Good Neighbor Podcast: Union
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Residents of Northern Kentucky! Based in Union, KY....The Good Neighbor Podcast helps the residents of Northern Kentucky get to know local business owners as people. We allow the business owners and influencers in NKY to tell the stories of how they started their business and why. We hear about their families, their personal interests and why they love living in and serving resident of Northern Kentucky!
Good Neighbor Podcast: Union
How Professional Land Clearing Turns Property Problems Into Possibilities
What if the fastest way to add real value to a property is to make the vision obvious at first glance? We sit down with Logan Stamm, owner of C&L Land Services, to unpack how professional land clearing, forestry mulching, grading, and drainage work transform overgrown, overlooked lots into build-ready, marketable assets. From one-acre homesites to large tracts and full demolition, Logan explains how his team creates clean slates that help buyers see where the house sits, where the driveway runs, and why the view matters.
We get practical about methods and money. Logan breaks down the difference between forestry mulching and brush hogging, when to choose each, and how slope, species, and access impact timelines. He shares transparent day rates, the importance of an on-site free estimate, and the many ways to handle debris—stack for firewood, mulch on site, or haul it away. Beyond clearing, we cover drainage solutions that keep water out of crawl spaces and basements, smart grading that protects foundations, and gravel driveway repairs that improve access and curb appeal. It’s a masterclass in site prep for homeowners, realtors, and builders who need land to work as hard as the budget.
Logan also opens up about family and faith as the core of his business: teaching Sunday school with his wife Sarah, raising two young daughters, and building a legacy of work ethic and service. We highlight local philanthropy through Give Where You Live NKY and the power of neighbors investing where they live. If you’ve kicked the can on an overgrown lot, hunting property access, or a stubborn drainage issue, this conversation offers clarity and next steps from a trusted local pro.
Ready to talk about your land? Call or text C&L Land Services at 606-748-5913.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Mike Murphy.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you, Charlie. Yes, I am Mike Murphy, host of the Good Neighbor Podcast. The purpose of this podcast is to introduce local residents in northern Kentucky to the business owners that serve the residents. We want you to know these people as humans and not just a logo on a business card or on the side of a truck. And so I have a human being with me today. Logan Stamm is the owner of CNL Land Services. And that could mean just about anything. So Logan is here today to explain to all of us what CNL Land Services is doing for the community. So Logan, welcome to the show. Thanks, Mike. I really appreciate you having me on. You and I met maybe a month ago-ish. And you were kind of explaining to me all that you do. And I had this moment where I'm like, okay, uh, there's so much that you're able to do for somebody. Um, but CNL Land Services, that name itself doesn't really do it justice. So I said, you know, we need to we need to jump on a podcast and do some storytelling and educating. So that's why we're here today. So, Logan, what is your vision for CNL Land Services? What does CNL land services do in the community?
SPEAKER_00:So, like you said, land services leaves it pretty vague, but we did that on purpose. We have a pretty broad range of services that we do offer. So basically, my goal, our goal with the whole company is to bring your property to life. We want to make your vision come true. We want to give you clean slate. So, land services, some of our biggest offers, we do forestry mulching, uh, brush hogging, we do overall land clearing. So, say you have a lot that's one acre to 20 acres, doesn't matter the size. Whatever you want to do, we can clear cut the lot, we can clean up the woods in it, we can get it ready for your new home build, anything revolving around that. Even if there's buildings on the lot already, from small shed to a trailer to a house that needs taken down completely, we'll give you a clean slate to work with.
SPEAKER_02:So, once upon a time, I owned a piece of land in Verona and I tried to sell it, and it was so overgrown that I realized people just cannot create a vision for their home on that on that plot, that piece of land. So I had to have somebody come in and just take it down to the dirt so that as people drove by that lot, they were able to see, okay, my house is gonna sit here and I'm gonna have this view. So the type of services that you're offering is very valuable, it's actually creating value for people. It's one of those things you got to spend money to make money. So I know from experience that yeah, I had to spend money to get my land in a better place so that I could sell it. And um, a young couple bought that uh lot and they've built their house on it, and it's beautiful. I kind of wish I had kept it. But um, so when I think of land services, that's kind of what I think of, and you just sort of kind of explained that. So um, do you have uh the ability to go in and clear something small like an acre? I say that's small, but it's an acre. You mentioned 20 acres. Is there a job that's too big for you?
