We work across the county, with most of our work on wooded lots, estates and larger properties, including:

• Along the Potomac: Great Falls, McLean and Oakton

• Southwestern Fairfax: Clifton, Fairfax Station and Centreville

• Larger properties throughout the county, including backyards and wooded lots that have become overgrown

We also work in the neighboring counties of Loudoun and Prince William, along with Fauquier and Stafford and the rest of Virginia, including the Eastern Shore.

• Forestry mulching: one machine cuts and grinds brush and small trees in place and spreads it back over the ground as mulch. It's how we turn an unusable, overgrown backyard or wooded lot into a park-like setting.

• Invasive species removal: clearing Japanese honeysuckle, multiflora rose, autumn olive, Bradford pear and other invasives that smother the trees you want to keep.

• Land clearing: traditional clearing down to clean ground, with stumps and roots pulled, for additions, pools, driveways and new homes.

• Tree removal: large, dead and hazardous trees, trees near homes and storm cleanup.

• Excavating and erosion and sediment control: grading, drainage, French drains and leveling, plus the silt fence and other controls your plan calls for.

Invasive removal is a big part of what we do, and Fairfax takes invasive plants seriously. The Fairfax County Park Authority's Invasive Management Area program has been at it since 2006 and now has 65 sites and more than 150 acres under management, according to the Park Authority.

Running bamboo: since January 2023, Fairfax County homeowners may be fined if bamboo isn't removed or contained on their property, according to Fairfax County Public Works. We can clear bamboo stands and the overgrowth around them, and we'll talk through what it takes to keep it from coming back.

Near a stream? You need county permission before removing invasive plants in a Resource Protection Area, no matter how small the area is, according to the same page. See the permits section below for how that works.

The spotted lanternfly is here too. Fairfax County is one of the counties where reporting is no longer required, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Our Spotted Lanternfly page shows how to spot and control it.

We clear almost all invasives without chemicals. Tree of heaven is the one exception, and our Invasive Species Removal page explains why and what to do about it.

Fairfax County's clearing rules are among the strictest in Virginia, because so much of the county drains to the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. Here's what the county's rules say:

• 2,500 square feet: any land disturbing activity, such as removing trees, on more than 2,500 square feet of your property needs a permit from Fairfax County, according to Fairfax County Public Works. That's a little smaller than a typical tennis court. The county's Engineer of the Day, at 703-324-2268, can tell you if your project needs one.

• Resource Protection Areas (RPAs): these are protected buffers, usually 100 feet wide, along streams. Removing dead, diseased or invasive vegetation in an RPA is allowed with county approval, through an RPA waiver submitted online in PLUS, according to Fairfax County Land Development Services.

• The RPA waiver: there's no fee, homeowners can submit it themselves, and review usually takes about 5 business days, according to the same page.

• Replanting and penalties: vegetation removed from an RPA buffer has to be replaced with plants that do the same job, and clear-cutting isn't allowed. Violations can bring civil penalties of up to $5,000 per day, according to the county's RPA questions page.

During the estimate, we'll let you know what the law says for your property. The property owner is responsible for getting any permit or plan that's needed, and we install the silt fence and other controls it calls for. Because forestry mulching leaves no brush piles, there's nothing to burn.

"Before Kevin and his crew worked on my property, much of my land had already washed into the Potomac River since the last century... Some of my elderly trees are surviving because of the mulching treatment they received thanks to Kevin's expertise." —P. Holden, Great Falls, VA

"The end result is a park-like natural area which shows off mature trees and leaves plenty of room to run around plus an area for lawn." —Renee C., Centreville, VA

"Kevin at VA Forestry Mulching and Excavating are top tier in their field. He's professional and works very hard to get the job done." —H. Haverson, McLean, VA

"Three days later, and my backyard is transformed... The price was very reasonable." —B. Pasour, Annandale, VA

You can read all 53 of our reviews on Google.

Can you clear the brush and keep my trees? Yes. That's most of our Fairfax work. We walk the property with you, mark the trees you want to keep and clear everything else around them, so you're left with a clean, park-like setting.

My backyard backs up to a stream. Can I still clear it? Removing invasive, dead or diseased plants there is often allowed, with county approval. If your property is in a Resource Protection Area, you'll need an RPA waiver first, and what's removed has to be replanted. There's no fee, and you can submit it yourself. We'll help you understand what the county will want to see.

Will mulching help with erosion? It can. The mulch layer covers bare soil, slows down rain and helps hold the ground in place. If you have a drainage problem, we also handle grading and French drains.

Do you haul anything away? With forestry mulching, no. The brush and small trees are ground into mulch and left on the ground, so there are no trucks hauling debris through your neighborhood and no brush piles left behind.

How long does a job take? It always comes back to the site conditions: how dense the forest is, the size of the trees, the slope and ground, access and the weather. A common rule of thumb in the industry is about an acre a day. Production mulching, where the goal is clearing the land as quickly as possible, is the fastest. A park-like setting, where we keep selected trees and leave a cleaner, more detailed finish, takes additional time. We'll walk your property and give you an estimated timeline along with your written price.

What does it cost? Every property is different, so we price each job after walking it. The price depends on how thick the brush is, the size of the trees, slope, access and total acreage. You'll get a written price before any work starts.

Call 540-408-2114 (7 AM to 7 PM, seven days a week) or use our contact form for a free on-site estimate.