PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Burnet County is where Llano Uplift granite meets Hill Country limestone, with the Highland Lakes running down its west and south sides. Cedar grows on all of it, and the rock underneath decides how a clearing job goes more than the acreage does. Our rates are published: forestry mulching from $3,000 a day with transport included.
Granite Shoals, Marble Falls, Cottonwood Shores, Meadowlakes, Highland Haven, and the shorelines of Lake Buchanan, Inks Lake, Lake LBJ and Lake Marble Falls. This is the edge of the Llano Uplift, the same pink granite that was quarried at Granite Mountain for the State Capitol. Soil is thin, boulders sit at the surface, and the typical job is a lake lot or a few acres where the owner wants the cedar gone and the oaks and the view kept. Skid steer mulchers do most of this work because they fit the lot and ride over rock without tearing it up.
Bertram, Briggs and Oakalla, north on US 281 toward Lampasas and east on Highway 29 toward Liberty Hill. Limestone sits a few inches under the grass, Ashe juniper has closed in on pasture that was open a generation ago, and the tracts are bigger. This is high horsepower mulcher country: cedar brakes ground down at ranch scale, fence lines opened, and oak mottes left standing in clean pasture.
Where Highway 71 crosses the county and Lake Travis reaches up to Pace Bend, the ground turns to limestone canyon. Steep grades rule the biggest machines out of parts of a tract, and homesite work here usually pairs selective clearing with a driveway cut through rock.
On most of Burnet County it is rock, not mud and not acreage, that decides how long a job takes. Where ledge or loose stone covers a road bed or a pad, rock milling grinds it into usable base in place instead of hauling it off.
The default here. One machine grinds standing cedar and brush where it stands. Nothing is hauled off and nothing is burned, which matters in a county where burn bans are common through the dry months. See forestry mulching.
Cedar out from between the live oaks, the canopy opened, the oaks left standing. See cedar tree removal and our guide to cedar clearing in the Hill Country.
Granite cobble and limestone ledge ground into road base and pad material on site. See rock milling.
Lake lots and ranch homesites cleared for a build with what is worth keeping still standing, roots out ahead of the slab, then shaped to a pad with access and drainage. See site prep, grubbing and excavation.
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.
Two documented jobs on the same kind of ground give a sense of scale. A one acre full homesite clearing at Horseshoe Bay took one day with a mulcher and an excavator and came to $6,000 to $7,000. Five acres of trail clearing and selective cedar removal at Llano took two days and came to $8,000 to $9,000. Our cost to clear land page lists every priced job we have published.
We have not yet published a write up from inside the county line. These are the nearest documented jobs, on the same granite and limestone, each with acreage, machines, days on site and what it cost.
Horseshoe Bay: 1 acre homesite cleared in one day, $6,000 to $7,000
Llano: 5 acres of trails and selective cedar, two days, $8,000 to $9,000
Georgetown: 12 acres selective, every oak kept, three days, $12,000 to $15,000
Georgetown: 3 acres of flood debris piled and mulched in one day, $7,000 to $8,000Also nearby: 3 acres of cedar and fence line at Lometa, one day, $5,000 to $6,000. See every documented project.
Clearing brush on your own rural land in Burnet County generally needs no county permit, and agricultural work is exempt from most regulation in Texas. The exceptions below are the ones worth a phone call before a machine shows up. We do not pull permits. We tell you at the quote when a job looks like it needs one.
The Lower Colorado River Authority’s Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance covers the Colorado River watershed in Burnet County. It regulates development, and LCRA counts clearing vegetative cover, grading and excavating as land disturbing activity. Per LCRA, a development permit is required when land disturbance will exceed one acre or impervious cover will exceed 10,000 square feet, and smaller projects may still need to notify. If your clearing is the first step of a house, a road or a pad near the lakes, ask LCRA first. Work in the lake itself falls under a separate LCRA dredge and fill ordinance, and dredging is not work we do.
Oak wilt is established across the Hill Country. Texas A&M Forest Service advises against pruning or wounding oaks from February through June, when the disease 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.
Mature cedar and oak woodland in this part of Texas can be golden-cheeked warbler habitat, and the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge reaches into the southeast of the county. Clearing habitat is a US Fish and Wildlife Service matter, and the nesting season used across the region runs March 1 to August 31. Regrowth cedar on old pasture is usually a different case from old cedar under an oak canopy, but that call belongs to the agency, not to us. If your tract is near the refuge, check before clearing.
Inside Burnet, Marble Falls, Granite Shoals and the other incorporated towns, city rules and floodplain rules near the water apply. Many lake subdivisions also carry deed restrictions that mention tree removal. Read yours before you book.
Amazing service and final product. Hunter, Jonathan and Dustin were the operators for both the tree mulcher and the rock mulcher. Their work completely transformed my property. My only regret is that I did not have it done sooner.
Byron Hairston, Google review
I could not be more pleased after hiring them to clear cedars off my land. They did exactly what I needed, and my place now looks amazing. I learned having the right equipment is key, and Pierce Land Clearing has it.
chris tiroff, Google review
From the moment I saw this forestry machine on their website, I not only believed it would get the job done but I desperately wanted one. To say it got the job done is a gross understatement. Cedar trees have no chance!
David McFadden, 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. Rock and slope usually add days here more than acreage does.
On your own rural land outside a city limit, generally no county permit, and agricultural work is exempt from most regulation in Texas. Near the lakes, the LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance requires a development permit when land disturbance will exceed one acre or impervious cover will exceed 10,000 square feet, so clearing ahead of a build is worth a call to LCRA. City limits and lake subdivision deed restrictions add their own rules. We do not pull permits, and we tell you at the quote when a job looks like it needs one.
Yes. Mulchers ride over rock and grind what is standing on it, so cedar on granite outcrop or limestone ledge is ordinary work. Where the rock itself is in the way of a road or a pad, rock milling grinds it into base material in place. Rock does slow a job down, and we account for it in the day count.
Texas A&M Forest Service advises against pruning or wounding oaks from February through June, because oak wilt spreads fastest then, and says to paint every oak wound right away at any time of year. Cedar can be cleared from around oaks in any month, provided the oaks themselves are not cut or scraped.
Yes. Skid steer mulchers fit lake lots and tight access and leave the trees you want to keep. Our documented Horseshoe Bay job cleared a one acre homesite in one day. Work in the water itself is different: dredge and fill on the Highland Lakes falls under a separate LCRA ordinance, and we do not dredge.
Not from the stumps. Ashe juniper does not resprout once the stem is off below the lowest green limb. What comes back is seedlings from seed already in the soil, which is a mowing problem in year three rather than a clearing problem, and far cheaper to stay on top of than to let close again.
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.