Land Clearing Cost Per Acre in Arkansas (2026 Guide)

Land clearing in Arkansas generally costs $1,500 to $4,500 an acre. What is standing and what is under it decide where your tract lands.

At a glance:

• Fence lines, pasture edges, young cedar in grass: $1,500 to $2,500 an acre
• Mixed brush, small trees and closed cedar, mulched in place: $1,500 to $4,000 an acre
• Heavy timber, stumps out, graded finish: $2,500 to $4,500 an acre
• A house site (pad, drive, utility corridor): $2,000 to $6,000 total
• Burn bans: county judges issue them, so burning piles depends on your county.
• Stormwater: clearing one acre or more falls under the state’s construction permit.
• Cedar: the cheap chemical treatment is not recommended once trees pass 12 feet, so bigger cedar has to be cut or mulched.

Get a quote for North Central Arkansas around Batesville, Central Arkansas around Bryant or Northwest Arkansas around Bella Vista. Elsewhere in the state, where Cut Brush does not have a crew yet, tell us about your land and we will tell you straight whether we can point you to a vetted local contractor.

The Short Answer, by What Is Standing

What is on the acre	Per-acre range	Where you see it
Fence lines, pasture edges, young cedar in grass	$1,500 – $2,500	Hay and pasture ground let go for a few seasons
Privet and understory beneath timber that stays	$1,500 – $3,500	Pine and hardwood stands that have closed in underneath
Mixed brush, small trees and closed cedar, mulched in place	$1,500 – $4,000	Old fields and woodlots unmanaged for ten years or more
Heavy timber, stumps out, graded finish	$2,500 – $4,500	Building sites and tracts being opened to bare ground
Homesite pad, drive and utility corridor	$2,000 – $6,000 total	A house site cut out of a wooded parcel

Where these numbers come from. These are not Arkansas quotes. They are our published ranges for Oklahoma City, East Texas around Tyler and Middle Tennessee around Nashville, which bracket Arkansas on three sides and share its cedar, privet and pine. Use them for budgeting.

All three markets carry a practical floor near $1,500 on small jobs, because hauling a tracked machine costs the same whether it works two hours or two days.

What Actually Moves the Number

What is under the surface. Ozark Highlands soils are often cherty, and chert at the surface wears and breaks mulching teeth. A careful operator slows down, and that time shows up in the price.

How big the cedar has grown. Every year of growth adds machine time, and the University of Arkansas does not recommend its soil-applied cedar treatment for trees taller than 12 feet. Cedar will not sprout from a stump cut below the lowest green branch, which is what a ground-level mulcher does. See our guides to clearing cedar around Oklahoma City and around Nashville.

Whether the brush resprouts. Privet is the opposite of cedar. The University of Arkansas reported that Chinese privet may make up as much as 3 percent of forest biomass in the state, and every control method tested needed follow-up treatment. One mulching pass is the start of a plan, so ask what happens the next season. Our East Texas privet guide covers the follow-up.

What happens to the material. Forestry mulching grinds everything where it stands, so there is no pile to load, haul or burn. Clear-and-haul still wins when stumps must come out for a foundation, but trucking is a real line item. For the lighter end of the scale, a bush hog on a tractor is often the cheaper tool.

Slope, access and the finish. Steep Ozark and Ouachita slopes slow every pass; in the Delta the problem is water, not grade. Name the finish (canopy kept, bare ground, or a maintenance pass) before collecting quotes.

Where in Arkansas Is Your Land?

North Central Arkansas around Batesville. Independence, Sharp, Izard, Jackson, Stone and Cleburne counties, where the Ozark foothills meet the White River and cedar is the usual problem. See land clearing around Batesville and the Batesville pricing guide.

Central Arkansas, Saline County. Around Bryant, Benton and the rest of Saline County, most jobs are wooded lots where the cost is in the understory and in which oaks and pines you keep. The Bryant land clearing page covers the local ground and the city stormwater permit, and the Bryant pricing guide lists the four per-acre bands.

