Land Clearing Cost Per Acre in Oregon (2026 Guide)

Your Oregon acreage has gone under: blackberry over the fence, broom across the old pasture, or juniper marching up the draw behind the house. Our crew clears Oregon land for $1,500 to $4,500 an acre. Light brush sits at the bottom; a closed stand of young timber, with large trees cut and hauled off, sits at the top.

Our Oregon work runs through our Lincoln City, Eagle Point and Sweet Home markets. Land elsewhere in the state is still worth asking about.

At a glance:

• Blackberry, broom and brush along fences and field edges: $1,500 to $2,500 an acre
• Juniper, gorse or fir and oak regrowth mulched where it stands: $1,500 to $4,000 an acre
• A whole parcel cleared to a finish agreed in the quote: up to $4,500 an acre
• Burning: debris from a clearing job counts as demolition waste, so inside most open burning control areas the piles need a DEQ letter permit.
• Forest to pasture or homesite: the Oregon Department of Forestry wants notice at least 15 days before the work starts.

Request a free quote and we’ll contact you to discuss your property, access and the clearing you need.

How Much Does Land Clearing Cost Per Acre in Oregon?

We price an acre by what is standing on it. A mulcher walks through blackberry far faster than it chews through a closed stand of fir, and hauling wood off a hillside is slower again.

What is on the land	Price per acre	What it looks like in Oregon
Blackberry, Scotch broom and brush along fences and field edges	$1,500 – $2,500	A valley pasture margin buried in canes, a fence row nobody has walked in years
Ladder fuels and understory thinned under pine or fir	$1,500 – $2,500	Brush and low limbs cleared around a home near Sisters or above Grants Pass
Juniper, gorse or dense fir and oak regrowth mulched in place	$1,500 – $4,000	Crook County rangeland, south coast gorse, Jory foothill slopes
Whole parcel cleared to an agreed finish	$1,500 – $4,500	Second-growth Douglas-fir opened for pasture, a vineyard block or a shop
House site, driveway and utility path	$1,500 – $4,500 per acre equivalent	A building envelope cut out of foothill timber

Where your land is and what grows on it 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 bands our crew works to, the same ones on the Lincoln City pricing guide. An acre can land anywhere in its band, depending on what grows there. $1,500 is the minimum charge for a project, a floor rather than a fee added on top, because loading and moving a tracked machine costs the same for half a day as for a week. Several acres in one visit, or two neighbours booked together, spread that cost.

What Changes the Price of an Oregon Clearing Job

Blackberry grows back from the crown. Armenian blackberry, often called Himalayan blackberry, is a B-listed noxious weed in Oregon. Its crowns and roots survive cutting, so clearing the canes needs a follow-up plan. It resprouts hard from rhizomes and root crowns, and cutting seems to make it branch and sucker more. Our crew can grind a thicket flat in one pass. Keeping it gone is a second job, so we price the knockdown on its own and tell you to plan the follow-up.

Fire season on wooded land west of the Cascades. In summer, the Department of Forestry sets Industrial Fire Precaution Levels on the land it protects west of the Cascade summit. At Level III, ground equipment may run only between 8 p.m. and 1 p.m., with firefighting tools at the machine. At Level IV, all operations stop. A wooded job booked for August can stretch across many more calendar days than the same acreage outside fire season.

Pro tip: If your land is timbered and west of the Cascades, call your ODF district before you settle on a summer date and ask which precaution level applies. A machine that has to park at 1 p.m. finishes far fewer acres a week.

Changing forest into something else. Oregon’s forest practice rules require notice to the State Forester for “clearing forestland for conversion to any non-forest use,” filed at least 15 days ahead. Unless the State Forester approves a plan for the new use, cut-over forestland must be replanted. The plan must show the new use is allowed locally, finished within 24 months and kept for at least six years.

Jory clay on the foothills. Jory, Oregon’s state soil, covers the low foothills of the Willamette and Umpqua valleys under Douglas-fir and Oregon white oak. It carries 45 to 65 percent clay in the subsoil, on slopes as steep as 90 percent, with boulders up to 5 feet across in some spots. Wet Jory on a grade is where a tracked machine loses its hours.

What happens to the wood. Trees, brush, logs and stumps removed to prepare a site count as demolition waste, not forest slash, and chipping is the named alternative to burning. Brush mulched where it stands needs no letter permit, no burn day and no truck, which is why mulching usually beats burning on cost here.

Land Clearing Costs Across Oregon

Willamette Valley and the Portland edge. Salem, Corvallis, McMinnville, Eugene and rural Washington and Clackamas counties, with Albany and the rest of Linn County covered below. Blackberry owns the valley floor and Jory holds the foothills. Special burn control areas reach 3 miles from valley towns of 1,000 to 45,000 people and 6 miles from cities of 45,000 or more, and inside them clearing debris needs a DEQ letter permit. Around Portland even yard debris needs one, so chipping or hauling is the normal plan.

