Six Northeast Florida counties, Baker, Clay, Nassau, Putnam, Alachua, and Duval, have active burn bans issued by local county governments, with Duval adding a total ban on the evening of April 22. The Florida Forest Service continues to require burn authorizations for any open burning statewide. Against that backdrop, Swamp Gator ULM, the Sanderson-based land clearing and forestry mulching company, is fielding calls from homeowners, landowners, and commercial property managers who need fuel pulled off their property and cannot legally light a match to do it. The company has opened its spring schedule for no-burn land clearing, forestry mulching, and firebreak creation across its service area.
The conditions are as severe as North Florida has seen in a generation. Nearly 80 percent of the state is in Extreme (D3) drought per the US Drought Monitor, 11 active wildfires were burning across Northeast Florida as of April 21, and State Forester Rick Dolan told Jacksonville Today that "unfortunately, we've got eight to 10 more weeks of this" before the rainy season breaks the pattern (https://jaxtoday.org/2026/04/21/wildfire-risks-drought-florida/). That 8- to 10-week window is exactly when prescribed burns, the traditional tool for fuel reduction, are off the table. Forestry mulching in North Florida fills the gap. A mulching head grinds standing brush, pines, palmettos, and undergrowth into chips on the ground, which breaks down into soil instead of feeding the next fire. No flame, no smoke, no permit, no burn ban exception needed.
The Florida Forest Service's Firewise USA program (https://www.fdacs.gov/Forest-Wildfire/For-Communities/Firewise-USA/Create-Defensible-Space-Around-Homes) lays out the three-zone defensible space framework homeowners should be working toward right now: the 0-to-5-foot immediate zone clear of flammable material, the 5-to-30-foot intermediate zone thinned and maintained, and the 30-to-100-foot extended zone actively reduced. NFPA guidance (https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/wildfire/firewise-usa) adds pruning the lowest branches 6 to 10 feet from the ground and removing flammable materials within 30 feet of foundations and outbuildings. Swamp Gator's forestry service page at https://swampgatorulm.com/forestry-service/ walks through how the crew works those zones with a mulcher instead of a chainsaw and a torch. Full land clearing for larger properties, road access, pasture reclamation, and firebreaks is detailed at https://swampgatorulm.com/land-clearing/. The main site at https://swampgatorulm.com/ lists the full heavy-equipment service menu, including grading, excavation, and brush hogging.
The math on a firebreak is unforgiving. A 30-foot defensible perimeter cut with a mulcher and pulled back from a home can be the difference between a save and a loss when embers are landing in the yard. FDACS Forest and Wildfire statistics show 1,797 fires and 103,211 acres burned in Florida so far in 2026, a pace that is taxing crews across the state. For rural Baker, Columbia, and Union County landowners with pine woods up against the house, the question is not whether to clear. It is whether to clear now, under a burn ban, or clear later after a claim.
"We're running seven days right now because we're the call people make when the county says you cannot burn and the forester says fire season has two more months to go," said owner Steve McMichael. "We can pull 30 feet back from a house in a day, we can cut a firebreak along a property line, and we can do it without a single flame. Get on the schedule while the ground is dry, and we can work it."
To learn more about Swamp Gator ULM’s land clearing services for firebreaks and defensible space, visit its website.
About Swamp Gator ULM
Swamp Gator ULM is a land clearing, forestry mulching, and heavy-equipment company founded in 2017 and based in Sanderson, Florida. The company serves Baker, Columbia, Union, Bradford, Clay, Duval, Nassau, and Alachua counties with land clearing, forestry mulching, firebreak creation, grading, excavation, brush hogging, and demolition. Swamp Gator does not deliver fill dirt or materials.
Media Contact
Steve McMichael
Swamp Gator ULM
8464 Co Rd 127, Sanderson, FL 32087
Phone: (386) 515-2115
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://swampgatorulm.com/
