Tree Clearing Services in Houston, TX: Tree Removal, Forestry Mulching and Site Prep for Texas Land Clearing
We clear trees by the acre, not by the tree. If you have one dead oak over the garage, call a tree service; I know three. If you need land cleared of loblolly pine and yaupon for a pad, a pasture or a view, that is us. Skid steer mulcher $3,000 a day with transport, anything under 8 inches; big mulcher $4,000 plus transport, anything standing. I've cleared timber from Dayton to Fulshear since 2018. Call (713) 587-6978 or send three photos. Janine will have a number back to you by tomorrow.
HOUSTON, TEXAS
The Way to Clear Land of Trees: Mulching, Felling and Pulling Stumps
Pick a method for the result you need, not the machine you saw in a video.
Three ways to clear trees off land, and trunk diameter picks the method. Under 8 inches, forestry mulching with the skid steer grinds the whole tree standing, top to stump, and turns brush into mulch in one pass. Up to about 20 inches, the big forestry mulcher does the same, slower. Past 20 inches we fell with a saw, buck the trunk, and the forestry mulchers eat the top; the log goes to a mill, a landfill or your firewood stack. Stumps get ground 8 inches under or pulled with the excavator if a slab is coming. A bulldozer pushes it all into piles; we do not, because nothing burns unless TCEQ outdoor burning rules and the county burn ban allow it, and inside Houston they do not. This is the way to clear land that leaves no piles.
Forestry mulching
Cuts brush and many smaller trees into a mulch layer. Roots normally remain in the ground.
Understand the method ↗METHOD 02Dozer work
Pushes vegetation and shifts ground. Useful when the next step needs grading or grubbing.
Understand the method ↗METHOD 03Selective clearing
Keeps marked trees while a crew opens the view, fence line, or building area.
Understand the method ↗One Land Clearing Company for the Trees and the Dirt
Most outfits send two crews: a climber crew to drop the trees and haul the logs, then a professional land clearing company to grub and grade. We do it as one job, one price, one sketch, one service. Clearing and tree removal together saves a day of handoff and a second trip charge of $1,200 to $1,500. Our crews fell, mulch, grind and grade with the same equipment and expertise on the same day. Trees and brush come out together, and the mulch layer goes down as we go, so the lot never sits bare in an April rain. For a build, site prep follows on a second line. We specialize in the acre-scale job; the climbers keep the one-at-a-time jobs.
Forestry Services on Wooded Acreage in the Pine Belt North of Houston
North of FM 1960 the forest is loblolly pine, sweetgum and water oak on sand, and it is where our big jobs are. Montgomery County alone pulled 11,597 single-family permits in 2025 by the Census Building Permits Survey, most of them on wooded lots. East Texas pine country starts there and runs to the Louisiana line. On our jobs in Conroe and Magnolia we usually keep 10 to 14 pines on a wooded acre and clear the understory; the mulch layer holds the sand through the first storm, and you see the sky from your porch by Friday. The big mulcher runs 4 to 8 acres per day in pine, so a week-long job clearing 20 acres for a developer is normal. Thinning a pine stand runs the same rate. Last spring on a lot off Highway 105 the sand was dry in March; the clay south of town was not.
Stump Removal After the Cut: Grinding vs. Excavation
Grind or pull. Grinding takes each stump 8 inches below grade for $150 to $400 by diameter, or by the day on a lot full of them, and the roots rot in three to five years. Pulling means the excavator takes the root ball out and leaves a hole and a load of debris at $600 to $1,200 a load. Pull where a slab, a drive or a pool goes; grind everywhere else. Mulching leaves brush and tree crowns flush with the dirt, and pulling stumps with the excavation services on the same day is cheaper than a second trip; it is site preparation, and the builder will ask for it. Tallow crowns get ground 2 inches under no matter what, because tallow sprouts from any piece left. Say which the builder wants and we price that.
Timber Value: When Your Pines Can Pay for the Clearing
Pine over 12 inches on 10 acres or more can pay part of the job. A logger buys standing pine by the ton, and a thinned acre of 25-year loblolly brings a few hundred dollars after trucking; a tract under 10 acres rarely interests a mill because the move-in costs more than the wood. Hardwood here, water oak and sweetgum, has almost no mill value. Property owners who ask about the value of their land usually miss the other side: the 14 pines left standing on a cleared acre are worth more to a buyer than the check from the logger. Assess your land this way: count the pines over 12 inches, call a timber buyer if you have 10 acres of them, and call us either way. We do not buy timber. We clear what is left.
Protected Trees and Heritage Oaks in Texas Communities: What Stays
Inside Houston city limits, protected trees on commercial sites need a tree survey before any cutting. Katy, Fulshear, Sugar Land, Pearland and League City have their own rules for new builds, usually a caliper-inch count you replace or pay into. Heritage oaks, live oaks over 30 inches in most ordinances, stay unless the city says otherwise, and most HOAs want them too. We leave a mulch ring 3 feet out and never park under the drip line, because compacting the roots kills an oak slower than a saw but just as sure. Trimming for clearance is a tree service job, and so is a dead oak over the house. On rural land outside a city there is no ordinance, and selective work is your call.