SPEAKER_00:Not one we found yet.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Whatever you your vision, we'll make it come to life. We want to we want to give you the clean slate that you need to make what you want happen. And so we work with residential, commercial, industrial. We work through with all the with every type. We'll work through whatever you need, whether it's a strip cleared, whether you just want your hunting property cleaned up so that you can actually see where you're going, or you're like Mike said, someone's ready to build a house. We can we can make that happen for you.
SPEAKER_02:So hunting property, I hadn't even thought about that. So if somebody's got hunting property, what's kind of a typical need that they might have?
SPEAKER_00:So the big one's the forestry mulching. So you can so there's forestry mulching and then there's brush logging. You can do both of them do similar things, but with forestry mulching, it comes in, takes it out at ground level, takes out all the underbrush, leaves all the mature trees. We can leave any size tree that you want, but it'll take out trees up to really up to eight inches in diameter. Those forestry mulchers are mean machines, or we can brush hog, which will leave a little stump, yay big, about an inch or two off the ground. Yay big. And so, and so either way, depending on what you want, depending on what the customer wants, we can make it happen, make it more useful, make your property more usable, especially if usable, especially if it's been overgrown for the last 10-20 years. If you just bought the property, I know that's the problem I've had with mine. I bought mine and nobody's touched it in 15 years, and so getting in there, you can hardly walk through it, but we can bring our machine in, come right through, mow it down, mow right through it, leave everything you want to leave, take everything out you don't.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, yeah, because there are people who are going to be listening to this conversation, and they've got a land problem. And I think that probably um it's a can that maybe they've kicked down the road for a while, thinking they might have to handle it themselves. Um, or maybe they say, Look, I I just can't afford to write a check to somebody to do this. Now, I've I've got enough realtor friends selling homes, selling lands, residential, commercial. I've heard plenty of horror stories of people that have tried to save money. And so uh after all said and done, that ends up being the most expensive thing. But if you just hire a professional to come in and take a look at uh the situation, whatever that might be, uh go to someone like you and say, look, here's here's my issue. Maybe it's some drainage stuff, maybe it's I've got these trees in the way of this. Uh I'm assuming you want to just have a conversation with them, correct?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. We are more than happy to come out. It's always a free estimate. There's no commitment, no nothing, no money up front. We'll be happy to come out, work with you, hear your ideas, give our ideas of our own. And we really want to get your vision. Whatever you want to come together is what we'll try to work with you, explain how we think we can do it best, how we think that everything will come together and what needs to be done.
SPEAKER_02:So I had I think I had a couple acres that I had cleared. And so I know from my experience what that looked like, felt like, I know what that cost. But if we use that as an example, um, I don't know what I don't even really know what's typical, like what your typical job would be. But like, how long does it take for you to clear an acre or two or five?
SPEAKER_00:So that's what that's always everyone's question. It's a hard, it's a hard one to answer because everything's so different. If it's hills, it's gonna take longer. If it's all flat, level ground, take a day. It's dependent on what kind of brush is grown up, what kind of trees are in the area, what we're actually going through, if we can mulch it all, if we have to cut it down and haul it out, if we can burn it on site, everything's different. And so that's why I want to really emphasize that we'll be out there once I get out there and see it. That's when we can really give you your estimate, we can give you your price, we can come up with different ideas. Like I mentioned, the mulching versus the brush hogging, those prices are different. Those, and it's one's for one person, one's for another. There's no cut and dry answer. But typically, I can tell you we like to we have a daily price, but for the mulching and for the brush hogging, for the mulching, it's goes at$2,200 a day, and that's for an eight-hour day. And then for the brush hogging, it's fourteen hundred dollars a day, and that's an eight-hour day.
SPEAKER_02:So what we can do in a day, that's what that's where we get uh there's a lot of variables involved, like you said, um pills. I hadn't considered that. You know, mine was like a gentle slope down to a pond. But if I drag you out to a lot and it looks like this, like a roller coaster, um, I could see that could be sort of problematic. Yep. And then um do you do you chip up the trees? Uh when when you're when you're clearing land, I don't care what the uh acreage is, do you have the ability to all the trees away? Do you saw them up, chip them up? What do you do with them?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so we mostly will I don't want to say mostly because everyone's different. Again, some people want to keep their trees for firewood, we can cut them, leave them in a pile, stack the logs. Some people want everything gone and we can haul them off. Either whatever you want to do with your property, we can make it happen.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so you just want to have the conversation, exactly. All right, all right. Well, that makes total sense. Do you work with um realtors? Do you work with home builders?
