PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Gillespie County runs on land that earns: vineyards, orchards, cattle, and guest ranches. A pond here is working infrastructure and scenery in one dig, and we build both sides of that job.
Fredericksburg tracts pull from three geologies, sometimes inside one fence line, and the pond design follows the dirt.
North of town the Llano Uplift shows up: pink granite, coarse sandy soils, and basins that drink water unless sealed. Ponds up here chase clay pockets in the draws or take bentonite, and solid granite gets the same hammer-by-the-day honesty we quote everywhere.
The payoff is scenery no other pond country in Texas matches.
South and east toward the Pedernales, sandy loam sits over limestone with real clay in the bottoms. Creek valley sites build well and run the published list, and the loam banks grass fast, which matters when the pond fronts a tasting room or guest cabin.
Most working ponds in this county live on this side of the geology.
Gillespie County builds run on granite, limestone, and straight talk. Here is the whole process on a Fredericksburg pond.
Send photos of the spot, a rough size, and your town. You get a ballpark from the published list the same day, and if it sounds right we set a time to walk the property. No pressure loop, no form-and-wait.
A Fredericksburg site walk reads two geologies at once: granite country north toward Enchanted Rock, limestone south toward the Pedernales. We read the draw for rock and for clay, watch how the slope already moves water, and factor the orchard or vineyard rows the machines will work around. The verdict is delivered in the pasture: best site, honest seal assessment, and the cost in machine days, with nothing left to interpretation.
A real number in machine days: what the dig costs, what the dam costs, what happens if we hit rock, and what the clearing adds if the site is brushed up. The price on paper is the price, and any rock contingency is spelled out instead of buried.
A lowboy shows up with the dozer and excavator, usually within a few weeks of a signed quote. We need a gate the iron fits through and a spot for the trailer, and we handle the rest.
Two to five working days for most ponds. Topsoil gets stripped and saved, the core trench gets cut, the dam goes up in compacted lifts, and the basin takes shape a bench at a time. You are welcome on site every day of it, at a safe distance from the swing radius.
Before the machines load, we walk the pond with you: dam, spillway, slopes, and the topsoil dressed back over the banks. If it does not match what was quoted, that is the moment we make it right.
Gillespie County averages under 30 inches of rain, so a Fredericksburg pond is sized to make every storm count. The Pedernales watershed proves how fast this ground can move water when the sky opens. Grass the dam right away, watch the spillway work its first storms, and give the pond a full storm season. Sized to its draw, it will find full pool.
Published, not hidden behind a form. Prices and build times are based on 6 feet of depth at center with a 4:1 bank.
| Pond Size | Starting Price at 6 ft depth, 4:1 bank | Build Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1/4 acre | from $12,300 | 2 to 3 days |
| 1/2 acre | from $19,200 | 3 to 4 days |
| 3/4 acre | from $23,300 | 4 to 5 days |
| 1 acre | from $27,000 | 5 to 6 days |
| 1 1/4 acre | from $30,400 | 6 to 7 days |
| 1 1/2 acre | from $33,800 | 7 to 8 days |
| 1 3/4 acre | from $36,800 | 8 to 9 days |
| 2 acre | from $39,500 | 9 to 10 days |
Fredericksburg spans granite, loam, and limestone, so the walk decides the quote: valley clay sites run the list, sandy basins may take bentonite as a line item, and rock is hammer time flagged up front. Vineyard and venue sites get placement input for the view as part of design.
Size it, tell us what to do with the dirt, then draw the pond right on a photo of your land. Your estimate comes back by email, along with a preview of the finished water.
No surprise line items. Here is how the number breaks down on every quote we write.
Siting and design against your watershed, staking, topsoil stripped and saved, the core trench, the dam built in compacted lifts, the spillway cut and shaped, slopes finished to mow, and topsoil dressed back over the banks. Machine transport is in the quote, and so is the walkthrough before we leave.
Rock hammer time when the dig finds granite or solid limestone, flagged and billed by the day. Clay borrow or bentonite when the basin runs sandy, priced at design, common in granite country and never a surprise on our quotes. Cedar clearing at published day rates, and careful routing around orchard and vineyard blocks comes standard, not extra.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
Finish grading around new water
Half acre reference build: 5 days
Bentonite for sandy granite basins
Lined, where the rock insists
The finished product: water that staysFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
Vineyards and orchards around Fredericksburg live and die on water timing, and a pond is irrigation storage that fills itself: catch the spring rain, hold it deep, and pull it in August when the vines want it and the wells are working hardest. We size irrigation ponds against the acreage they serve, not just the watershed above them.
Half of Gillespie County is in the hospitality business, and a pond photographs like nothing else on a property. For venue and guest ranch builds we place for the sightline, the sunset, and the dock conversation, and we grade banks gentle enough for guests who have never walked a pasture. Working water can still be the backdrop.
