Free tool
Land clearing cost estimator
Enter the acreage and what is growing. The estimator multiplies the typical Central Texas per-acre range by your acreage, then lists the burn, stormwater, landfill and silt fence items that sit outside that range.
Your land, your range
Typical range for 3 acres
$4,800 to $12,000
Forestry mulching, mixed cedar, mesquite and small trees: $1,600 to $4,000 an acre, times 3 acres.
Clear, grub and haul, if stumps must come out: $12,000 to $18,000 ($4,000 to $6,000 an acre).
Forestry mulching leaves roots in the ground. Land that will carry a slab, driveway or pad needs grubbing there as well.
Mesquite comes back unless grubbed below its bud zone, about 14 inches deep; mulching alone is maintenance for mesquite.
Separate lines
- Burning in TempleTemple bans outdoor burning of brush and trees. A land-clearing burn is allowed only when no practical alternative exists, with a Fire Marshal permit first, so debris is usually mulched or hauled.
- Temple I-35 corridor overlay trees$100 per caliper inchOnly inside the overlay: trees over 8 in. across in or within 300 ft of the floodplain are protected, and removed trees are replaced inch for inch or paid for. Not added to the total: it depends on a tree survey.
What pushes toward the high end
- An acre or less: small jobs are usually priced around a machine day, about $3,000 to $4,000 in typical Central Texas ranges, because moving the machine costs the same either way.
- Dense or older cedar, trunks over about 8 inches and rock near the surface take more machine hours per acre.
- Per-acre quotes often add mobilization, about $500 to $1,500 a job, for hauling the machine to the site.
- Wet clay: the black clay east of I-35 ruts after rain, so work waits for the ground to firm up.
- Keeping trees: working around marked keepers, and timing work near oaks around oak wilt season, is slower than clearing everything.
- Stumps and roots pulled out and debris hauled away cost more than mulch left in place.
Cost-share programs
- USDA NRCS cost-share programs for brush management exist for farm and ranch land. Eligibility and funding are set by the local NRCS office, the contract comes before the work, and clearing for a homesite or development does not qualify.
A budgeting range, not a quote. The price for your land comes from walking it: what stays, how the ground and access are, and which permits apply. Permit and landfill fees are paid to the city or operator and can change.
How the numbers work
The headline figure is your acreage times a per-acre range, and nothing else. Forestry mulching runs about $1,300 to $2,500 an acre in light brush, $1,600 to $4,000 in mixed cedar, mesquite and small trees, and $2,700 to $5,200 or more in dense or older cedar with larger stems and rock. Clearing, grubbing and hauling, with stumps out and debris removed, runs about $3,000 to $4,500, $4,000 to $6,000, and $6,000 to $8,500 or more for the same three levels. These are typical Central Texas budgeting ranges, not quotes, and the heaviest level keeps an open top.
There is no hidden multiplier for size or season. Instead, the notes under the result say which conditions push a job toward the top of its range: a small lot that still needs a machine day, mobilization on per-acre quotes, wet clay east of I-35, rock to the west, and trees that have to be worked around.
The separate lines come from public sources. The burn rules are the City of Temple's, the City of Belton's (with its $100 and $300 permit), the Village of Salado's and Bell County's. The $100 per caliper inch figure is from Temple's I-35 corridor overlay rule. The 1-acre and 5-acre stormwater thresholds are from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) construction general permit. The landfill line is the Temple Landfill's non-resident minimum. The silt fence range is from Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) low bids on Bell County contracts.
Debris loads are never estimated, because how much an acre produces depends on what is cut. For the reasoning behind each range, read the land clearing cost guide, or use the land clearing assessment if the method itself is still open.
Get an estimate for your land
The estimator gives a budgeting range. A walk of your property turns it into a price: what stays, how the ground and access are, and which rules apply.