Land Clearing Cost Per Acre in Mississippi (2026 Guide)

Land clearing in Mississippi costs $1,500 to $4,500 an acre. Most mixed pine and hardwood acres cleared by forestry mulching land between $2,500 and $4,000.

At a glance:

• Overgrown pasture, fence rows, pine understory: $1,500 to $2,500 an acre
• Mulching mixed hardwood and pine regrowth: $2,500 to $4,000 an acre
• Heavy stands, wet bottomland, stumps out: $3,500 to $4,500 an acre
• A house site (pad, drive, utility path): $2,000 to $6,000 total
• Burning: without an air curtain burner, debris cannot be burned within 500 yards of an occupied home, more than a quarter mile.
• Permits: clearing one acre or more for construction needs stormwater paperwork before work starts.
• Cogongrass: it spreads on equipment, so machines should be cleaned between sites.

Get a quote for Central Mississippi around Jackson or the Pine Belt around Hattiesburg. 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
Overgrown pasture, fence rows, privet regrowth	$1,500 – $2,500	Field edges and bottoms going back after years without mowing
Understory beneath a pine stand you are keeping	$1,500 – $2,500	Loblolly, shortleaf or longleaf that has closed in underneath
Mixed hardwood and pine regrowth, larger stems, mulched	$2,500 – $4,000	Cutover ground and parcel edges 10 to 20 years unmanaged
Heavy stands, wet bottomland, stumps out for a build	$3,500 – $4,500	Creek and river bottoms, anything being cut for construction
Homesite pad, drive and utility corridor	$2,000 – $6,000 total	A house site carved out of a wooded lot

Where these numbers come from. These are the ranges on our Jackson and Hattiesburg pricing guides, the same bands we publish in our Alabama markets. Mississippi State University Extension’s 2024 custom rates survey found bush hogging averaging $22.50 an acre and bulldozer work at $66 to $130 an hour, from only a handful of responses. A bush hog cuts light stems, not a 15-year thicket. Use the table for budgeting, not as a quote.

Small tracts carry a practical floor near $1,500. Getting a tracked machine onto a property costs the same whether it runs two hours or two days.

What Actually Moves the Number

How long since anyone kept it open. On pasture and cutover ground, the calendar predicts cost better than acreage. Three or four seasons of growth goes down fast; fifteen years puts forearm-sized stems in front of the machine and the acre near the top of its band. Chinese privet and Chinese tallowtree resprout unless stumps or roots are treated, so a price that ignores follow-up is only half the job.

Whether the overstory is staying. Taking out a closed-in understory under a pine canopy you are keeping is efficient work; the machine is not fighting trunks. Clearing to open ground is a different scope and price. Name the finish before anyone prices it.

What happens to the debris. This is where Mississippi’s rules move real money. Without a forced-draft system, land clearing debris cannot be burned within 500 yards of an occupied dwelling; with one, the line is 50 yards. On most small tracts that rules out the open pile. A county burn ban means no outdoor burning of any kind, with fines of $100 to $500. Forestry mulching avoids all of it: no pile, no haul, no burn question. Clear-and-haul still wins where a site must be cut to grade. It simply costs more.

Cogongrass on the property. This can turn a clearing job into a multi-year problem. Cogongrass spreads on equipment, and the Mississippi Forestry Commission says eradication usually takes two to three years of spraying twice a year. Ask how a contractor cleans machines between sites, and plan herbicide work alongside the clearing. The Commission’s Cogongrass Control Program offers a free initial treatment to approved applicants, subject to funding, location and acreage limits. Our cogongrass guide is written for Florida; the plant is the same.

Access and wet ground. Gates, culverts and long approaches burn hours. Wet ground matters more: on saturated bottomland or flatwoods a tracked machine slows down and leaves ruts, so flexible timing is worth real money.

Where in Mississippi Is Your Land?

Central Mississippi around Jackson. Hinds, Madison, Rankin, Copiah and Simpson counties. See land clearing around Jackson and the Jackson pricing guide.

The Pine Belt around Hattiesburg. Forrest, Lamar, Jones, Perry, Covington and Marion counties. See land clearing around Hattiesburg and the Hattiesburg pricing guide.

Outside those two areas, Cut Brush does not have a crew yet. What changes the job across the rest of the state:

The Delta. Wet, heavy floodplain soils. Work here means field edges, ditch banks and wooded bottoms; timing, not stems, is the constraint, so budget toward the upper band on anything wet.

The Loess Hills. Deep silty uplands that hold a machine well when dry. Bare silt washes, so a mulched mat is worth more here.

The North Central Hills and Interior Flatwoods. Mixed pine and oak. Classic understory and cutover work, often in the middle of the table.

The Black Prairie. Shrink-swell clay and more pasture. Reclaiming fence rows from brush and privet prices low when dry; the same clay is slow going when wet.

The Gulf Coast and the Piney Woods outside the Pine Belt. Sandy, wet soils under longleaf, slash and live oak. Pine understory work is efficient; the flatwoods are the wet exception. Pearl River, Stone, George, Jackson, Harrison and Hancock counties have a separate RESTORE grant application for cogongrass.

Permits and Licensing: What to Check Before Work Starts

Permits. Clearing one acre or more as part of construction falls under Mississippi’s construction stormwater permits. From 1 to under 5 acres, the owner or operator completes a Notice of Intent and a stormwater plan before work starts and keeps both on site. At 5 acres or more, work waits for written notice of coverage. Counties and cities can add their own rules.

Licensing. The Mississippi State Board of Contractors requires a commercial license on commercial jobs over $50,000, and a license for new residential construction over $50,000 or residential remodeling over $10,000. The Board has a specialty classification for Clearing, Grubbing and Snagging. Before you sign:

• Ask which license and classification they hold, and check it on the Board’s public license search.
• Ask what happens to the debris, and if the answer is burning, where the nearest occupied home is.
• Ask how equipment is cleaned between jobs, and who completes the stormwater paperwork if you are over an acre.
• Get stump handling, erosion control and mobilization in writing. A quote missing those is not cheaper, it is unfinished.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to clear 1 acre of wooded land in Mississippi?

Budget $2,500 to $4,000 for a typical mixed pine and hardwood acre cleared by mulching, and up to $4,500 where heavy timber, wet ground or stump removal stack up. A brushy acre can run near $1,500, which is also the practical floor for any small job.

Can I just burn the brush pile?

Often not. Open burning of land clearing debris has to stay 500 yards from any occupied home unless a forced-draft system is used, and a county burn ban stops it entirely. On most small tracts, mulching or hauling is the realistic choice.

Does cogongrass make clearing more expensive?

The clearing price may not change much. The real cost is the two to three years of herbicide treatment that usually follows.

Do I need a permit to clear land in Mississippi?

For clearing one acre or more as part of construction, yes, with paperwork due before work starts. Check with your county or city too.

Getting a Real Number

A real price comes from someone standing on the ground, looking at what is growing, what is staying and how wet the low end is.

Around Jackson, ask for a Jackson quote; around Hattiesburg, ask for a Hattiesburg quote. Anywhere else in Mississippi, Cut Brush does not have a crew yet: tell us about your land, and if we can point you to a vetted local contractor, we will; if we cannot, we will say so. If you would rather talk it through, call (919) 525-3950.

Sources

• Mississippi State University Extension, 2024 custom rates survey (Publication 4048)
• Mississippi State University Extension, Forest Soils of Mississippi
• Mississippi State University Extension, cogongrass
• Mississippi Forestry Commission, cogongrass information for landowners, 2026
• Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, open burning fact sheet
• Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, construction stormwater permits
• Mississippi State Board of Contractors, frequently asked questions