Land Clearing in Fort McCoy, Florida
📞 Call (352) 780-7314Fort McCoy land is big, sandy, and grown over. Most of what gets cleared out here is 2 to 20 acre parcels off SR 315 and SR 316, east of the Ocklawaha and up against the Ocala National Forest: sand pine, longleaf, turkey oak, and saw palmetto that has had thirty years to get comfortable. Owners want a house site, a pole barn pad, pasture, or just to see their own property line again. We handle all four.
What Fort McCoy parcels are like
The forest edge gives Fort McCoy a different mix than the infill lots in Marion Oaks. Scrub soils drain fast, which is good news for a build pad and bad news for anyone hoping the palmetto will die on its own. Two things come up on almost every walk-through out here:
- Gopher tortoises. Dry scrub is their favorite ground in the county. A burrow means an FWC permit before the first pass, and a survey ($200 to $350) is cheap next to a stopped job. We look for burrows on the walk and tell you what we find.
- Wet flats toward the river. Parcels that run down toward the Ocklawaha or the creek bottoms can hold wetland pockets that fall under St. Johns River Water Management District review. Uplands are usually clear to work. The low corners are the ones we check.
Mulching is the usual answer out here
Frankly, for most Fort McCoy acreage forestry mulching is the better deal. A mulching head grinds the palmetto, scrub oak, and small pines into a chip layer where they stand, at roughly $400 to $1,000 per acre for light to moderate growth. No burn piles waiting on a permit day, no dump-truck trips down a sand road. On a dense stand with bigger trees you're closer to 1 to 2 acres a day. Open scrub goes 2 to 4.
If you're building, that's full clearing with grubbing instead: stumps and roots out of the pad footprint, then rough grade. Plenty of owners do both, mulch the acreage and grub the house site, in one mobilization.
Getting equipment in
A lot of Fort McCoy access is limerock or sugar sand. Tracked machines handle it fine. A low-boy trailer sometimes doesn't. Tell us how the road in looks when you call, and if a culvert or driveway cut is part of the job we'll fold it into the same quote.
Price and timing
Same numbers we use everywhere in Marion County: light to moderate mulching from a few hundred dollars per acre, full clearing $1,200 to $4,800 per acre for lightly wooded ground and more where the oaks are thick. Written, flat, after the walk. Most Fort McCoy estimates come back inside 24 hours, and the drive from Ocala is about 30 minutes, so scheduling isn't the bottleneck. 📞 Call (352) 780-7314
Sources: FWC gopher tortoise permitting · St. Johns River WMD permitting · Marion County Land Development Code
Common Questions
Do I need a permit to clear land in Fort McCoy?
Fort McCoy is unincorporated Marion County, so the same rules apply as the rest of the county: single-family residential upland clearing is largely exempt from the tree permit, while wetlands (St. Johns River WMD on this side of the county) and gopher tortoise burrows need review or an FWC permit first.
Can you mulch sand pine scrub?
Yes, and it's what a mulching head does best. Sand pine and scrub oak up to roughly 6 to 8 inches go straight through the mulcher; bigger trees come down first and get processed behind it.
How far out do you go?
Fort McCoy, Orange Springs, Citra, and the county roads in between. Anything in Marion County is a normal drive for us; the road into the parcel matters more than the distance.
Ready to see the land under all that brush?
Free walk-and-quote anywhere in Marion County, most estimates inside 24 hours.
📞 Call (352) 780-7314