Land Clearing Cost Per Acre in Montana (2026 Guide)

Young pine and brush have closed in around the house on your valley lot, or the ranch fence line has vanished under a thicket, and you want to know what opening it up will cost. Our crew charges $1,500 to $4,500 an acre for this work, the same bands we publish for Missoula.

Our Montana work runs through our Missoula market. Land elsewhere in the state is still worth asking about: tell us where it is, and our crew will contact you to discuss your property, access and the clearing you need.

At a glance:

• Ladder fuels and brush under timber you keep: $1,500 to $2,500 an acre
• Pine and brush thickets mulched where they stand: $1,500 to $4,000 an acre
• A whole parcel cleared to a finish agreed in the quote: up to $4,500 an acre
• Smallest job: a minimum charge of about $1,500, where small jobs start, not a fee added on top
• Burning: from 1 May to 30 September, Montana law requires a written permit for any land-clearing fire, and counties want a permit for every burn from March through November.
• Selling logs: a Hazard Reduction Agreement with DNRC comes before the first tree you plan to sell is cut.
• An acre or more disturbed: DEQ construction stormwater coverage.

Ready to talk it through? Request a free quote for your Montana job, and our crew will get in touch about the work and what is growing there.

How Much Does Land Clearing Cost per Acre in Montana?

Our price follows what has to come off the land. Here is how the bands match the ground Montana owners describe:

What is standing	Cut Brush price per acre	What it looks like
Ladder fuels, brush and young conifers under trees you keep	$1,500 – $2,500	Thinning inside 100 feet of a home in timbered valley country
Pine and brush thickets mulched in place	$1,500 – $4,000	Overgrown ponderosa ground, a pasture edge or fence line lost to brush
Whole-parcel clearing to an agreed finish	$1,500 – $4,500	Timber opened for pasture, a hay field or a shop
House site, drive and utility corridor	$1,500 – $4,500 per acre equivalent	An acreage lot outside Missoula, Hamilton, Kalispell or Bozeman

Travel and your property set the quote.

What the price includes. Forestry mulching grinds brush, small trees and stumps into mulch on site, 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 dirt contractor can grade.

Where these numbers come from. They are the four bands on our Missoula pricing page. Every job carries a minimum charge of about $1,500, where small jobs start rather than a fee on top, because trailering a tracked machine to a half-acre job costs the same as bringing it for a full day.

What Raises or Lowers a Montana Clearing Bill

Whether any wood gets sold. Montana’s slash law ties paperwork to the sale of timber. Anyone harvesting wood products to sell from private land signs a Hazard Reduction Agreement with DNRC before cutting. The agreement carries a $25 fee and a bond of $7.15 per thousand board feet, usually held back by the mill, with $6.00 of it returned once the slash is treated. The standard is slash a fire would cross with flames of 4 feet or less, or 2 feet near a house, within about 18 months. Miss it and the state does the work and bills cost plus 20 percent.

Pro tip: If a logger takes the sawlogs first, settle who signs the Hazard Reduction Agreement before the logging starts. DNRC accepts chipping and mastication as slash treatment, so a mulcher working behind the logging can meet the hazard standard and finish the clearing in the same pass, with no piles left to burn.

How much of the home ignition zone you treat. A home’s ignition zone can reach 200 feet, worked as three bands: 0 to 5 feet, 5 to 30 feet, and 30 to 100 feet, where trees and shrubs get spaced and ladder fuels come out. That is understory work, our lowest band. A free state Home Wildfire Risk Assessment lists what to remove and sharpens the scope of a quote. Our Missoula forestry mulching cost guide shows how thinning that zone compares in price with a full clear.

Gravel and cobble in the valley floor. The Bigarm soils of western Montana’s mountain valleys typically carry 45 percent angular gravel in the top layer, argillite and quartzite, with up to a quarter cobbles and stones. Rock like that wears mulching teeth and slows the head, so a gravel parcel sits higher in the band than the same growth on clean soil. Ask whether a quote has allowed for it.

A stream through the property. When timber from the job is sold, the Streamside Management Zone law applies: 50 feet from the high water mark on slopes of 35 percent or less, 100 feet on steeper ground, with tracked machines kept off except on established roads. Cutting for your own use falls outside it. Any work that alters the bed or banks of a perennial stream, a machine crossing included, needs a 310 permit from the local conservation district, which has 60 days to decide.

Noxious weeds on the opened ground. Under MCA 7-22-2116 it is unlawful to let a noxious weed go to seed on your land, and a seller must disclose infestations. Spotted knapweed and leafy spurge are both Priority 2B weeds, abundant across the state. A forestry mulching chip mat slows them on cleared ground; ask your county weed district what spraying it expects the following year. Common buckthorn, a Priority 2A woody shrub found along creeks, comes back after one cutting; our buckthorn removal guide sets out the visits it takes.

