Land clearing cost per acre: forestry mulching vs clear and haul

The table gives the job total and the cost per acre at the default prices, with no grubbing and no silt fence. Each total is the clearing price per acre, plus the haul-off or pile-and-burn price per acre for those two methods, plus a $750 mobilization. Mulching has no disposal line, because the chips stay on the site.

Mobilization is a charge on every job, and its share shrinks as the job grows. On 1 acre of moderate mulching it is $750 of $2,350, about a third of the job; on 10 acres it is $750 of $16,750, under 5%. That is why, at 10 acres, the cost per acre is close to the per-acre prices themselves: the clearing price for mulching, or clearing plus the haul-off or burn price for the other two methods (moderate mulching is $1,675 per acre against a $1,600 clearing price).

At the default prices, mulching is never more than the other two methods, at any acreage the calculator accepts, any density, with or without grubbing and silt fence, and burning comes in below haul-off in every row of the table. On very small jobs with no silt fence the methods can tie: below about half an acre of light vegetation, or about a quarter acre of moderate or heavy, two or all three can come out at the $1,500 minimum. The $1,500 minimum is a floor that sets the price only when the job adds up to less. These orderings come from the default prices; enter your own quotes and they can change.

The calculator's default job adds 300 LF of silt fence, $1,050, which takes 2 acres of moderate mulching from $3,950 to $5,000, or $2,500 per acre.

Clearing takes down what stands above the ground. Grubbing takes out the stumps and roots. Wisconsin DOT's 2025 specification describes the two together as cutting and disposing of trees, brush and other vegetation within the clearing limits, and “removing and disposing of roots, stumps, stubs, logs, and other timber occurring within the grubbing limits.” The calculator suggests turning grubbing on when stumps and roots must come out, for example for a building pad, a drive or a field.

In the calculator, grubbing is an optional per-acre line set by density: $500, $1,200 and $1,800 per acre for light, moderate and heavy vegetation. The method does not change it. The table shows 2-acre jobs with grubbing on, no silt fence, at the default prices.

The calculator has no separate haul-off for grubbed stumps and roots when you mulch. If they must leave the site, raise the grubbing price in the pricing section. If only a few stumps remain after clearing, pricing them one by one can make more sense than grubbing a whole acre; the stump grinding guides under More guides compare grinding with full removal and explain how grinding is priced.

State highway departments publish average prices from awarded contracts. They are one state's prices for highway lettings, not private-lot prices, and the two used here state their scope differently.

Tennessee DOT's average unit prices for contracts awarded from January 1 to December 31, 2025 list one per-acre clearing and grubbing item, 201-01.03, in Region 4: an average of $7,500 per acre over 13 acres, $97,500 in all. Its other clearing and grubbing item, 201-01, is priced as a lump sum, so it has no per-acre figure. The list gives item names, units, prices and quantities and does not say whether 201-01.03 includes disposing of the debris, so this guide does not compare it with the calculator.

Wisconsin DOT's Average Unit Price List, dated 10/21/2025, prices clearing and grubbing as separate per-acre items. Clearing (201.0115) averaged $6,800 in fiscal year 2023, $2,420 in 2024 and $3,500 in 2025. Grubbing (201.0215) averaged $1,220 in 2023 and $3,400 in 2024, with no 2025 value. WisDOT's 2025 Standard Specifications, 201.5(2), say payment for Clearing and Grubbing is full compensation for the work and for “Handling, hauling, piling, burning, burying, trimming, chipping, wound treatment, rehandling, and disposing of waste and debris.”

So WisDOT's clearing price includes disposal, and the like-for-like figure in the calculator is its clearing line plus its haul-off line: $1,600 per acre for light, $3,400 for moderate and $5,200 for heavy vegetation. Moderate and heavy fall between WisDOT's lowest and highest yearly clearing averages ($2,420 and $6,800), and light is below the lowest. The list does not say what vegetation was cleared or which specification edition applied to each year's contracts, and the calculator carries a private job's small size in its $750 mobilization and $1,500 minimum rather than in the per-acre prices. The comparison shows where the defaults sit, not that either figure is right for your lot.

EPA's page on stormwater discharges from construction activities says: “A Clean Water Act permit is required for stormwater discharges from any construction activity disturbing: 1 acre or more of land, or Less than 1 acre of land, but that is part of a common plan of development or sale that will ultimately disturb 1 or more acres of land.” It adds that construction activity “includes earth-disturbing activities such as clearing, grading, and excavating land and other construction-related activities that could generate pollutants.”

This guide cannot say whether your job needs a permit or who must get it. Check with your state environmental agency and your local building or planning office before work starts.

Silt fence along the downhill edges is the erosion-control line in the calculator, at a default of $3.50 per LF installed. Tennessee DOT's 2025 statewide averages were $4.51 per LF for temporary silt fence with backing (209-08.02) over 616,841 LF and $2.16 per LF without backing (209-08.03) over 360,511 LF. Wisconsin DOT's Silt Fence item (628.1504) averaged $2.15, $2.05 and $1.99 per LF in fiscal years 2023, 2024 and 2025. The lists give item names and units, not what each includes, so the calculator's rate is an estimate and not a match to any of them.

To size the fence, measure the downhill edges. An acre is 43,560 sq ft, so a square acre is about 209 ft on a side: fence along one side is about 209 LF, $732 at the default price, which takes 1 acre of moderate mulching from $2,350 to $3,082. The default 300 LF is $1,050 and 1,000 LF is $3,500.

At the default prices, cut, pile and burn is the middle option in price. The burn line is $250, $500 or $900 per acre against $600, $1,400 or $2,200 for haul-off, so 2 acres of moderate vegetation with no grubbing or silt fence are $5,750 burned and $7,550 hauled. That saving only exists where burning is allowed.

Before you plan on burning, ask the state forestry agency or the local fire department whether open burning is allowed on your land, whether it needs a permit and what days or seasons it is allowed. The calculator labels the option “where allowed” and does not know the rules where you are. If burning is not allowed, compare mulching and haul-off instead.

Contact 811 before grubbing or any digging, and ask the contractor what happens to the chips, the piles, the stumps and any ruts the machines leave, since none of those is a separate line in the calculator.