6 to 11 months a year. Some of that bottomland is wetland, and filling it can take a US Army Corps of Engineers permit. On a tract with high ground, the house pad belongs up there.

Building a homesite near Leakesville on Greene County clay

By NRCS acreage, Lorman is the most common soil in Greene County. It is a clayey upland soil that takes in water very slowly. NRCS data show it and the Susquehanna clay swell when wet and shrink as they dry. That movement matters under a house pad or a driveway.

The gentler slopes carry sandy loams like McLaurin and Malbis instead. On either kind of ground, the house pad gets built up with fill and shaped to drain. If the house needs a septic system, the Mississippi State Department of Health evaluates the soil and site first. Extensive grading afterward can void that permit, so the pad and the septic area get planned together.

The town of Leakesville lists a new 6-inch water main on Jernigan Road and Roland Brewer Road. It is meant to reach over 100 homes now on private wells. Mississippi 811 says most lines on private property belong to the owner. On that side of the meter, we trench and lay the water line to the house.

Storm-downed pine around Leakesville

In February 2016, EF1 tornadoes touched down in northern Greene County near Avera. Near the Wayne County line, one snapped or uprooted pines and hardwoods more than 2 feet across. NOAA storm records also show a 70 mph thunderstorm gust measured near Leakesville.

Greene County was in federal disaster declarations for Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Zeta in 2020. Storm-downed pine on a tract comes off the same way as any clearing job. We cut up the fallen trees and haul them off on our own trucks. If a storm leaves a house or barn beyond repair, we can take the structure down and haul the debris.