Clearing Costs by Region in Montana

The Bitterroot. Stevensville south through Hamilton to Darby in Ravalli County. Charlos soils sit on terraces below granite and gneiss, with water-worn granitic pebbles and cobbles, very gravelly sand 20 to 40 inches down, and open ponderosa pine. Most work is ladder fuel thinning and pasture edges. Ravalli County’s burn permit season runs 1 March to 30 November, and the permit must be activated each day you burn.

The Flathead and the northwest corner. Lake, Flathead and Lincoln counties, with Missoula County covered below: Bigarm gravel on the valley floors, and Kalispell soils on the Upper Flathead terraces, nearly all in crops. In Missoula, Flathead and Lincoln you contact county officials before any burn.

Missoula and the Missoula Valley: Missoula, Ravalli, Lake and Mineral counties. This is our Montana market: Missoula, Orchard Homes, Lolo, Frenchtown, Bonner and Clinton, up the Bitterroot to Florence and Stevensville, and out to Arlee and Alberton. Most of the work is ladder fuel thinning on wooded lots around homes, and Missoula County’s Wildfire Ready program offers a free assessment and a cost share paid to contractors on its approved list. Common buckthorn has been found along many of the valley’s creeks. The Missoula land clearing page covers the towns and the creek permit, and the Missoula pricing page lists the per-acre bands.

The southwest valleys. Bozeman, Ennis, Dillon and Livingston, across Gallatin, Madison, Beaverhead and Park counties (Park south of I-90). All of it lies in DEQ’s western burn zone, so a pile held over for winter needs a request filed the afternoon before.

Great Falls and the Hi-Line. North and east along the Milk River, Scobey soils are clay loam glacial till, with stony phases up to 60 percent rock. Jobs here run to shelterbelts, coulee brush and fence lines rather than timber, so the lower bands fit. In Cascade County, as in Yellowstone, county officials want a call before any burn.

The eastern plains and the Breaks. From Blaine County east, Bascovy clay weathered from shale holds 35 to 60 percent clay, “very sticky and very plastic” when wet, and drains very slowly. Tracks rut on it after rain, so we would book it for dry weather. East of the burn zone, a winter burn needs only a phone call to DEQ before lighting.

Montana Burn Seasons, Slash and Stormwater Rules

Fire season. State law sets wildfire season from 1 May through 30 September, and MCA 76-13-121 names land-clearing fires among those needing a written permit then. DEQ’s calendar adds a county permit for every burn from March through November. From September, check the burn restrictions map or the ventilation hotline (800-225-6779) that morning; a closed county means no burn.

Winter. From 1 December to the end of February, the 18 counties of the western burn zone, Lincoln and Flathead down through Ravalli, Beaverhead, Gallatin and Park south of I-90, need a DEQ winter burn request by 4 p.m. the day before, or 3 p.m. Friday for a weekend. Eastern counties call DEQ at 406-444-3490 before lighting. All year, DEQ bans burning waste moved from the property where it was generated, so brush cannot be trucked to someone else’s pile.

Stormwater. DEQ’s general permit MTR100000 covers clearing, grading and excavation that disturbs one acre or more, or less as part of a larger plan. Projects under five acres may qualify for the Erosivity Waiver if work starts after 1 March, is stabilized before 30 November, and the rainfall erosivity factor is under five. Sites in sage grouse habitat may also need a letter from the state’s Sage Grouse Habitat Conservation Program. We never file permits; the owner or builder holds them, and grading after we leave belongs to your dirt contractor.

Frequently Asked Questions

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

Budget $1,500 to $4,500, the bands on our Missoula pricing page. Thinning ladder fuels under timber you keep runs $1,500 to $2,500, a mulched pine thicket up to $4,000, and a whole parcel cleared to an agreed finish up to $4,500; pulling stumps below grade is priced in the quote. Gravel, slope and distance push a job toward the top.

Can I burn brush piles after clearing land in Montana?

Yes, with the right permit for the season: a county permit from March to November, and a DEQ request in the western counties from December to February. The brush has to be burned on the property where it was cut.

Does forestry mulching meet Montana’s slash law?

DNRC lists chipping and mastication among the accepted slash treatments under a Hazard Reduction Agreement. The test is whether a fire in what remains would burn with flames of 4 feet or less, 2 feet near a home. DNRC makes the final call.

Do I need a permit to clear land near a creek in Montana?

Altering the bed or banks of a perennial stream, a machine crossing included, needs a 310 permit from the local conservation district. If timber from the job is sold, SMZ rules also keep tracked equipment 50 to 100 feet back.

Get a Montana Land Clearing Quote

When our crew calls, we will go over the thickest stand and the way in (gate, ranch road, creek crossing), whether logs will be sold first, whether a stream crosses the land, and the finish you want: a thinned stand around the house, open pasture, or ground ready for your dirt contractor.

Request a free quote for your Montana land and our crew will contact you to go over the property and the clearing it needs.

Ground that crosses the state line is covered in our Idaho guide and, for Wyoming, in our state-by-state cost guides.

Sources

• Montana Code Annotated, 76-13-121, burn permits in wildfire season
• Montana DNRC, Hazard Reduction Agreement fact sheet