Texas Land Clearing ServicesForestry Mulching, Brush Removal and Site Prep in Central Texas and Statewide

Land Clearing Services Across Texas: What Our Crews Do and What It Costs

We specialize in forestry mulching and brush clearing on cedar, mesquite, yaupon and pine understory, and we clear lots to dirt where a slab is going in. Here are the professional land clearing services available from our yards.

• Land clearing to dirt: grub, pile and rough grade for a slab or a pasture.
• Forestry mulching: a forestry mulcher grinds standing trees and brush into mulch where they stand.
• Lot clearing: a half-acre residential lot is one day on the skid steer, $2,800. We clear it, you build.
• Brush clearing and brush removal: yaupon, huisache, privet and juniper regrowth, priced by the day or the acre.
• Stump grinding: $4 per inch of diameter, $175 minimum per stump, 10 or more stumps priced by the day.
• Selective tree removal and selective clearing: juniper out, live oaks and post oaks kept, flagged with you on the walk.
• Site preparation and dirt work: pad area cleared, rough grade with the dozer. We do not pour concrete, drill wells or set septic. I know people who do.
• Bush hogging: pasture that only needs the tops knocked down, $400 minimum.

Mulching services and brush and tree work run by the day. Right of way clearing for fence lines, driveways and a culvert crossing runs on the same day rates. Excavation services for ponds and foundations are a different trade, and Teo will name an excavation contractor our crews have worked beside. Pick the service that matches your tract and send the form.

Land Clearing by Texas Region: Which Yard Serves Your County

Five regions, three yards, one 60-mile service area around each yard. Johnson City covers the Hill Country and the I-35 counties from Temple to San Marcos. Lindale covers the Piney Woods. Weatherford covers the DFW ring. The Gulf Coast has no Pruitt yard, so transport is billed from Johnson City.

• Hill Country: ashe juniper, which everyone here calls cedar, with live oak and mesquite on limestone and caliche. Travis, Williamson, Hays, Comal, Bexar, Kendall, Kerr, Gillespie, Burnet. Rock adds a day.
• North Texas: mesquite, post oak, hackberry and bois d'arc. Blackland clay east of I-35, Cross Timbers sand west of it. Collin, Denton, Tarrant, Parker, Ellis and the rest of the ring. Wet blackland adds a day from November to April.
• Central Texas: blackland prairie along I-35, post oak savannah toward Bryan-College Station, Lost Pines around Bastrop. Bell, McLennan, Brazos and Bastrop counties.
• East Texas: loblolly pine understory, sweetgum, yaupon and privet on sandy loam. Smith, Gregg, Angelina, Nacogdoches, Walker and Polk.
• Gulf Coast: Chinese tallow, yaupon and huisache on gumbo clay from the Houston ring to Corpus Christi. Harris, Montgomery, Fort Bend and Nueces.

We clear the same way in all five: read the canopy, name the day count, mulch in place.

Cedar, Mesquite, Yaupon and Pine Understory: What Landowners Clear

Canopy percent sets the price on every tract in the state, whatever is growing on it. Under 30 percent canopy is light work. Over 60 percent is old growth, and the 300-hp machine comes out.

• Cedar: a mature juniper canopy intercepts the first inch of rain before it reaches the ground. AgriLife research and my own canopy readings agree on that. We clear it to under 10 percent canopy and it regrows from seed, not from the stump, so the tract stays open for years.
• Mesquite: the root crown sits below grade, so bush hogging alone brings it back thicker. We grind to the crown and the pasture holds.
• Yaupon and privet: the understory that will overgrow a fence line in three growing seasons. Mulched, it feeds the soil instead of a burn pile.
• Pine understory: we clear the brush and sapling layer and leave merchantable loblolly standing for the timber buyer.

