Land Clearing Cost in Hattiesburg, MS

A half-acre lot gone to brush inside Hattiesburg and forty acres of grown-back cutover near Richton are priced from the same four bands. Where your land falls inside a band comes down to three questions: how many years it has been left, whether cogongrass is growing on it, and where the cut material can legally end up. Use the figures below to budget; a free walk-through turns them into one written price.

If the paperwork comes first, the Hattiesburg and Forrest County permit guide is the place to start. What each method does is on the Hattiesburg services page, the whole-state view sits in the Mississippi land clearing cost guide, and everything else about working here is on the Hattiesburg land clearing page.

What Cut Brush Charges Around Hattiesburg

Forestry Mulching

$1,500 – $4,000 / acre

One machine, chips left where they fall. A pasture idle for a few seasons sits at the bottom; twenty years of pine and hardwood thicket on old cutover sits at the top.

Piney Woods Understory Work

$1,500 – $2,500 / acre

The brush, vine and small hardwood layer under pines you are keeping, plus fence rows and field edges. The lightest work here, and often added to a bigger trip.

Land Clearing

$1,500 – $4,500 / acre

Whole-tract scope. Open ground under scattered young pine sits low. Heavy stems with stumps out and a shaped surface at the end sit high.

Lot & Homesite Prep

$1,500 – $4,500 / acre equivalent

Pad, drive and utility corridor. Inside the city the Land Disturbance Permit is settled before the machine arrives. Grading is quoted on its own.

Small jobs are priced by the trip rather than the acre. Trailering a tracked machine out to a lot in Petal or a pasture near Collins costs the same for a morning as for a full day, so the practical minimum for any project is about $1,500.

What Moves a Quote Around Hattiesburg

How long since the ground was kept open

In the Piney Woods the calendar predicts cost better than the acreage does. A pasture or hay field left for three or four seasons carries soft growth and pine whips that go down almost as fast as the machine travels. Fifteen or twenty years puts pine and hardwood the thickness of a forearm in front of the head, and the same acreage lands near the top of its band. Tell us roughly when the land was last cut, grazed or mowed and you have narrowed the range more than a species list would.

Cogongrass on the tract

Cogongrass does not raise the rate, but it changes the order of work. Patches are flagged at the walk-through and either left for a treatment provider or worked last, and the machine is cleaned before it arrives and before it leaves. A tract with scattered patches takes more planning than one without. Treatment itself is a separate job: the Mississippi Forestry Commission puts eradication at two to three years of spraying, which is not a line on a clearing quote.

Where the debris goes

State open burning rules keep land clearing debris fires 500 yards from any occupied home unless a forced-draft system is used, and then 50 yards. On most tracts close to town that leaves two endings: ground in place or loaded and hauled away. Grinding keeps everything on the property and removes the haulage line from the quote. Haulage is the cost most often left out of a budget, and it explains much of the gap when two bids for the same acreage land far apart.

Whether the city or county wants paperwork first

Inside Hattiesburg, the Land Development Code lists a city Land Disturbance Permit at every size, and from one acre the state stormwater permit is added. In unincorporated Forrest County, clearing under an acre is a notification to the Planning Department and one to five acres is a county permit. Our rate does not move for any of it; the start date can. Existing farm and forestry operations are excepted from the city permit.

Wet ground and getting to the work

Low ground near the Leaf River and the creek bottoms can stay soft after rain, and a tracked machine on saturated ground works slower and leaves ruts. Flexible timing on a wet tract is worth real money. Gates, ditch crossings and a long run from the road to the back of the property also use hours before a stem is cut, so ground reached straight from a paved road costs less than a back forty across two pastures.

Hattiesburg Clearing Cost FAQ

What should I budget per acre around Hattiesburg?

For most clearing work, $1,500 to $4,500 an acre. Understory under pines you keep and fence rows land near the bottom; heavy pine and hardwood with stumps out and a shaped finish land at the top. The walk-through is free, and it is what turns a range into one firm figure for your parcel.

Why is forestry mulching priced differently from land clearing?

Because you get a different result. Mulching is one tracked machine turning brush and small trees into chips on the spot; stumps are left flush and the chips stay on the ground as a mat, with no shaping. Clearing is a full-tract job where you choose the finish: pulled or flush stumps, wood ground or trucked off, ground shaped or left. That extra choice is why its band runs to $4,500 an acre against $4,000 for mulching. The Hattiesburg forestry mulching cost guide takes the mulching figure apart in more detail.

Do permits add to what I pay?

They add paperwork and time rather than rate. Inside the city a Land Disturbance Permit is listed for any size of disturbance, and larger jobs add the state stormwater permit and a pollution prevention plan. Requirements vary by parcel, scope and jurisdiction, and the governing authority makes the determination. Cut Brush can flag what commonly applies and point you at the right office. Every rule sits beside its source in the Hattiesburg and Forrest County permit guide.

How do these ranges compare with the rest of Mississippi?

They are the same bands, applied to the Pine Belt rather than a separate schedule. The Mississippi land clearing cost guide explains how vegetation, soils and disposal move a figure anywhere in the state. Around Hattiesburg the deciding variables tend to be how long the ground has been left, how wet the low end is, and whether cogongrass is on the tract.

Get the Figure for Your Own Ground

A free walk-through and a written quote on any parcel in the six Pine Belt counties.

Request a Free Quote

Or call us directly: (919) 525-3950