PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Bastrop County is pine, post oak and yaupon on sand, with blackland around Elgin and river bottom along the Colorado. It is the county where we have documented the most work: eleven write ups, from a one day yaupon job to 159 acres for a solar farm. Our rates are published: forestry mulching from $3,000 a day with transport included.
Loblolly pine and post oak over deep sand, with yaupon filling in underneath until you cannot walk through it. The work here is almost always selective: understory out, trees kept, so cattle and people can get under the canopy again. After the 2011 Bastrop County Complex fire, nobody here needs convincing that a choked understory is fuel. Our Paige job is this ground: yaupon and cedar out of four acres with every tree left standing.
Blackland prairie and sandy loam along US 290, with pasture that has grown up in brush and invasive trees. This is where the big acreage is: we cleared 127 acres at Elgin for the Lower Colorado River Authority on a 37 day deadline.
Post oak savannah and Colorado River bottom along Highways 71 and 304. Sandy ground that drains fast, creek bottoms that do not, and a mix of ranch reclamation, homesites and ponds. Our 1.5 acre pond rebuild at Rosanky and the 159 acre Big Sky Solar clearing are both on this side of the county.
Understory ground down where it stands, with the pines and oaks left alone. Nothing is hauled off and nothing is burned. See forestry mulching, brush clearing and our guide to brush clearing vs underbrush clearing.
Brush and invasive trees off ground that used to be grass, at any scale from a few acres to a few hundred. See pasture reclamation.
Ponds and stock tanks built, rebuilt and deepened, plus grubbing and pad work. See pond construction, grubbing and excavation.
Utility scale clearing with our own crews and machines. See solar farm land clearing.
We price in machine days, and the rates are the same here as anywhere we work. A skid steer mulcher is $3,000 per day with transport included. A high horsepower dedicated mulcher is $4,000 per day plus transport. Dozer or excavator work starts at $3,000 per day plus transport. One day minimum on every machine. You get a day count and a written total before anything is scheduled.
Documented Bastrop County jobs show the range. Four acres of selective yaupon clearing at Elgin took one day and came to $4,000 to $5,000. Six acres of selective mulching at Elgin took two days and came to $9,500 to $10,500. Forty acres of full clearing at Bastrop took seventeen days and came to $60,000 to $65,000. The 127 acre Elgin job took 37 days and came to $125,000 to $130,000. Our cost to clear land page lists every priced job we have published.
Eleven write ups inside the county, each with acreage, machines and days on site. Four are below and the rest are linked underneath.
Bastrop: 40 acres of full clearing, seventeen days, $60,000 to $65,000
Elgin: 127 acres for the LCRA on a 37 day deadline, $125,000 to $130,000
Paige: 4 acres of yaupon and cedar out, every tree kept, one day, $5,000 to $6,000
Elgin: 6 acres of selective mulching, two days, $9,500 to $10,500Also in the county: 125 acres of pasture reclamation at Elgin (37 days, $120,000 to $130,000), 8 acres of full clearing at Elgin (3 days, $10,000 to $12,000), 4 acres of yaupon at Elgin (1 day, $4,000 to $5,000), 3 acres selective at Bastrop (1 day, $4,000 to $5,000), 159 acres for Big Sky Solar at Rosanky (61 days), a 1.5 acre pond rebuild at Rosanky (13 days, $50,000 to $55,000) and a half acre pond rehab at Paige (3 days, $9,000 to $10,000). See every documented project.
About 124,000 acres of northeastern Bastrop County, roughly from Highway 71 and the Colorado River north and east through Bastrop State Park, is covered by the county’s Lost Pines Habitat Conservation Plan for the endangered Houston toad. The plan is voluntary and gives landowners Endangered Species Act coverage for limited building: per the county, up to half an acre of residential development on a lot under five acres and up to one acre on a larger lot. The county also says plainly that turning a forested tract into a non-forested one will likely violate the Endangered Species Act, and that thinning Eastern red cedar and yaupon is encouraged for wildlife management. That lines up with how this ground should be cleared anyway: understory out, canopy kept. If your land is in the plan area and the job is more than thinning, talk to the county’s Lost Pines administrator or US Fish and Wildlife first. We do not pull permits, and we tell you at the quote when a job looks like it needs one.
Clearing brush on your own rural land elsewhere in the county generally needs no county permit, and agricultural work is exempt from most regulation in Texas. Floodplain rules apply along the Colorado River and the creeks.
Bastrop County takes burn bans seriously, for reasons everyone here remembers. Mulching in place leaves nothing to pile and nothing to burn.
Bastrop, Elgin and Smithville have their own rules inside their limits. Check with the city before clearing for a build.
Texas A&M Forest Service advises against pruning or wounding oaks from February through June, when oak wilt spreads fastest, and says to paint every fresh oak wound right away in any month. On selective jobs we work around the oaks you are keeping and seal any oak cut immediately.
Pierce Land Clearing just finished a 2 day job forestry mulching my 10 acre lot. Most of the job consisted of making dead pines and oaks, standing and fallen, disappear.
Grace Dacy, Google review
They did a great job for us. We had them clear our 4 acre residential lot of about 3 acres of cedar and yaupon. Some of the cedars were old and huge while other areas were very dense.
Keith Williams, Google review
They did a phenomenal job cleaning up my 80 acres in Bellville of tree damage from the straight wind storm. Steve surveyed the property and gave me a quote that week, and Dustin worked diligently for 9 days to complete the project. Throughout, I got frequent updates. Outstanding team, outstanding job.
Doug Abbott, Google review
Priced in machine days, the same rates statewide. A skid steer mulcher is $3,000 per day with transport included, a high horsepower mulcher is $4,000 per day plus transport, and dozer or excavator work starts at $3,000 per day plus transport. One day minimum on every machine. Documented Bastrop County jobs run from $4,000 to $5,000 for a one day, four acre yaupon job at Elgin to $60,000 to $65,000 for forty acres at Bastrop in seventeen days.
On rural land outside the Lost Pines plan area and outside city limits, generally no county permit, and agricultural work is exempt from most regulation in Texas. In the northeastern part of the county the Lost Pines Habitat Conservation Plan for the Houston toad applies, and the county says converting forest to non-forest will likely violate the Endangered Species Act. We do not pull permits, and we tell you at the quote when a job looks like it needs one.
Yes. Selective understory clearing is the usual job in this county. On our Elgin job everything under six inches through the trunk came out of six acres and everything over it stayed. On our Paige job yaupon and cedar came out of four acres with every tree left standing.
The plan covers about 124,000 acres in northeastern Bastrop County, roughly north and east of Highway 71 and the Colorado River and including Bastrop State Park. Bastrop County publishes the map, and its Lost Pines administrator can tell you whether a tract is inside it.
Yes. Two are documented: a 1.5 acre pond rebuild at Rosanky that took thirteen days and came to $50,000 to $55,000, and a half acre pond rehab at Paige that took three days and came to $9,000 to $10,000. Dozer and excavator work starts at $3,000 per day plus transport.
Yes. We cleared 127 acres at Elgin for the Lower Colorado River Authority in 37 days and 159 acres at Rosanky for the Big Sky Solar project in 61 days. Both are written up on this site.
Send the address, the acreage and what is growing on it. You get back a day count, the machine we would bring and a written number, usually the same day. Call 512-400-2693.