Land and lot clearing for homesites and farm ground around Union Point, Greene County, Georgia.CLEARING LAND NEAR UNION POINT, NO SUMMER BURN BAN HERE.

EPD's May-through-September open-burning ban covers 54 counties in 2026, including Putnam, Morgan and Jasper next door. Greene is not on the list, so clearing debris can be burned in summer here, which is a real scheduling advantage over the counties to the west.↗

Not being in the ban does not make burning permit-free. Land-clearing burns still require a Georgia Forestry Commission permit, taken out through 1-800-GA-TREES, the online system or the GFC county office, and each permit covers a single day. GFC asks people not to burn on class 4 or 5 fire-danger days.↗↗

The basics never change: only natural vegetation from the same property, 25 feet from woodland and brush, 50 feet from structures, sunrise to sunset, someone watching it the whole time. When burning does not make sense, EPD points to chipping, composting or hauling to a grinding operation or an inert or C&D landfill.↗

Around Union Point most new homes outside the city need a septic system, and Greene's lot ordinance requires 0.75 acre on public water or 1.5 acres on a well. The field and its replacement area should be located before clearing, so we do not take out trees that could have stayed or leave stumps where the trenches belong.↗

Stumps in the tank area come out entirely; Georgia's tank rule bans stumps, large stones and voids in the backfill.↗

Along any creek branch, we stop short. Georgia keeps a 25-foot buffer of undisturbed vegetation on state waters, measured from where flowing water has wrested the vegetation away, and that buffer applies to a clearing crew just as much as to a grading crew.↗