Overgrown land does not get cheaper by waiting. Juniper at 25 percent canopy this year is 35 percent in five. Vegetation management on a schedule, the same forestry services a timber owner buys, costs less than one dense clearing project. A forestry mulcher turns that vegetation into mulch two to three inches deep. The mulch holds the soil and lets grass seed catch.

Texas Burn Bans, County Permits and Protected Species Before You Clear

Land clearing and brush removal in Texas needs no state permit. You may clear your land without asking anyone in Austin. The rules that do apply are local. Burn bans are declared by the county judge or the commissioners court, and TCEQ outdoor burning rules govern any pile you light. Mulching leaves no pile, so a burn ban never stops a mulching job.

• City tree ordinances inside city limits and the ETJ: Austin protects heritage trees, San Antonio protects significant and heritage trees, Georgetown and Fort Worth keep their own lists.
• FEMA mapped floodplain: a county floodplain development permit before dirt moves. In Harris County that runs through the Harris County Flood Control District.
• Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone in Travis, Hays, Comal, Bexar and Kendall: a TCEQ Water Pollution Abatement Plan before grading or clearing on mapped recharge land.
• Golden-cheeked warbler: TPWD and USFWS want mature cedar-oak canopy left alone from March to July in Travis, Williamson, Kerr, Gillespie, Bexar, Comal, Kendall and Burnet. We schedule around the window.
• Oak wilt: Texas A&M Forest Service says do not wound live oaks February to June. We mulch juniper around oaks without touching an oak limb in that window.

A construction site in the floodplain needs the permit before the mulcher, not after. Land development inside a city limit needs the tree survey first. Tell Teo the county and we will minimize the paperwork to what applies.

NRCS EQIP Brush Management Cost-Share: Practice 314 and What It Pays

EQIP cost-share pays 50 to 75 percent of the NRCS payment-schedule rate for brush management, practice code 314, once your plan is approved. I wrote those plans for twelve years. A plan is a land management record: canopy percent by field, the treatment method, the acres treated each year and the grazing deferment after. The schedule pays by the acre at a state rate, not by what you spent, so a mulching bid that beats the schedule leaves money on your side of the table.

Bring me your approved plan and I will read it in ten minutes and tell you what it pays on your tract. I do not write plans for NRCS any more, and your local field office does that for free. The timeline runs about a year: application in fall, ranking in winter, contract in spring, and you clear the next dry season. Our crews log acres per day and canopy readings before and after, which is the paperwork NRCS wants at payout. Twelve years of brush plans taught me one thing: paper does not cut cedar. Ask Teo for the EQIP checklist when you send the form.

Land Clearing Companies by County and Metro: 34 County Pages

Most trusted land clearing companies in the state work one metro. Our crews clear in five regions from three yards, and every county below has its own page.

• Hill Country: Travis (Austin), Williamson (Georgetown, Liberty Hill), Hays (Dripping Springs, San Marcos), Burnet, Bexar (San Antonio), Comal (New Braunfels), Guadalupe, Kendall (Boerne), Kerr (Kerrville), Gillespie (Fredericksburg).
• DFW ring: Collin (Celina), Tarrant (Fort Worth), Denton, Ellis (Waxahachie), Johnson (Cleburne), Rockwall, Grayson (Sherman), Kaufman (Forney), Parker (Weatherford), Hood (Granbury).
• I-35 corridor and Brazos Valley: Bell (Temple, Belton), McLennan (Waco), Brazos (Bryan, College Station), Bastrop (Bastrop, Elgin).
• Piney Woods: Smith (Tyler, Lindale), Gregg (Longview), Angelina (Lufkin), Nacogdoches, Walker (Huntsville), Polk (Livingston).
• Gulf Coast: Harris (Houston), Montgomery (Conroe), Fort Bend (Fulshear), Nueces (Corpus Christi).

Our crews cover surrounding areas between those counties too; land-clearing services in Texas outside a 60-mile circle carry transport, stated on the quote. Open your county page or send the form with your clearing needs.