Meredith drinks Lake Waukewan. About 45 percent of the town is on municipal water, and all of it comes out of an intake near the lake’s south end. So when we clear a lot that drains toward Waukewan, the trees are the easy part. What matters is what the ground does after they’re gone — and the town wrote an ordinance about that back in 1984. We clear house lots, view cuts, and whole wooded parcels across Meredith, and we plan every one around where the water goes.
The Lake Waukewan Watershed Overlay District went on the books in March of 2006. If your lot drains to Waukewan, subdivision lots have to be at least two acres, and the Planning Board can hold you to it even if the underlying zone says less. There’s an out: if you can show the board your runoff doesn’t reach the lake, the overlay doesn’t apply. The watershed is bigger than people think. It runs into New Hampton, Center Harbor, Ashland, and Holderness, and most of the Route 104 business corridor sits inside it. The treatment plant on Waukewan Street pulls about 600,000 gallons a day in summer. That’s the thing we’re working above.
Then there’s the Erosion and Sedimentation Control Ordinance. Disturb 25,000 square feet or more and you need an approved sediment control plan before the first bucket. An acre is 43,560, so a full-acre clearing for a house lot trips it every time. Since 1996 there’s a tighter rule too: any earth disturbance for new construction within 250 feet of any lake or pond needs the plan approved before work starts. Not after. Not “we’ll get it in.” Before.
Out in the Forestry and Conservation District — the ten-acre country in the southwest of town, up toward Leavitt Mountain at 1,414 feet — the zoning ordinance itself describes the land as “steep slopes, ledges” with “poor road conditions.” They’re not wrong. Clearing there is an access problem first. Sometimes a chipper can’t get in, so it’s whole-tree skidding to a landing, or a pile and a burn permit from the forest fire warden. On the east side of Lake Wicwas a lot of the shore is conservation land and the southeast corner is wooded marsh. Non-designated wetlands there carry a 50-foot buffer, and you can’t fill or grade inside one at all without a special exception.
On any of the five big lakes the state’s Shoreland Act governs the first 250 feet, with the point-system cutting limits in the 50-foot waterfront buffer, and Meredith stacks its own 65-foot structure setback from the shoreline on top. The town’s Shoreline District reaches about 300 feet back from the water. Clearing for a view inside that band is a tree-by-tree conversation, and we’ve had it a lot.
If your Meredith lot is within 250 feet of any lake or pond, get the erosion control plan in before you schedule clearing. It’s a town rule since 1996 and it’s the thing that stalls otherwise-simple jobs.
We walk it first, with you or with your builder on the phone. Flag the limits. Flag the keepers. If the lot is within 250 feet of a lake or pond, or the cut is going to be a full acre, we get the erosion plan approved before anything runs. Silt fence goes up on the downhill side, and if the downhill side is Waukewan we put it up twice as carefully.
Dig Safe gets called for the stumps. People forget that one — stump pulling is digging. Then the cut: feller or saw depending on size, skid to a landing, chip what can be chipped. Stumps come out with the excavator and get hauled or buried on-site where the town allows and the lot is big enough for it. Ledge on the Neck and in the forestry district means some stumps sit on rock with no root ball to speak of. Those come out easy. The ones in wet ground don’t.
Then we grade, loam, and seed anything that’s going to sit open through a storm. We don’t leave bare dirt above the town’s drinking water and hope for a dry week. Season runs about April to November; the ground’s locked four feet deep the rest of the year.
Wooded-lot clearing in Meredith usually runs $3,000–$8,000 per acre, driven by tree size, ledge, and how far the chips and stumps have to travel. Lighter brush and view cuts run less. Erosion control inside the 250-foot band is priced into the job, not added later. Free walk, flat number.
The clearing itself usually doesn’t. The dirt work after it can. Meredith’s erosion ordinance requires an approved sediment control plan when you disturb 25,000 square feet or more, and for any new-construction earthwork within 250 feet of a lake or pond. The Waukewan overlay adds a two-acre minimum for new lots. We sort out which of those apply before we quote.
Some. Within 50 feet of the water the state’s Shoreland Act uses a point system: you keep a certain score of trees and saplings per 50-by-50 grid and can only cut what’s above it. From 50 to 250 feet the rules loosen. We walk it and tell you which trees are legally on the table before anyone gets attached to a sightline.
Brush gets chipped and spread or hauled, depending on the lot. Stumps get pulled with the excavator and hauled, or buried on-site if there’s room and the town allows it. On the steep forestry-district parcels where a chipper can’t get in, we skid whole trees to a landing and sometimes burn with a permit from the forest fire warden.
The dry part, yes. The wet part is a wetland under Meredith’s overlay, and non-designated wetlands carry a 50-foot buffer with no fill or grading allowed inside without a special exception. Wetlands under 3,000 square feet can be exempt if a certified wetland scientist delineates them and files it with the town. We’ll tell you where the line is.
Two to five working days for the cut and stumps on a normal wooded acre, longer if it’s ledgy or we’re hauling everything off. Add time up front for the erosion plan if you need one; the town has to approve it before we start. We’d rather wait a week for paper than get shut down mid-job.
Free site walks, test pits before quotes, flat pricing, and a crew that knows Lakes Region ground.
Tell us where the property is and what you’re trying to do. We’ll walk the site, talk it through, and give you a straight, flat quote.
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