On this page
- Land Clearing Services Available in Travis County
- Lot Clearing and Acreage Prep for New Homes in Pflugerville and Lago Vista
- Forestry Mulching and Clearing Brush in Hill Country Cedar
- How Much Does Land Clearing Cost in Travis County?
- Terrain, Soil and Vegetation From Lake Travis to the Blackland
- Edwards Aquifer, Warbler Season and Burn Bans Before You Clear
- Areas We Serve From Pflugerville to Greater Austin
- Ready to Clear Your Tract? Get an Estimate
- FAQ
Land Clearing Services Available in Travis County
Six professional land clearing services, one estimate, one crew. Lot clearing for a homesite runs one day on a half acre. Brush clearing and underbrushing open an oak woodland and leave the oaks. Stump grinding is $4 per inch of diameter, $175 minimum per stump. Tree clearing, site clearing and site preparation take a tract to dirt, with cleanup of the fence line and the utility corridor included. Dirt work services cover grubbing and rough grading at $160 an hour with operator. I do not pour concrete, drill wells, set septic or demolish houses. I know people who do.
Lot Clearing and Acreage Prep for New Homes in Pflugerville and Lago Vista
The county pulled 4,727 single-family permits in the 2025 Census Building Permits Survey, up 4 percent. Most sit in master-planned communities on the blackland around Pflugerville, where residential land clearing means hackberry and old fence rows, not cedar. A half-acre lot is one day of skid steer at $2,800, site prep for the slab included. Small residential lots with 10 or more stumps are priced by the day. Inside Austin or its ETJ, heritage trees over 24 inches need a city permit, so I flag those for the homeowner on the walk. Commercial development and commercial land clearing use the same machines, just more days.
Forestry Mulching and Clearing Brush in Hill Country Cedar
Forestry mulching is how our crews handle cedar, which here is ashe juniper. It grinds trees and brush standing: no piles, no burn-ban exposure, and the wood stays down as a mulch mat over the undergrowth. Mulching services on a light stand under 30 percent canopy run $900 to $1,400 an acre. Selective clearing is the default: cedar goes, every marked live oak stays. Texas A&M Forest Service puts the oak wilt wound window at February through June; in those months we mulch around the oaks and cut no limb. Mature cedar canopy intercepts the first inch of rain; AgriLife research and my canopy readings agree. Cedar is the only crop in Texas nobody planted and everybody harvests.
How Much Does Land Clearing Cost in Travis County?
Land clearing in Travis County costs $900 to $4,000 an acre for cedar mulching; canopy percent is the whole difference. Two rules come first: rock or caliche adds a day west of I-35, and wet blackland east of SH 130 adds a day in winter.
- Skid steer mulcher: $2,800 a day, transport included within 60 miles of Johnson City. Stems to about 8 inches.
- 300-hp mulcher, 8 ft head: $4,200 a day plus transport.
- Cedar mulching per acre: $900 to $1,400 light, $1,800 to $2,600 medium, $3,000 to $4,000 dense.
- Full clearing to dirt with grubbing and rough grade: $2,000 to $4,500 an acre.
We cleared 42 acres in Blanco County at 55 percent cedar canopy: 6 days on the 300-hp mulcher, $27,500 plus transport. The spring below the stock tank ran again the next wet season. On agricultural land with an approved EQIP plan, NRCS cost-share pays 50 to 75 percent of the practice 314 rate. Call (832) 987-3495 for a free quote, or send the form for a callback from Teo today.
Terrain, Soil and Vegetation From Lake Travis to the Blackland
Travis County's ground changes three times between Lake Travis and SH 130. West of RM 620 it is limestone with caliche, six inches of soil and cedar at 40 to 70 percent canopy. Along the Colorado River it is deep alluvium; east of US 183 it is blackland clay. Tracts near Lake Travis carry the most rock and the steepest grades. Site conditions on the blackland are flat and deep, a winter sponge where a mulcher floats and a dozer sinks. Drainage is fast on limestone, so the mulch mat left down is the cheapest erosion control.
Edwards Aquifer, Warbler Season and Burn Bans Before You Clear
Two rules set the order of work here, and neither is a state permit, because Texas has none for clearing land you own. First, the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone covers much of the county west of MoPac. On mapped recharge land, TCEQ wants a Water Pollution Abatement Plan before grading or clearing moves dirt, so I check the parcel before quoting. Second, the golden-cheeked warbler nests in mature cedar-oak canopy from March to July, so under TPWD and USFWS guidance our crews schedule mature canopy for August through February. Burn bans come from the county judge or commissioners court, and TCEQ outdoor burning rules govern any pile. We leave none. When I wrote EQIP plans these lines stalled jobs, so now I check them first.
Areas We Serve From Pflugerville to Greater Austin
Our service area for land clearing services in Travis and neighboring counties starts at the Johnson City yard. Serving Travis County inside the 60-mile circle carries no transport charge; Travis County, TX and the surrounding areas beyond it carry one. Pflugerville, Manor and Lago Vista each have their own page. The other towns we serve in Travis County are Austin, Bee Cave, Lakeway, Del Valle and Jonestown. Greater Austin adds homesites faster than most counties in Texas, and clearing land for builders is Teo's most common call from here.
Ready to Clear Your Tract? Get an Estimate
Ready to clear a tract across Travis County? Get an estimate from a land clearing service that thinks like a rancher: send the survey, acreage and a canopy guess, and I will put days and dollars in writing. Fill out the form or call (832) 987-3495. Teo will call you back before the end of the business day.
