Land clearing in
Jericho & Underhill, Vermont
Clearing work around Jericho & Underhill runs to foothill acreage, steep ground, wooded properties, farms, and long access routes.
Estimate clearing cost↗The surface around Jericho & Underhill is glacial till over bedrock, with ledge outcrops common and shallow soil on the upper ground. Ledge is the local production killer. It lifts the head, leaves taller residual than the flat-ground standard, and on the steeper parcels it is what decides whether the machine can traverse at all. Long, steep, often single-lane driveways. Getting a machine to the work is frequently a bigger question than the work, and the turnaround at the top decides which machine can come. Jericho requires an engineer-stamped erosion plan for slopes of 8 to 15 percent and Development Review Board conditional use for more than 10,000 square feet of disturbance on slopes over 15 percent. Elevation shortens the frozen window at the bottom and lengthens it at the top; the same property can have two different working seasons on it.
What changes when clearing foothill acreage in Jericho or Underhill?
Checked 2026-09-01
| Factor | On the ground here |
|---|---|
| Landform | western flank of the Green Mountains rising toward Mount Mansfield |
| Elevation of workable ground | roughly 400–1,500 ft on the workable ground |
| Watershed | Browns River to the Lamoille |
| Mobilization zone | Core: Chittenden County |
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Frost-free window | May 2 to October 11 |
| Snowfall per year | 85.9 in |
| Highest named summit | Bald Hill, about 1,930 ft |
| Named rivers | Lee River, Browns River and Winooski River |
| Soils with bedrock within 40 in | 22% |
| Hydric (wetland-type) soil | 16% |
| Most extensive soil | Lyman-Marlow complex (21%) |
| Seasonal high water table within 20 in | 34% |
- Jericho's 2024 Town Plan puts the 2022 median condominium sale price at $244,900, up from $192,450 in 2014. — Town of Jericho, 2024 Town Plan 'Jericho's Journey Forward' Volume 2 - Community Profile (adopted December 19, 2023)
- Jericho's 2024 Town Plan maps 737 acres of flood hazard area and associated stream buffer in town. — source
- Jericho's 2024 Town Plan says the school district serving Jericho and four member towns is Jericho's largest employer. — source
- Underhill's 2021 Town Plan says the town borders six towns - Bolton, Cambridge, Essex, Jericho, Stowe and Westford - though its shared boundary with Essex is only a single corner point. — Town of Underhill, 2021 Town Plan (adopted September 9, 2021)
- Underhill's 2021 Town Plan describes a town-acquired, approximately 16.7-acre conserved parcel that extends undeveloped land from the outskirts of Underhill Center to Mountain Road, valued for its Mt. Mansfield views. — source
- Underhill's 2021 Town Plan says Underhill Central School, Browns River Middle School and Mt. Mansfield Union High School are all part of the Mount Mansfield Unified Union School District, which voted in 2019 to merge in Huntington's students. — source
- Underhill's 2021 Town Plan says that of the town's 1,231 housing units as of 2016, 308 would need to be weatherized to meet the state's 25%-weatherized-by-2020 goal; 200 Home Performance with ENERGY STAR projects had been completed by the end of 2017. — source
What drives clearing work in Jericho & Underhill
Foothill work should document side slope, ledge, soft ground, what lies downhill, and a safe machine route before discussing production.
Slope and ridgeline limits in the Jericho regulations
Jericho's Land Use and Development Regulations (final version of September 8, 2025) grade the ground in steps. Section 11.5 says that if slopes between 8 and 15 percent will be disturbed, the applicant submits plans from a registered professional engineer for erosion and sediment control during construction and for stabilizing the slope afterwards. Disturbing more than 10,000 square feet of slopes between 15 and 25 percent, or of slopes 25 percent or steeper, needs conditional use review by the Development Review Board, with an engineered grading plan, and the board may require a bond or escrow to keep stabilization plantings alive for three years.
The same regulations tell developers to keep tree and soil removal to a minimum and to treat slopes over 25 percent, prominent hillsides, ridgelines and significant rock outcroppings as features to protect, and they carve out silviculture on wetlands and buffers only when the clearing is genuinely for forest management. On a Jericho hillside, then, a mulching scope that reaches the steeper side of a lot should say up front which grade band it falls in. The town's zoning office can confirm the slope bands from the parcel's contours, and Underhill runs its own zoning department with different bylaws.
Clearing enrolled land can trigger the Land Use Change Tax
Large wooded parcels in this band are commonly enrolled in Use Value Appraisal, and cutting contrary to the property's forest management plan meets the statutory definition of development: a Land Use Change Tax event, not just a forestry question.