Clearing land runs from about $20 an acre for a brush hog pass to $5,600 an acre for heavy timber with stumps pulled, according to HomeAdvisor's June 2026 cost data. The number that matters is what is standing on the parcel: grass, brush, saplings, or trees you cannot reach around.
That spread is why a single "average" is useless. HomeAdvisor's national average for a clearing job is about $3,780, with most jobs landing between $1,397 and $6,176, but that average blends a half-acre lot with a wooded ten. Use the bands below and the calculator instead.
How much does land clearing cost per acre
HomeAdvisor's cost guide, updated June 17, 2026, breaks it out this way:
| What's on the ground | Per acre | What the price buys |
|---|---|---|
| Brush and overgrowth only | $20 to $200 | A brush hog or rotary cutter pass, nothing pulled |
| Lightly wooded | $500 to $2,000 | Small trees cut and mulched or piled |
| Heavily forested | $3,600 to $5,600 | Trees felled, stumps out, ground rough-graded |
There is no published middle band for "medium" trees, so if your parcel has trees in the 6 to 12 inch range, expect bids that land between the light and heavy columns and get three of them.
Add-ons sit on top of the per-acre figure. HomeAdvisor lists debris removal at $100 to $800 and grading or leveling at $1,000 to $3,300 for a job, separate from the clearing itself. Those two items are where a cheap-looking bid grows.
Land clearing cost calculator
The calculator multiplies your acres by the sourced band for the density you pick, then adds $100 to $150 per stump and $100 to $800 if debris leaves the site. It never produces a quote. Five lightly wooded acres with 20 stumps comes out at roughly $4,500 to $13,000, which is the honest width of a real set of bids.
Density is the only input that moves the answer by thousands. Walk the parcel and count trees over six inches across before you pick a band.
Brush hog price per acre
Brush hogging is a tractor pulling a rotary cutter through grass, weeds and woody stems up to an inch or two thick. It does not touch roots or stumps, and the brush comes back next year, but it is the cheapest way to make a parcel look owned.
Two sourced reference points. HomeAdvisor's brush-removal range is $20 to $200 per acre. The Ohio State University Extension's 2024 custom-rate survey, which asks farmers what they charge neighbors for tractor work, puts plain hay mowing at $15.29 an acre on average, with answers from $7 to $25. An open pasture with nothing woody in it should price near the farm rate; a lot that has gone to blackberry and sumac for five years prices near the top of HomeAdvisor's range because the operator is going slower and bending blades.
Small parcels pay more per acre than large ones. A custom operator has to trailer the tractor out for a one-acre lot the same as for forty, and that trip is built into the price.
Forestry mulching cost per acre
Forestry mulching is a skid steer or tracked carrier with a drum head that grinds brush and small trees into chips where they stand. Nothing is hauled, nothing is burned, and the chips stay as ground cover. It is the method most contractors push for brush and sapling ground because there is no debris bill.
HomeAdvisor's June 2026 mulching guide puts the national average at $500 an acre, with a range of $400 to $1,500. Hourly billing, common on jobs under an acre, runs $125 to $200 an hour for underbrush and small trees and $200 to $400 an hour for heavy dense brush.
The limit is tree size. Mulching heads handle trees up to roughly the diameter the machine is rated for, and past that the contractor switches to felling and a dozer, which puts you back in the wooded bands above.
Stump removal and grubbing
Stumps are priced per stump, not per acre, and they are the line item people forget. HomeAdvisor lists $100 to $150 per stump. LawnStarter's 2026 guide puts stump grinding at $131 to $438 per stump with an average of $272, and notes some companies charge $2 to $5 per inch of diameter instead.
Grinding leaves the roots in the ground and chips the top eight to twelve inches below grade. Grubbing pulls the whole root ball with an excavator so the ground can be graded and built on. If the clearing is for a house pad or a driveway, ask for grubbing in the bid and expect the heavy-forest per-acre band.