SPEAKER_00:We do, yeah. We're more than happy to work with either either one realtors like your property that you mentioned, just to get your property to sell, it needed cleared off. Yep, nobody could see the potential, nobody could see what there was to it until it was cleared off, and then then someone can come up and say, I can see my dream home here. Yeah, but if it's just an overgrown lot infested with squirrels, nobody nobody cares to take a second look. Most people don't even know what's for sale. Yeah. So home builders, more than happy to come out. Okay, clear your lot, clear whatever you need, leave the trees that what you want to leave, because a lot of times you'll have one or two trees. We're more than capable of working around those nice trees that people want to leave in their yard, the big oaks or the walnuts that people want to see their kids grow up on. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:The valuable trees, the value that sits on that property. And instead of killing it and taking it away, leave it and have it be part of whatever the story moving forward. Okay. So speaking of story, you have a life story that I'm sure is tied to wife, children, child, um, all that stuff, the personal stuff that I like to talk to people about. And so let me ask you, are you married? Do you have kids? Do you have um like you know fun things that you like to do as a family? What makes you you when you're not out there getting sweaty and dirty on someone's land?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I've been married to my beautiful wife for three years now. We've been together for five years, and we've got two girls. One's about to turn two years old, one's about to turn one year old. Oh wow. So new family, big they're they're the main reason I started this company. So anyone that tells you you'll gain time when you start a company is a liar. But what you can do is choose, choose your time. Being able to pick what I can make it to, what my girls are going to be doing, being able to see them on their schedule, that's the most important thing to me. Yeah, and so being able to get to see my kids grow up and be around them, that's great. And we churches and our faith is everything to us. So we're real involved in the church. My wife, me and my wife both teach Sunday school. She teaches the younger kids, I teach teenagers. My girls, they're right now, they're just crazy and little. I'm sure you know about that, but uh, they're they love it. We're we keep them involved in everything at the church, and it's great seeing them grow up around it all. What church do you attend? We go to Shermanful Gospel in Crittenden.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. All right. So not too far from uh where we're sitting right now, but um I think that um anytime somebody's involved in church, that kind of says a lot about them, just in terms of their heart. And uh you know, it kind of uh kind of shows that you are uh doing business in a certain way. It's just kind of how you're wired. Now, I can just attest to that because I have met you, talked to you. Um, you are a great guy, you're uh an honest and trustworthy guy, which anytime in business, you know, when you're dealing with the types of the or the the amount of money that you're dealing with, you know, you're asking people to spend thousands with you, okay? And people have to understand when they're if they're going to to take that leap of faith and spend that kind of money with you that is tied to their dreams, selling a property, improving a property, whatever. They need to know that they're working with somebody of of quality. And if you weren't that type of guy, we would not be sitting here right now. So I'll just say that. So uh you mentioned your wife. What is her name? Sarah.
SPEAKER_00:What does Sarah do? She's a stay-at-home mom. We've been blessed that she's been able to stay home and take care of the kids. Okay. That's probably one of, if not my biggest blessing that I've had is that she gets to be home raising our kids and taking care of them. We don't have to go through the struggles because I know how hard it is. I've watched my the rest of my family have to run back and forth, taking kids to daycare, the struggles of daycare. Yeah. And I I am blessed to yeah, to keep her home.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that that is a blessing. And I've said it before on this uh podcast, being aware of your blessings is the biggest blessing of all. If you're not aware of your blessings, you might as well not even have them in your life. You know, what good are they? So that's uh says a lot about you. And um, so good for you guys that you're able to have that experience with your your children. Somebody's got to stay home and teach them how to run that heavy machinery and wear a hard hat. That's it. So um, do you ever envision a day when your your girls will be involved in in this life, this business of yours?
SPEAKER_00:I do. That's my that's my dream is that I leave a legacy for them to take on whether whether they want to continue with this company or not. I want them to be involved in business, to know how to manage their own work, to find their own work, to do their own work. I want them, if there's one thing I can instill in them, I want I want it to be that work ethic, but they can do whatever they want to do.
SPEAKER_02:Amen. Yeah, because um women, I'm I I I say all the time, women are stronger than men.
SPEAKER_00:That's that's a fact.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I truly believe that. Yeah, and I've got a six-year-old granddaughter who you know she likes to she likes to be girly and stuff, you know, when it's when it's time to play with dolls and all that stuff. But she also has a lot of um gumption, hood spa, whatever you want to call it. She believes that she can do whatever she wants to. So I could see her uh just being out there elbow to elbow, shoulder to shoulder, doing anything, even if it's a what people might typically think of as a man's world. I don't really think that you can really identify things as a man's world anymore. It's it's just either you want to do it and you can do it or not. So that's absolutely right. Your your little girls could actually be someday running your what's going to be an empire at some point.
