Land Clearing Cost Per Acre in Maine (2026 Guide)

Maybe it is a family woodlot you want opened for a house, a camp lot on a pond, or hayfield edges that bittersweet has swallowed, and you need to know what that costs before anything else. Our crew clears ground like that for $1,500 to $4,500 an acre, the same bands we publish for Sabattus and the Lewiston-Auburn area. Brushy edges come in low; a bouldery parcel cleared to bare soil comes in high, and taking stumps out below grade is priced in the quote.

At a glance:

• Barberry and brush on field edges, stone wall lines or under trees you are keeping: $1,500 to $2,500 per acre
• Thickets of glossy buckthorn, bittersweet or barberry grown through with saplings, mulched on the spot: $1,500 to $4,000 per acre
• A whole parcel cleared to a finish agreed in the quote: as much as $4,500 per acre
• Smallest job: a minimum charge of about $1,500, where small jobs start, not a fee added on top
• Burning: a brush pile needs a permit in every month of the year, snow or no snow, and so does any fire over 3 feet high and 3 feet wide
• Water: within 75 feet of a stream, pond or most wetlands the Natural Resources Protection Act applies; within 250 feet of a great pond, river or tidal water, shoreland zoning limits the cutting
• Stormwater: one acre of disturbed ground triggers the Maine Construction General Permit, though felling trees without grubbing does not count toward it

Our Maine work runs through our Sabattus market, and land elsewhere in the state is still worth asking about. Tell us where your Maine land is, and our crew will contact you to discuss your property, the access and the clearing you need.

What Does Land Clearing Cost Per Acre in Maine?

The price follows two questions we ask on every parcel: what is standing, and what should the ground look like afterwards? A mulched floor, where brush and small trees are ground in place and the chip stays on the soil, costs less than open ground with every stump dug out.

What is standing	Cut Brush price per acre	Where you see it in Maine
Barberry and field edges, stone wall hedgerows, understory under pine you keep	$1,500 – $2,500	Farm edges going back to brush in York and Cumberland counties
Forestry mulching: thickets and saplings ground in place	$1,500 – $4,000	Glossy buckthorn along wet woods edges; bittersweet climbing over old hayfields
Whole parcel cleared to an agreed finish	$1,500 – $4,500	Spruce, fir and hardwood on bouldery till ridges inland
Camp or house lot, drive and utility path	$1,500 – $4,500 per acre equivalent	A building envelope cut out of a family woodlot

Access and your property set the quote.

What the price includes. Forestry mulching grinds brush, small trees and stumps into mulch on site, with stumps flush with the ground and nothing hauled away. Full stump removal below grade and cut-and-haul for very large trees are discussed and priced in the quote. Grading and build pads are not part of our price: we clear to the ground so a builder can grade.

Where these numbers come from. They are the four bands on our Sabattus pricing page. An acre can land anywhere in its band, depending on what grows there and how the ground lies. Every job carries a minimum charge of about $1,500, where small jobs start rather than a fee added on top, because delivering a tracked machine costs the same for two hours of work as for eight.

What Raises or Lowers a Maine Clearing Price

Five things on a Maine parcel move it up or down the band.

Boulders in the till. The Hermon series covers a large share of Maine’s till uplands. It carries 35 to 65 percent rock fragments, about a third of them cobbles and stones, with stones and boulders over as much as 15 percent of the surface. A mulching head slows over that, and every stump pulled drags rock up with it.

Ledge a foot or two down. On hilltops and mountain sides, the Lyman series reaches bedrock 10 to 20 inches below the surface, on slopes up to 80 percent, and it is common in eastern and western Maine. Over ledge that shallow you buy a mulched floor, not bare soil, and it costs less.

A brook, pond or wetland on the lot. Land within 75 feet of a great pond, river, stream or protected wetland counts as “adjacent” under the Natural Resources Protection Act. DEP’s permit by rule for that strip keeps a 25-foot setback where existing vegetation stays put, apart from exempt cutting. A brook through the tract shrinks what can be cleared, and careful work near the bank costs more per acre.

Land enrolled in Tree Growth. Woodlots of 10 acres or more can be taxed at forest value under the Tree Growth Tax Law. Clear that ground for a house or pasture and the assessor can withdraw it. The penalty is the larger of five years of back tax difference with interest, or 30 percent of the gap between market and Tree Growth value, falling a point for each year past ten enrolled, to a 20 percent floor. On a big parcel that bill can be larger than ours.

Shrubs that resprout. Japanese barberry, Asiatic bittersweet and glossy buckthorn are widespread and severely invasive in Maine, and all three have been on the state’s Do Not Sell list since 1 January 2018. Cut, each one comes back: glossy buckthorn takes cutting three times a year for three years, and bittersweet six. A forestry mulching pass opens the thicket; keeping it open is follow-up work, which our Japanese barberry removal guide sets out visit by visit, and herbicide near water falls under the Maine Board of Pesticides Control.