This county has buried enough orchards in dry years to take evaporation seriously. Eight feet of depth is the floor here, ten is better, and a wide shallow scenic pond is a mistake we will talk you out of, because the prettiest pond in September is simply the one still holding water.
Plenty of Fredericksburg ponds sit on show properties now, framing a tasting room view or an orchard row, but the rules that keep them full are pure ranch: honest watershed sizing, a real core trench, depth against the sun. We build the pond that photographs well by building the one that engineers well, in that order, because a scenic pond that leaks is scenery for one season.
With less rain than Austin and more evaporation than almost anywhere east of it, a Gillespie pond cannot waste runoff. That means siting in the draw the land already uses, sizing to what the watershed genuinely sheds, and cutting the spillway to keep the storm you catch. Built that way, even a dry-country pond rides full most of the year.
Summer here will lift several feet off open water. The defense never changes: eight feet or more at center, banks cut to shade the margins, shallows kept small. Deep water stays cool for fish, holds for stock, and refuses the weeds. Shallow ponds in this county spend late summer apologizing.
Grass the dam the week the machines leave, before the first storm tests bare dirt. Months later, once the pond holds steady water, stock minnows and bluegill, then bass the next season. Peach country grows fish as well as fruit when the order is respected, and the evening bite forty steps from the porch is worth the patience.
Post oaks and live oaks make Gillespie properties, and wounding one to dig a pond is a bad trade. Haul paths go around root zones, iron stays off drip lines, and the cedar comes out clean because we are a Fredericksburg clearing crew before anything else. The finished site is dressed, graded, and ready to grass.
The build does not have to stop when the water shows up. These come with the same one-crew, one-call approach as the pond itself.
Thin Hill Country topsoil is too precious to lose to the first storm, so the dam gets seeded and matted as the closing act of every build. Grass roots knit a new dam in one growing season and hold it for forty years.
A diffuser keeps oxygen through the column when the Gillespie summer flattens everything, and a fountain adds the motion that makes a stock pond read as a feature. On wine country properties the fountain usually pays for itself in photographs.
Docks belong in the site walk conversation. We shape the shelf and grade the approach while the basin is dry, so the pier lands level over real depth, whether it serves a swimming ladder or a wedding photo.
Stocking runs forage first, bass a season later, the order that builds a self-sustaining fishery. A Fredericksburg pond stocked patiently gives you private water no winery crowd ever finds, and the fish grew up on your rain.
I have used Pierce Land Clearing to clear out property that I own on two different occasions. Each time two different operators but same result: amazing work!!! It is impressive what their forestry mulchers can accomplish so quickly.
mike humphries, Google review
I have been working with Pierce on projects for roughly a year and he has been top notch in all aspects. Taylor is a great communicator and very thorough in his work. Any issue we have had has always been resolved quickly and with all parties in mind.
joshua crispell, Google review
Would recommend A++! Everyone throughout the entire process was a pleasure to work with. Job was done as scheduled and we are very pleased with the results! Our 5 acres never looked better!
Michael Lyons, Google review
Six terms you will hear on the site walk, and what they actually mean for your water.
The dry dam height above full pool. In flash flood country like the Pedernales basin, it is the storm margin we never trim.
Every acre of ground that sheds rain toward your pond. It, not the hole, decides how fast you get water.
The water level at the bottom of the spillway, the highest the pond is designed to hold day to day.
Where the dam dirt comes from. On a well designed pond it is the basin itself, so every yard dug does double duty.
One acre of water a foot deep, about 326,000 gallons. The unit that decides whether a stock pond needs a state permit.
Saving the living top layer before the dig and dressing it back over the banks after, so grass takes the first season.
The Hill Country ring around Fredericksburg, and the crews already in it.
The published list applies: quarter acre from $12,300, half acre from $19,200 at 6 feet on a 4:1 bank. The Gillespie variables are granite north of town and sandy basins that may take bentonite, both flagged on the call and settled on the walk.
Sized right, yes: it is storage that refills on rain. We design irrigation ponds against the acres they serve and the draw of your pump plan, and depth does the preserving through summer.
That is a placement and grading question, and the answer is yes: sightline placement, gentle guest-friendly banks on the viewing side, working depth in the middle. Fountains and docks come after the water, and the pond gets built ready for both.
Granite country basins need help: clay pockets where the draws have them, bentonite where they run thin, a liner where rock rules. All three get priced honestly the moment we know which one you need, and all three are on our documented pages.
A storm season on a right-sized watershed. Gillespie rain is famously feast or famine, which argues for catching the feast: a properly placed pond can bank most of a wet spring in a few big events.
Yes, and in this county that often means careful work around oaks worth protecting. Same mobilization: clearing, grubbing, pond, dam, all one crew.
Send photos, acreage, and what the pond needs to do: stock, irrigation, scenery, or all three. The design follows the job, and the quote follows the walk.