Sweet Home and the Mid-Willamette Valley. This is our Linn County market: Sweet Home, Lebanon, Brownsville, Albany and Harrisburg in Linn County, Coburg, Springfield and Junction City in Lane County, and Jefferson, Stayton and Sublimity in Marion County. Much of the ground near Sweet Home is foothill forest, so Scotch broom on cutover land and the Department of Forestry’s notification and fire season permits shape the job, and Sweet Home is one of the Linn County cities whose three-mile ring is a burning control area under OAR 340-264-0110. The Sweet Home land clearing page covers the towns and the ground, and the Sweet Home pricing page lists the per-acre bands.

The coast and the Coast Range. Tillamook, Lincoln City, Newport, Coos Bay, Bandon and Brookings. South of Florence the job is often gorse: shrubs up to 15 feet tall that resprout quickly when cut, with seed that lasts 30 years in the soil and sprouts after clearing. Clearing debris cannot be burned inside the Coos Bay control area, or within three miles of Lincoln City and Newport under OAR 340-264-0100, without a letter permit. Further north the job is Scotch broom, which sets about 15,000 seeds a plant each year and reseeds cleared ground for years; our Scotch broom removal guide sets out the cut, mulch and check plan.

Lincoln City and the central coast. This is our central coast market: Lincoln County from Neotsu and Lincoln Beach to Depoe Bay, Newport and Toledo, the south end of Tillamook County from Neskowin to Hebo, and the Coast Range towns of Grand Ronde, Willamina and Falls City. The Lincoln City land clearing page covers the broom, blackberry and wet ground our crew clears there, and the Lincoln City pricing guide lists the per-acre bands.

Southern Oregon. Medford, Ashland, Grants Pass and Roseburg, through the Rogue and Umpqua valleys. Many hillside homes above Medford and Grants Pass want fuel thinned rather than every tree gone. Construction and demolition burning is prohibited in the Rogue Basin and Umpqua Basin control areas unless DEQ issues a letter permit, so we plan on mulching.

Eagle Point and the Rogue Valley. This is our southern Oregon market: Jackson and Josephine counties, from Eagle Point, White City and Shady Cove through Central Point, Medford, Jacksonville and Ashland to Grants Pass. Armenian blackberry, widespread in Jackson County, is the growth most jobs start with. The flat Agate Desert ground north of Medford holds winter water above a shallow hardpan, so the timing of a job matters. The Eagle Point land clearing page covers the towns and the ground, and the Eagle Point pricing page lists the per-acre bands.

Central and eastern Oregon. Bend, Redmond, Prineville, Madras, John Day, Burns and Ontario. Juniper is the work here: western juniper covers 9 million acres across central and eastern Oregon and the edges of the states next door. Burning clearing debris within 3 miles of Bend, Redmond or Prineville needs a letter permit. On open range, juniper count and the way in decide the hours more than acreage does.

Permits and Burning Rules in Oregon

Fire permits. Under ORS 477.515, lighting an open fire inside, or within an eighth of a mile of, a forest protection district needs a written permit from the forester, and in fire season that permit cannot be waived. Clearing forestland there with power-driven machinery is an “operation” that needs its own permit from the forester first.

Stormwater. DEQ’s 1200-C permit applies to clearing, grading and excavation that disturbs one acre or more, or less as part of a larger plan. Apply at least 30 days before work starts; over five acres there is also a 14-day public notice. We never file permits, and grading is not part of our price: we clear to the ground so your dirt contractor can grade.

Defensible space. Cities and counties set these rules. The State Fire Marshal’s model code, if your county adopts it, reduces fuel 30, 50 or 100 feet out by hazard level.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to clear an acre of blackberry in Oregon?

Budget $1,500 to $2,500 an acre for blackberry and broom along fences and pasture edges. A thicket swallowing fir regrowth or sitting on a Jory slope moves toward $4,000. Plan on spot treatment afterward, because the crowns resprout.

Can I burn brush piles after clearing land in Oregon?

It depends on your address. Inside most DEQ open burning control areas, including ground within 3 miles of any city of 4,000 or more and much of the Willamette Valley, clearing debris needs a DEQ letter permit, and on ODF-protected land in fire season you need an ODF permit as well. DEQ’s online map shows the rule for your parcel.

How much does juniper removal cost per acre in Oregon?

Scattered young juniper falls in our $1,500 to $2,500 band, and a closed stand mulched in place runs up to $4,000. Remote range near Burns or John Day can add travel, which is why we ask for the nearest town first.

Do I have to notify ODF before clearing wooded land?

Yes, when forestland is being cleared for a non-forest use such as pasture or a house: the notice goes to the State Forester at least 15 days ahead. Cutting firewood for your own use, not for sale, needs no notice.

Get a Land Clearing Quote in Oregon

Request a free quote and we’ll contact you to discuss your property, access and the clearing you need, whether that is open pasture, a thinned fire zone, or a site cleared for your dirt contractor.

Sources

• Oregon DEQ, Debris Burn Permits fact sheet
• Oregon DEQ, 1200-C construction stormwater permit
• Oregon Administrative Rules, OAR 340-264-0100, open burning control areas
• OSU Extension, Broom