SPEAKER_00:That's it, that's absolutely right. That's my that's my dream is to leave something for them. Well, that makes you work all the harder, doesn't it? It does. It does. It's great. It's a it's an awesome opportunity that I've been blessed with to have the chance to do something like this. And that's no matter what, I want my girls to know that they can take that chance, they can always step out and they can always do it, they can do whatever they put their mind to. And I have to live that so that they see that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Amen. All right. So someday they will look back at this podcast. This is going to be on YouTube and everything that just lasts forever, I guess, nowadays. And they will they will see what you have just manifested for them. And um, but having said that, they might not want to do this at all, and that's okay. Absolutely, right? So, all right. Um, if we start talking business again, we go back to the business. You may have had a kind of a favorite job that you've done. Is there is there anything that sticks out to you that you felt particular pride in? I don't care what the size of the job was, but that just made you proud. You know how, like, when a man mows his lawn and he just kind of steps back and looks, and you just gotta enjoy the moment, you know? I did that. Um, I don't care what it is. Um, it could be a room you painted, you know, you're just taking pride in your work. Is there something that you have felt a job that you've done that you've felt a particular amount of pride in?
SPEAKER_00:There is. I had it was our first demolition job that we just finished a just a few days ago. And so we were doing a demolition work for the state. We it was removing a 1600 square foot garage where they're expanding the road and starting out there. It wasn't it was wasn't terrible, it wasn't run down, it wasn't uh wasn't a mess or anything. It was actually a pretty nice building, but it's in the way of the state, so state bought it and we took it down and just the the before and after picture of building, no building. Looked like there never was a building, everything restored, everything like it never even happened. That may be my that may be my favorite one. Okay. But as for clearing, as for land clearing, everyone's all of them are a little bit different, but I have a hard have a hard time picking a favorite. It's all uh it's all satisfying in their own ways.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Seeing a property come together, seeing a seeing the lot for what it is. You never because you truthfully never knew it was there until it's open. It could be a mountainside or it can be a there could be a pond in the back, there could be a beautiful home site overlooking the valley, but you never know because it was overgrown, full trees and brush, and it just looks like another patch of woods. And so every all of the land clearing jobs are great in that regard. I love to see the finished product.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, because there's a before and an after. And in your line of work, it's always pre-dramatic. So um, have you ever done a job where you're like, why in the world did I agree to this?
SPEAKER_00:Yep, definitely. Sometimes I think it's that way on my own property. We're still getting that ready to build our house. All right. And so just uh yeah, one struggle after another. Sometimes it seems like there's one breakdown after another. Sometimes there's one new issue we run into, something hidden in the middle of the brush that you never would have known about. Patch of barbed wire fence that you wind up in your mulcher. And sometimes it seems like that's every day, but we always get through it. That's all you can do is take it one step at a time and work through all the work through the struggles.
SPEAKER_02:Sounds like these things have been put in front of you as lessons to learn.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:To make you bigger, better, faster, stronger, and more patient as you build your empire, as I said earlier, for your girls. So um community type stuff. I mean, I know you're involved in church. Uh do you have uh any sort of nonprofits you've ever worked with or that you have an affinity for uh that you maybe would want to give back to?
SPEAKER_00:We've never had the opportunity to work with a nonprofit, but I would love to do something of in that regard. We have had a few churches reach out to us about building a new building, but one church in particular where I've known the pastor for a while and they're looking for a new building site, but that's still pretty far off in the works. But as for nonprofits are passionate about really, which church in general, we're we're all about spreading the gospel, we're all about telling people. I'm a member of the Gideons International, so we're always out handing out Bibles, handing out the little pocket Bibles. But really, one of my bigger passions that we've had that haven't had much of a chance to do lately is uh helping the homeless communities, helping people who are down on their luck. That's one of my dreams for the far-off future is opening up more resources, trying to get more put together just to help people because I know so many, I've met so many, whether we're when we're handing out Bibles, whether we're handing out food, whether we're whatever we're doing, you meet so many people that you hear their story and you hear what they've been through, and it's just one thing after another. And it's not hard to picture yourself just one step from being where they are.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And so we'd love the opportunity one day to work with a nonprofit to do those, but haven't had any chances yet.
