WOODBURY — From building lots to subdivisions, land clearing is booming. Tree after tree is being chipped, opening the plans to new projects every day. 

Building lots as local as Woodbury have been cleared for new houses, and subdivisions are in the works right around the corner in Middlebury. The Middlebury project was cleared for the second time by Lenahan Land Clearing and Grinding during the summer months of 2023. The lots were shown as they were being cleared; potential buyers funneled in as the work was being done so they could better see what they would possibly be purchasing. 

The subdivision was cleared for the first time in 2007-08 by the same company, but the project was left at a standstill when the economy crashed and the housing market could not support the size of the project. 

“I have been doing this for years now, and there was never really any kind of crash,” says Owen Lenahan, the son of owners-operators Kurt and Laurie Lenahan. “Even through COVID we were able to stay busy, which is unlike any other economic crash that has happened in the past.”

When COVID-19 swept the nation and made the cost of building materials and houses astronomical, many imagined it would put a halt on the land clearing industry; that simply wasn’t the case. Some local developers buckled down on projects, choking down the cost of materials to make model homes.

These homes were in high enough demand that they were selling for historic prices. While the numbers game was placed on the shoulders of the developer, it kept the land clearers consistently busy.

“I am in charge of the land clearing here, and we have stayed busy even with the cost of building through the roof, which is surprising,” says Owen Lenahan.

With land clearing projects on the rise, there needs to be someone to do the site work. This essentially means there needs to be someone to excavate and landscape a property to make it suitable for a house or building after the land clearing has been completed. There is an abundant amount of local excavation companies that work on projects within the community.

“Working for my dad, we have stayed busy for as long as I have been working,” says Evan Grieger, who works for his father Bill Grieger, owner-operator of W.R. Grieger Excavation. “Between digging foundations and putting new septic systems in, there is always work.”

From start to finish of all local projects of these sorts, with local businesses to complete them, it completes a cycle of the local economy. The local economy is fueled by local businesses, and land clearing is the starting point to this chain. This results in the rest of the local businesses and processes to work at the pace of the land clearing rates.