Northwest Arkansas around Bella Vista. Benton, Washington and Carroll counties, where wooded lots sit on cherty limestone with common sinkholes and caves, and the city, the Property Owners Association and the state each have their own clearing rules. See land clearing around Bella Vista and the Bella Vista pricing guide.

The Ozarks and Boston Mountains. Rocky, cherty ground and slope push toward the top of each band; young cedar in open grass stays near the floor.

The Arkansas River Valley. Much of the upland was cleared for pasture or hay, so the work is often fence lines and pasture edges, the lightest scope on the table.

The Ouachita Mountains. Folded ridges with loblolly and shortleaf pine. Slope and rock set the price as much as what is standing.

South Arkansas pine country. More than 75 percent remains wooded. Understory clearing beneath pine that is staying often lands in the lower half of the band.

The Delta. Flat, clayey, poorly drained soils. Wet clay ruts under a tracked machine, so schedules flex around rain.

Burning, Stormwater and Licensing: What to Check Before Work Starts

Burning. County judges issue burn bans, and burning during one is a misdemeanor. Even with no ban, burning a ton or more of land clearing debris requires notice to the state forestry agency, and the landowner or their agent must be present. A quote that depends on burning depends on the weather and the county judge. Mulching never makes the pile.

Stormwater. The state’s construction stormwater permit covers clearing of one acre or more, or less when it is part of a larger common plan of development. From one to under five acres, coverage is automatic, but the notice must be posted and a stormwater plan kept on site. At five acres or more, a notice of intent must be filed at least ten business days before work begins. If you are clearing to build, settle your tier first.

Licensing. On commercial projects, a license is required when the work is $50,000 or more. The residential law covers work on a home and its property, with an exemption for jobs of $2,000 or less that cannot be dodged by splitting the contract. Whether a stand-alone brush job on residential land falls inside that law is not spelled out, so do not guess. Before you sign:

• Ask the Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board whether your job needs a license. If it does, get the number and check it before paying a deposit.
• Ask for proof of liability insurance either way.
• If the plan involves burning, ask who checks for a county ban and files the notice.

A contractor who hesitates at either of the first two has told you something useful.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to clear one acre of wooded land in Arkansas?

Plan on $1,500 to $4,000 for a mixed wooded acre mulched in place, and up to $4,500 where heavy timber, stumps out and a graded finish stack up. A brushy acre of pasture edge can sit near $1,500.

Is forestry mulching cheaper than clearing and burning?

Usually, because one machine cuts and disposes of the material in one pass, with no burn bans or burn notice to deal with.

Does clearing land in Arkansas need a stormwater permit?

It can. The permit starts at one acre of disturbance, or less if the land is part of a larger common plan of development. Five acres or more means a notice of intent before work starts.

Will cedar grow back after it is cleared?

Not from the stump, if it is cut below the lowest green branch. Seedlings still arrive from nearby trees, so a light pass every few years beats letting a pasture close in.

Getting a Real Number

Ranges are for budgeting. The number you pay comes from someone standing on your ground.

Around Batesville, ask for a Batesville quote; around Bryant, ask for a Bryant quote; around Bella Vista, ask for a Bella Vista quote. Anywhere else in Arkansas, Cut Brush does not have a crew yet: tell us about your Arkansas land, where it is, how many acres and what you want it to become. If we can point you to a vetted local contractor, we will, and if we cannot, we will say so. If you would rather talk it through, call (919) 525-3950.

For comparison with the state next door, see our Oklahoma cost per acre guide.

Sources

• Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Ecoregions of Arkansas
• University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, Pasture Weed Control in Arkansas
• University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, invasive plant removal demonstration
• Arkansas Code § 20-22-302: notice for burning forest vegetation
• Arkansas DEQ, construction stormwater general permit ARR150000
• Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board, Residential Contractor Law and Commercial Contractors Law