SPEAKER_02:You might be the type of guy that starts a nonprofit tied to your passions, you know. You um you've got a big heart, as we talked about earlier. Uh, I identified that in you uh not long after I met you. So um, yeah, and if if anybody out there has a heart for giving to nonprofits uh working for nonprofits or or with nonprofits, um you want to give here locally in northern Kentucky, there's a group that I'm involved with called Give Where You Live Northern Kentucky. And if you wanted to go to that, uh it's um www.nkygives.org. And you can just learn about what we do and um how you can help nonprofits. Um you've heard of speed dating, we are speed philanthropy, we get together you know quarterly for an hour each meeting, and we bless a local nonprofit with a large um financial donation. So I say that because I'm going to twist your arm and make you join us.
SPEAKER_00:That sounds great.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it is great. Yeah, and I just wanted to make sure that I put that out there for people to know more about. So yeah, uh, and you you you get to just meet a lot of uh people that are kind of wired like you, that want to do good things in the community, and every meeting we walk out of there having gifted anywhere from six thousand to ten thousand dollars to a local nonprofit, a local charity that's doing good work here in northern Kentucky. So um it all works together, you know. We're business and uh uh nonprofits and the residents. Um, we're all we're all in this together, and this is why we get together and tell these stories. We want the people of northern Kentucky to know who is out there and all the cool things that everybody in the community is doing. There are plenty of stories we don't get to spend enough time on. So, okay, now I'm stepping down off my soapbox. That sounds incredible. I didn't even know something like that existed. Yeah, a lot of people don't. So we we make sure to every once in a while, you know, let people know. Give where you live, NKY is a great group, and I would love you to be involved with us.
SPEAKER_00:So absolutely, that's something I'm passionate about too. That give where you live. That's that name in itself is perfect. So yeah, it explains it, yeah. So many people want to, you know, you you have these grand charities donating to across the country, across the world, and that's important. It is people do need help, but people need help right here at home too. Yeah, we have neighbors that are that need help.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and and what I like about Give Where You Live is we're able to actually see with our own eyes and hear stories, how we're impacting people here in our communities. Absolutely. So um, yeah, you'll be involved uh in that whether you want to be or not. So before we go, um is there anything that we have not talked about that you wanted to make sure to let people know? Or um is there uh even if it's a business category that we haven't talked about that that um you can help somebody with? Um anything at all you want to say before we sign off?
SPEAKER_00:So I know we talked a lot about the land clearing. Uh we also, I know you mentioned a little bit, we also will do some excavation work, grading, uh, drainage work is a big one. A lot of people have water running right into their homes, and there's better ways we can get rid of that. We can work, work together, have a plan. Whether it's just installing a just fixing your ditch lines, whether it's just doing you just have to do a little bit of grading in your front yard, or we have to install some drain tile around that property. We can do that. We can fix whatever you've got going on. I know I've known a lot of people that have problems water getting in their crawl spaces, basements. They're not not impossible fixes, and it's worth fixing. Get rid of the issue as soon as you can before it causes more damage. Because I've seen it cause a water. Water is one of the worst things. Water is insidious, yeah, it is. And then we also offer we offer gravel driveway repairs, maintenance, new gravel driveways. Trying to think if there's anything else we talked about. We'll do the demolition work, whether you've got a built building big or small, we can clear it out before you get rid of it so you don't ever have to worry about it.
SPEAKER_02:I guess if it has to do with improving land, then it's worth at least a call to you.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. If it has to do with getting clean slate and getting setting up your foundations, yeah. We don't do we don't do concrete work and actually pouring a foundation, but we can do everything right up to it. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Well, sounds like I need to get a concrete guy on this podcast next. You guys need to work together. So sounds to me like we're done with this conversation. Um I've I've um allowed people uh listening to get to know you a little bit better, to understand your business better, to know a little bit about your family, know a little bit about your passions, and I managed to rope you into Give Where You Live, Northern Kentucky. So having said all that. Um this is uh the end of our conversation here with Logan Stamm here at uh the Good Neighbor Podcast. CNL Land Services is who you want to call. That's his company. The phone number 606-748-5913. Is that correct? That's correct.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:I didn't have that memorized, I have it written down in front of me, so don't be too impressed. And you can call or text us, either one's fine. Okay. Good to know. All right, I'm gonna say it again. 606-748-5913. C and L Land Services. Okay, well, that was easy, huh? Yeah. All right, we're done. We're done with this latest episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Before we sign off, I always remind everybody, everyone out there, be good to your neighbor and support local business. That's always our message. See you next time, everybody. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Union to nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show. Go to gnpunion.com. That's gnpunion.com or call us at 859 651 8330.