Pro tip: If your woodlot is in Tree Growth, call the town assessor before you gather clearing quotes. Ask whether the acres you want opened can move into another current use program first. The statute waives the withdrawal penalty when that application is accepted before the land comes out.

Maine Land Clearing Costs by Region

Southern and coastal Maine: York and coastal Cumberland counties. Around Biddeford and Portland, the river valleys and coastal lowlands hold marine clay soils such as Buxton, which carry almost no stone, under 5 percent, but pass water slowly through the lower subsoil. The poorly drained Scantic soils beside them hold a perched water table. A wet spring sets the schedule, and the 250-foot shoreland zone follows tidal water.

Sabattus and the Lewiston-Auburn area: Androscoggin, Sagadahoc, Cumberland and Kennebec counties. This is our Maine market: Sabattus, Lewiston, Auburn, Lisbon, Turner and Poland, Topsham and Bath, Brunswick, New Gloucester, Freeport, Gray, Yarmouth, Cumberland, Windham and Falmouth, and Gardiner, Winthrop and Augusta. Our crew clears Japanese barberry and brush from old field edges and stone walls there. Around Sabattus Pond, the town’s shoreland ordinance keeps a wooded buffer 100 feet deep that is thinned, not mulched. The Sabattus land clearing page covers the towns and the pond rules, and the Sabattus pricing page lists the per-acre bands.

Western mountains and lakes: Oxford and Franklin counties. From Bethel and Rangeley to Farmington, Hermon till blankets the slopes, Lyman ledge caps the ridges, and Marlow soils hold a very firm, dense layer about 20 to 39 inches down. On a lot that fronts a great pond, the buffer rules decide what may be cut before we ever talk price.

The North Woods: Piscataquis, northern Somerset and northern Penobscot. Around Greenville, Jackman and Millinocket, much of the land lies in unorganized townships and plantations. There the Land Use Planning Commission, not a town office, issues development permits across more than 10.4 million acres. Chesuncook soils are dense till under spruce and fir with a frost-free season as short as 80 days. Access and season shape a quote here more than trees do.

Aroostook County. Around Presque Isle, Caribou, Fort Fairfield and Houlton, the Caribou series covers gently sloping till plains farmed for potatoes, oats, peas and hay. Its rock is mostly gravel, so field-edge brush clears more easily than on inland till.

Maine Permits and Burn Rules

Stormwater. DEP’s Maine Construction General Permit, in force since 14 January 2025, covers construction disturbing one acre or more, or less when part of a larger common plan. Disturbed area means land stripped, graded, grubbed, filled or excavated; cutting trees without grubbing, stump removal or exposing soil is not counted. DEP treats a Notice of Intent as approved 14 calendar days after receiving it unless it acts sooner.

Shoreland zoning. The town code enforcement officer, or LUPC in the unorganized territory, administers shoreland zoning out to 250 feet. In the buffer strip, 75 feet deep or 100 at great ponds, no more than 40 percent of the volume of trees 4 inches and up may come out in any ten years, with no opening over 250 square feet. Beyond the buffer, cleared openings are capped at 25 percent of the lot or 10,000 square feet, whichever is greater.

Wood sold to a mill. File a Forest Operations Notification with the Maine Forest Service before cutting; a house lot of 2 acres or less is exempt.

Burning. DEP’s open burning rule allows brush and stumps from land clearing to be burned on site only with a permit from the town forest fire warden, a forest ranger or the local fire official, and only where town ordinance does not forbid it. The Maine Forest Service also issues them online, 9am to midnight, when fire danger allows.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to clear an acre of land in Maine?

Budget $1,500 to $4,500 an acre, the bands on our Sabattus pricing page. Brushy field edges and understory work sit near the bottom; bouldery till or ledge cleared to open ground sits near the top, and pulling stumps below grade is priced in the quote.

Can I clear trees near a lake in Maine?

Some, not all. In the shoreland buffer you can take up to 40 percent of tree volume in ten years with no opening over 250 square feet, and disturbing soil within 75 feet also needs DEP approval. Start with the town code enforcement officer.

Do I need a burn permit for brush piles in Maine?

Yes, all year, winter included, and only where your town allows it. Get one from the town warden or the Maine Forest Service online, and check the day’s fire danger first.

Will clearing my land trigger a Tree Growth penalty?

It can, if the cleared acres leave the program. The penalty runs from 20 to 30 percent of the gap between market and Tree Growth value, or five years of back tax with interest if that is higher. Moving it into another current use program first avoids it.

Get a Clearing Price for Your Maine Property

Request a free quote for your Maine land and our crew will reach out to talk through the job: the growth, the way in (camp road, gate or woods road), the finish you want, whether the work comes within 250 feet of a pond, river or the coast, and whether the land is in Tree Growth. For land just west of the line, see our New Hampshire guide.

Sources

• Maine Forest Service, burn permits (maine.gov)
• Maine Revised Statutes, Title 36, section 581: Tree Growth withdrawal
• Maine DEP, NRPA