Tree Clearing Cost per Acre, and the Free Estimate
I tell you about the wet ground, the extra machine, and the haul-off before work starts. Not after.
By the acre: light scrub and small pine run $1,500 to $2,000; medium growth, yaupon and small pine stands, $2,500 to $3,500; dense timber or a clear-cut with haul-off, $4,000 and up. By the day: skid steer mulcher $3,000 with transport; big mulcher $4,000 plus transport. Minimum trip charge $1,200 to $1,500. Haul-off and removal services for logs or debris add $600 to $1,200 a load. Wet ground adds a day. Tallow thickets add a day. Large jobs over 20 acres are bid in writing with a schedule, and large commercial sites off the civil drawings; services for residential and commercial lots run the same rate. The free estimate is on your place inside Greater Houston and the surrounding areas. Our crews are fully insured. Call (713) 587-6978 or send three photos and the address. Janine will have the number by tomorrow.
Skid steer mulcher
Per day. Transport included. Trees under 8 inches.
Dedicated mulcher
Per day. Transport is additional. Large timber and dense ground.
Texas Land Clearing Services Across Seven Counties: Right of Way Clearing and Lot Clearing
Our equipment yard is in Hockley. Send the address and Janine will confirm the route.
Harris, Montgomery, Fort Bend, Waller, Liberty, Brazoria and Galveston. Texas land clearing projects change with the dirt: pine on sand north of FM 1960, tallow and yaupon on clay south of it, salt cedar and live oak clusters in Galveston County, where USACE wetland buffers apply. Land clearing across those seven counties, and the Texas communities in them from Dayton, TX to Fulshear, runs at the same day rate, the same service and the same services throughout. Our land clearing services in Texas and land-clearing services by the day include forestry mulching services, brush clearing and brush removal, right of way clearing for a pipeline or a power line, right-of-way clearing for a county road, fence line work, lot clearing for a build, and land management on acreage every three to five years. Those are our land services. I leave Central Texas and the rest of the state of Texas to crews who live there. I don't sell comprehensive land clearing solutions. I cut the trees you point at and send a sketch. Janine answers the phone. I answer for the work. Call (713) 587-6978 or send three photos and your county.
Tree and Land Clearing Questions for Property Owners
If your question is about wet ground, Janine will ask me.
What is a normal price to clear 1 acre in Texas?
$1,500 to $2,000 for light scrub, $2,500 to $3,500 for yaupon and small pine, and $4,000 and up for dense timber with haul-off, in Greater Houston. The rest of Texas runs the same range; Hill Country cedar is its own market. Wet ground and tallow each add a day. The number from three photos holds.
How much does it cost to clear 20 acres of trees?
Those per-acre numbers multiplied: $50,000 to $70,000 for medium growth mulched in place with no trucking, $80,000 and up for dense timber with haul-off, and about a week with the big mulcher at 4 to 8 acres a day. That is arithmetic, not a bid; a bid needs the photos and the survey. Large jobs get a written schedule and a daily sketch.
Do you do selective clearing and leave the big trees?
Yes. You flag the keepers or I sketch them from your photos, and our crews clear around them with a 3-foot mulch ring. Selective work costs about 20 percent more per acre than a clear-cut because the operator slows at every trunk. Unwanted vegetation goes; the canopy stays. Efficient clearing is not the same as taking everything.
Can you clear an existing pile of trees?
Yes. A pile left by a dozer or a storm gets fed to the big mulcher a trunk at a time, or loaded and hauled at $600 to $1,200 a load. After Harvey we cleared storm piles for a year across Harris and Liberty Counties. Piles with wire, roofing or concrete in them slow the drum, so tell Janine what is in there.
Will the brush grow back after clearing brush and trees?
Some will. Tallow and privet overgrow a cleared lot in three summers if nobody mows; pine does not come back from the stump. We grind tallow crowns 2 inches under, and you mow twice the first summer. Vegetation management every three to five years on acreage keeps it open, and the mulch layer slows the sprouts.
How do I schedule a free estimate?
Call (713) 587-6978 or send three photos and the address, and Janine has a number back by tomorrow; schedule a free on-site look inside Greater Houston if you want me to walk it. Expert land clearing is knowing the ground before the trailer drops. Land clearing contractors who quote by the acre without seeing the growth are guessing; we quote from the photos and the number holds. Services available year-round when the ground is dry, for residential or commercial lots, whatever your clearing needs, and you clear your land on a date you picked.
Send three photos.
Get a straight number.
Janine reads each request and manages the schedule. I check the photos. If I need to see the land myself, I will tell you.
Tell Janine about your lot.
The address. The growth. Three honest photos.
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