Twenty stumps on a wooded acre adds $2,000 to $3,000 to the job at the HomeAdvisor rate. On a parcel you are not building on, leave them and let the mulcher grind them flush.
Does timber pay for the clearing
Sometimes, and far less often than owners hope. Stumpage, the price a logger pays for standing trees, is quoted per ton, and the North Carolina Standing Timber Price Report for the second quarter of 2026 (NC State Extension, data from TimberMart-South) lists pine sawtimber at $27.66 a ton, mixed hardwood sawtimber at $28.03, pine pulpwood at $7.02 and hardwood pulpwood at $5.15.
The report's own caution applies: those are state averages and a specific stand can come in well off them. Two things decide whether a parcel's trees are worth anything to a logger. First, is there enough sawtimber-size wood to justify moving equipment in, since pulpwood at $5 to $7 a ton barely covers trucking. Second, is there road access for a log truck.
If the stand is real, the better move is usually selling timberland with the trees standing and letting a buyer who knows the market handle the harvest. If the trees are scrub, treat the clearing as pure cost.
USDA cost-share through EQIP
The USDA's Environmental Quality Incentives Program pays part of the cost of conservation practices on agricultural land, and one of those practices is Brush Management, practice code 314. Each state NRCS office publishes its own payment schedule every year. Pennsylvania's FY2026 list (Bulletin PA 440-26-06, March 11, 2026) pays $81.45 an acre for mechanical control of small shrubs at medium infestation, $315.30 an acre for large shrubs, and $430.13 an acre for mechanical control on parcels of an acre or less, with a $30,000 cap on the practice.
Three catches. The land has to qualify as agricultural or forest land in production, the work has to follow NRCS specs and be approved before you start, and the payment is a share of cost, not a contractor's quote. Your county NRCS office has the current schedule for your state.
Permits, wetlands and the survey
Most counties do not require a permit to clear brush on private land, but many require one for grading, burning, or clearing inside a stream buffer. Check with the county planning office before the machine shows up.
Wetlands are the expensive surprise. Under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, discharging dredged or fill material into waters of the United States, including wetlands, requires a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or an approved state program. Pushing stumps and soil into a wet area counts. If you own land with wetlands on it, find the wetland line before anyone clears to it.
Know where your corners are, too. Clearing across a property line is trespass and the neighbor's lawyer will price the trees generously. If the pins are gone, a boundary survey comes before the clearing crew.
When it's cheaper not to clear
Run the numbers before you spend them. Five heavily forested acres at HomeAdvisor's $3,600 to $5,600 band is $18,000 to $28,000, and in a lot of rural markets the cleared parcel will not appraise for that much more than the wooded one. Buyers who want a cleared lot pay for cleared; buyers who want trees pay for trees, and clearing takes the second group off the table.
If you are clearing because you think you have to in order to sell, you probably do not. You can sell the land as raw acreage to a cash buyer who takes it as it sits, brush and stumps included, and undeveloped land changes hands as-is every day. Clear it when you are building on it or farming it. Otherwise, let the next owner decide.
FAQ
How much does it cost to clear 1 acre of land? Using HomeAdvisor's June 2026 ranges: $20 to $200 for brush only, $500 to $2,000 if lightly wooded, and $3,600 to $5,600 if heavily forested with stumps removed. Debris hauling and grading are extra.
How much does it cost to clear 5 acres of wooded land? Lightly wooded, $2,500 to $10,000 for the clearing alone; heavily forested, $18,000 to $28,000. Per-acre pricing usually drops a little as acreage rises, so get bids rather than multiplying.
Is forestry mulching cheaper than traditional land clearing? For brush and small trees, yes. HomeAdvisor's mulching average is $500 an acre with no debris bill, against $500 to $2,000 for conventional light clearing plus $100 to $800 to haul debris. For large trees, mulching is not an option.
Can I get paid to clear my land? Only in two cases: merchantable timber a logger will buy (sawtimber was $27 to $28 a ton in North Carolina in Q2 2026), or NRCS cost-share on agricultural land through EQIP, which pays a set per-acre rate after approval.