Lot clearing and brush mowing in Mound House, NV

Mound House is the stretch of Lyon County between Carson City and Dayton, at about 4,920 feet. It is not a Census place, so there are no population or housing figures to quote for it. What can be said from the map is that it is the closest community to our yard.

At a glance

• About 2.1 miles from our yard on US Highway 50 East
• Moundhouse Fire (1983, 2,345 acres) mapped about 1.1 miles away
• Backhoe, skid steer and track loader in our own fleet
• Lyon County: 38.4% of buildings in the direct exposure zone

What does clearing for a pad or a yard involve?

More digging than a fire-season mow. Sagebrush that is only mowed stays rooted, which is fine for a fuel break and no good under a slab or a gravel yard. Where the ground is going to be built on or driven on, the brush comes out by the roots, any stumps are ground or dug, and the spoil is loaded and hauled.

That is where our backhoe and skid steer come in beside the track loader. We remove the vegetation and debris. Grading to a finished elevation, compaction and base rock are the builder's or the excavator's work.

Mow it, masticate it or take it out?

It depends on what the ground will become: mow it to stubble as an open buffer, masticate it to thin it and keep it natural, or clear it to bare ground if it will be built or parked on.

Plenty of parcels need all three in different corners. The arborist marks which is which on the site walk.

Why keep a mowed strip around a working yard?

Fire has a history here. The National Interagency Fire Center maps the Moundhouse Fire of 1983 at 2,345 acres, centred about 1.1 miles from the middle of the community, and the Linehan Fire of 2006 at 5,863 acres, about 1.9 miles away.

Mound House has no Forest Service rating of its own. For Lyon County, the Forest Service puts 38.4% of buildings in the direct exposure zone, meaning wildland vegetation is close enough to carry flame to them. A mowed band between the open hillside and a fence full of equipment gives fire less to travel on.

Does a two-mile drive change anything?

It changes the planning. Clearing equipment travels to a job on a truck and trailer, and from our gate to Mound House that move is about as short as it gets. So a job here can be done in stages: mow now, come back to pull stumps when the building plans are settled.

It also makes a look at the property easy. Estimates are free, detailed and tailored to the site.

What should the owner have ready?

Have the lot lines staked or known, the planned pad, driveway and septic or utility trench locations, buried lines marked through 811, stored items moved off, and a word with Lyon County about your project.

• The lot lines, staked or clearly known
• Where the pad, the driveway and any septic or utility trench will go
• Buried lines marked through 811 before any digging
• Stored materials, vehicles and pallets moved off the area to be cleared
• A word with Lyon County about what your project needs for grading or building

Our guide to lot clearing before building in Lyon and Douglas counties walks through the order of work.