Land Clearing Cost in Sabattus, ME

A brushy back field in Turner and a wooded lot on the shore of Sabattus Pond can hold the same growth and still come out at very different totals. Around Sabattus, clearing land runs $1,500 to $4,500 an acre, and small jobs start at a minimum charge of about $1,500. The rate per acre is set by what is standing; how many acres the machine may work is set by the ground, and near the water the town's shoreland rules decide part of that. The ranges below are for planning; your quote fits them to your land.

You get a single price in writing for the agreed result, and each barberry sprout visit shows as a separate item you are free to accept or decline. Forestry mulching turns brush, small trees and stumps into mulch on site; stumps finish flush with the ground and nothing is hauled away. Full stump removal below grade, and cutting and hauling 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. Any herbicide in the plan is a licensed applicator's work.

Request a free quote when you are ready. For more background, see the Sabattus services page, the Sabattus land clearing page, the Sabattus forestry mulching cost guide, the Maine barberry removal guide and the Maine land clearing cost guide.

Sabattus Rates by Type of Work

Forestry Mulching

$1,500 – $4,000 / acre

Barberry, brush and saplings ground into chips on the spot. A scatter of young growth in a level back field starts near $1,500 an acre; a dense stand of young trees with barberry packed between them climbs toward $4,000.

Barberry & Field Edge Clearing

$1,500 – $2,500 / acre

Japanese barberry and brush cut from beneath the trees you are keeping, or from a field edge and the stone wall that runs along it. A wall line is measured by its length and width and billed as that fraction of an acre.

Land Clearing

$1,500 – $4,500 / acre

A whole parcel opened to the finish your quote names. An old field with scattered saplings lands near the bottom; a closed woodlot taken down to the soil lands near the top. Stumps end level with the ground; taking them out below grade is quoted on its own.

Lot & Homesite Prep

$1,500 – $4,500 / acre equivalent

The house site, its drive and a cleared route for power, the well and septic, laid out after the setbacks from any pond, brook or wetland are marked. Grading and the building pad are left for your builder.

Small jobs start at a minimum charge of about $1,500. One wall line in Lisbon, ME or a barberry patch behind a house in Auburn still needs the truck, the trailer and the setup of a full day, so it is charged the minimum rather than an acre rate, and no fee is added. Bigger jobs are priced by the acre bands, and lining up several small areas for one trip stretches what the minimum buys.

What Moves a Sabattus Quote

How close the work is to water

Sabattus applies its shoreland ordinance within 250 feet of Sabattus Pond, the Sabattus River, four named brooks and wetland edges. The 100-foot strip along the pond stays wooded and is not mulched, and behind it tree removal and cleared openings are capped. That changes how much ground a quote covers and which method each part gets, not the per-acre rate.

How dense the barberry is

A few bushes along a wall are quick. A spiny thicket that has filled the space between the trunks, with stems too close to walk through, takes more passes and slower work around the trees you are saving. Because barberry grows back from the root, the follow-up cut appears as its own item.

Stone walls and field edges

Where an old field ends at a stone wall, brush and barberry grow up through and along the stones. The machine works beside a wall, not over it, so a wall line goes slower than open ground. A field strip is billed on its acreage equivalent, and the slower travel along its length places it higher in the band.

Trees you are keeping

Every tree you want left standing is a trunk the mulching head has to work around. A lightly flagged lot moves fast; a lot where most of the canopy stays and only the shrub layer comes out sits higher in its band, though it still prices at the understory rate.

Getting the machine in

A driveway or field lane with room to turn a truck and trailer gets our crew to work quickly. A narrow camp road, a gate between stone walls, a soft spring lane or patches scattered across the property each eat into cutting time. Expect a question about the way in for a truck and trailer when we talk.

Sabattus Pricing Questions

Most work runs $1,500 to $4,500 an acre. Field edge barberry usually prices low and a closed woodlot taken to bare soil usually prices high, but a given acre can land anywhere in its band, moved by the density of the growth, the number of keeper trees and the way in. The $1,500 minimum is a starting point for small work, not what an ordinary acre costs.
The acre rate does not change for it. A barberry layer under keeper trees is priced at $1,500 to $2,500 an acre; once saplings fill it in, it is forestry mulching. Where barberry does add cost is the follow-up, because it regrows from the root: the quote includes a return cut and, only if you want one, a licensed applicator's treatment. Our Maine barberry removal guide sets out the visits.
The rate per acre is the same. What changes is the ground: the buffer strip by the water is left wooded and only thinned, and the rest of the shoreland zone has caps on tree removal and openings, so a pond lot often has less ground to mulch than its size suggests. The Sabattus forestry mulching cost guide walks through it.
No separate rates. Augusta, ME, Brunswick, ME, Windham and Falmouth use the same four bands, and travel, access and growth place a job within them just as in Sabattus. See the Sabattus land clearing page for the full town list and the shoreland rules.

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