Last Updated: · Written by Flatwood Land Clearing Palm Bay
Flatwood Land Clearing Palm Bay clears residential and commercial sites around Palm Bay, and erosion control after clearing comes down to three moves: keep sediment on the site with controls such as silt fence at the low edges, cover bare sand as quickly as the work allows, and leave the grubbed areas open only as long as the next trade needs. Sites disturbing an acre or more also need state stormwater permit coverage before work starts.
The rest of this guide explains why cleared Florida sand erodes, which controls do what, and which rules apply.
In short
- Clearing removes the plants and root mat that hold soil. Grubbed ground is bare sand, the most erodible finish.
- About 55 percent of Melbourne’s 50.79 inches of yearly rain falls from June through September, when Palm Bay’s water table sits near the surface.
- Sediment controls go in before clearing on sites that need them; stabilization follows as soon as each area is finished.
- Disturbing one acre or more needs coverage under Florida DEP’s construction generic permit.
Why bare ground follows clearing
Vegetation does three jobs for soil: leaves break the force of rain, roots bind the surface, and the litter layer slows water running across it. Clearing removes the first, grubbing removes the second and third. A grubbed pad is exactly what a builder wants and exactly what rain moves most easily. Forestry mulching leaves the roots and a cover of wood fiber, so it is far gentler on soil; forestry mulching vs land clearing compares the two finishes.
Erosion risk on flat, sandy ground
It is easy to assume a flat lot cannot erode. Palm Bay’s dominant soils are mapped at 0 to 2 percent slopes, but about 90 percent of the mapped soil in the city is poorly or very poorly drained, and in EauGallie sand, the most common soil, the wet layer sits about 12 inches below the surface from June through November. Summer storms drop water on ground that is already near saturation, so it runs off rather than soaking in. Under NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals for Melbourne, June through September brings 27.90 inches of the year’s 50.79.
Fine sand moves easily in sheet flow. It washes off a pad into the street, the front swale and the storm drains, and in Palm Bay it reaches a dense canal system: the city’s GIS maps about 395 miles of canal lines, nearly half of it in Melbourne-Tillman Water Control District right-of-way. Sediment in a swale stops it draining, and sediment in a canal is a water-quality problem the rules are written to prevent. Palm Bay’s own clearing criteria, covered in the Palm Bay permit guide, list the effect of vegetation removal on erosion, soil retention and surface water flow as a review factor.
Sediment controls
Sediment controls catch soil that moves before it leaves the site:
- Silt fence: a geotextile fabric trenched in along the low edges of the disturbed area, which slows water and lets sand settle behind it. It works on sheet flow, not concentrated streams.
- Fiber rolls or wattles: straw or coir tubes staked across the ground or around inlets, useful on short runs and around drains.
- Inlet protection: filters or barriers around storm drain inlets near the site.
- Stabilized construction entrance: a pad of coarse stone where trucks leave the site, so sand is not tracked onto the street.
Silt-fence-style barriers have a second use on Florida sites. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recommends exclusion fencing of this kind to keep gopher tortoises out of work areas, whether or not a relocation permit is required. The gopher tortoise guide covers that rule.
Installing erosion and sediment controls
On a permitted site the order matters: controls first, then clearing, then stabilization area by area. Silt fence goes along the low sides before the first tree comes down, the construction entrance goes in where trucks will run, and inlet protection goes on nearby drains. The controls are inspected and repaired after storms and stay until the ground behind them is stabilized.
Who installs them depends on the project. On a commercial site they appear on the approved site plan and the stormwater plan, and the site contractor is responsible for them. On a house lot they are often the builder’s, tied to the building permit. A clearing scope should say plainly whether erosion control is part of it or left to the next trade, so the lot is never bare with no one responsible. West Melbourne requires a city building permit before any work on a site, including clearing or staking silt fence, and calls for a pre-construction meeting once disturbance reaches half an acre.
Need the clearing sequenced around the controls?
Send the site plan or parcel and the area to be disturbed. The written scope names the order of work and who handles each control.
Soil stabilization
Stabilization means covering bare soil so rain cannot move it. The options, roughly from quickest to most permanent:
- Mulch or wood chips spread over bare areas, often from the clearing itself.
- Straw or erosion-control blankets on areas that need protection while seed takes hold.
- Seed, such as bahiagrass, which Palm Bay’s code lists among recommended turfgrasses.
- Sod, the fastest permanent cover and the standard in swales.
Local rules push toward quick cover. Malabar’s comprehensive plan requires land development regulations to ensure that soil exposed by clearing and building is expeditiously covered with an acceptable erosion control material. Palm Bay’s landscaping standards require 100 percent of a new house lot, outside the house, drives and walks, to be covered with turfgrass or approved living groundcover before the certificate of occupancy, with drainage swales, easements and rights-of-way fully covered in turfgrass.
Seeding, groundcover and native revegetation
Seed is cheaper than sod but slower, and it needs the ground to hold still while it establishes. In the wet season, heavy rain can wash seed and sand off a slope or swale before it roots, which is why swales get sod. Large areas that will not be built on, such as a buffer or a cleared acre left natural, can be revegetated with native groundcover rather than lawn. That is a planting decision for the owner and the landscape plan, and it is worth making before clearing so the ground is not left bare while it is decided.
Stormwater rules
Two layers of state permitting apply to larger clearing. Florida DEP’s construction generic permit covers construction that disturbs one acre or more, or less than an acre when it is part of a larger common plan of development or sale; coverage is obtained by filing a Notice of Intent, and the stormwater pollution prevention plan must be prepared before the notice is filed. Separately, the St. Johns River Water Management District or DEP issues Environmental Resource Permits for projects in, on or over wetlands or other surface waters, for more than 9,000 square feet of impervious surface or more than 4,000 square feet of it under vehicle traffic, or for a total project area over five acres. Clearing near wetlands covers the wetland side.
Keeping a cleared lot from washing
A lot cleared well ahead of the build is where erosion causes the most trouble, because nothing is happening on it. The best protection is timing: clear close to the start of construction. The best time to clear land guide covers the seasons, what to do after land clearing covers the first months, and lot clearing explains how a house-lot scope handles the finish of each area.
Clearing a site that needs erosion controls?
Send the site plan or parcel number and the area to be disturbed. The scope sets out the clearing sequence and which controls go in first, and by whom.