Land clearing cost in Northern California runs about $800 to $2,500 an acre for light brush and grass, $1,200 to $5,000 an acre for moderate brush and small trees, and $5,000 to $10,000 or more an acre for heavy timber, dense chaparral, or steep ground. Stumps add $75 to $480 each if you're grinding rather than pulling them. Where you land in that range depends less on the acreage and more on what's actually growing there and how a dozer or excavator can get to it.
Walberg, Inc. gets this question two ways: from a property owner in Corning or Red Bluff clearing ground for a house pad or a driveway, and from someone in the foothills around Paradise or Chico who just found out their fire insurance renewal hinges on cutting defensible space by a deadline. Both jobs lean on the same excavation equipment. They don't use the same rulebook.
What actually drives the price per acre
Density is the biggest factor, but it's not the only one. A flat acre of dry grass and scattered manzanita clears fast with a brush hog or a dozer blade. An acre of mixed oak, brush, and downed timber on a 20 percent slope needs an excavator with a mulching head, more time, and more fuel, and the price follows.
| Vegetation type | Typical cost per acre |
|---|---|
| Light brush, grass, scattered small shrubs | $800 to $2,500 |
| Moderate brush and small trees | $1,200 to $5,000 |
| Heavy timber, dense chaparral, or steep terrain | $5,000 to $10,000+ |
| Stump grinding (per stump, not per acre) | $75 to $480 |
Slope adds cost fast. So does access. A five-acre parcel a quarter mile off the county road with no gate wide enough for a dozer trailer costs more to clear than a flat five acres right off the highway, even with identical vegetation. Debris handling matters too: mulching and leaving material on-site is usually cheaper than piling and hauling it, but hauling is sometimes the only legal option depending on the season and your county's burn rules.
Clearing ahead of a house pad, driveway, or rebuild
If you're building, clearing comes before grading, not as part of it. A house pad quoted at a certain cut-and-fill price usually assumes the ground is already clear. Skip that step in the estimate and you'll find out the hard way when the excavator hits a stump field it wasn't supposed to be pricing.
We see this most with general contractors in Chico who've got a framing crew booked and need the lot cleared and compacted before that crew shows up, and with ranchers off Corning Road clearing a few acres for a new outbuilding or equipment yard. The site grading timeline for a project usually adds a week to two weeks on the front end for clearing, longer if stumps need to cure before grinding or if you're waiting on a burn day. Plan for that up front and the rest of the schedule holds. Skip it and the framing crew waits, which costs more than the clearing did.
The same logic applies before a gravel driveway goes in. A driveway alignment through brush and small oaks needs the same clearing work as a house pad, just in a narrower footprint, and it's worth doing before anyone talks base rock depth.
Defensible space clearing under California's 100-foot rule
Separate from construction, a lot of clearing work in Tehama, Butte, and Shasta counties happens because of California's defensible space law. Public Resources Code 4291 requires property owners in State Responsibility Areas to maintain 100 feet of defensible space around structures, split into two zones. Zone 1, the inner 30 feet, needs a real firebreak: dead vegetation and low-hanging limbs removed, spacing between remaining trees and shrubs. Zone 2, from 30 to 100 feet, doesn't need to be bare dirt, but the fuel has to be broken up so fire can't carry a continuous line of brush and grass straight to your house. Cal Fire's defensible space program has the full zone requirements if you want to check your property against them before a contractor walks it.
Defensible space clearing on an already-overgrown acre near a structure typically runs $3,000 to $10,000 for the initial cut, with annual maintenance after that closer to $400 to $2,000 once the property's caught up. That first-year cost is higher than the maintenance number because you're clearing years of buildup, not trimming what grew back since spring.
Here's the trade-off worth knowing before you hire anyone: defensible space clearing isn't the same scope as clearing for a build pad. A defensible space contractor is thinning and spacing vegetation to slow a fire, not stripping ground to grade level. If you tell a crew to clear defensible space and they leave a scorched-earth acre with every tree gone, that's not compliance, that's overkill, and it may not even satisfy your county's inspector, who's checking for spacing and fuel breaks, not bare dirt.
What happens to the debris
This is where a lot of quotes go sideways. Mulching on-site with a forestry mower is usually the cheapest option and it's legal statewide, but it only works if the vegetation is small enough to chew and you don't mind the mulch layer left behind. Piling and burning is an option in unincorporated Tehama County, but only with an LE-62A residential burn permit, only on days the county's air district calls a permissive burn day, and only outside the seasonal burn ban that typically runs from June 1 through the end of fire season. Butte and Shasta counties run similar permit-and-burn-day systems through their own fire and air quality districts. Call ahead and confirm the current burn day status before you count on burning as your disposal plan, because a banned day means the debris sits in a pile until the next one.
Hauling avoids the permit question entirely but adds cost, especially for heavier, wetter material. If your project already involves demolition or fire cleanup work, such as clearing a burned lot before a rebuild, ask whether debris hauling can be bundled into that scope instead of priced as a separate trip.
Do you need a permit to clear land
That depends on your county, your slope, and how much ground you're disturbing, and there's no single statewide answer. What is consistent statewide: clearing or grading one acre or more of land generally triggers a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan requirement under the state's construction general permit, separate from anything your county requires locally. Below an acre, whether you need a county grading or land-disturbance permit depends on the parcel's zoning and your county's own thresholds. Check with your county planning department before equipment shows up, not after.
Common Questions
How much does it cost to clear an acre of land in Northern California?
Expect $800 to $2,500 for light brush and grass, $1,200 to $5,000 for moderate brush and small trees, and $5,000 or more for heavy timber or steep ground. Slope, access, and what happens to the debris move the number more than raw acreage does.
Is defensible space clearing the same as land clearing for construction?
No. Defensible space clearing thins and spaces vegetation across 100 feet to slow a wildfire and generally leaves healthy, well-spaced trees standing. Clearing for a house pad or driveway strips the footprint down to bare, compactable ground. They use similar equipment but aim at different end results.
Can I burn the brush instead of hauling it?
In unincorporated Tehama County, yes, with an LE-62A residential burn permit and only on days the air pollution control district declares permissive burning, which excludes the summer burn ban. Butte and Shasta counties have their own permit and burn-day systems. Confirm the current status before you plan around it, since burn days change daily.
Do I need a permit to clear land before I build?
Clearing or disturbing one acre or more almost always requires a state SWPPP, regardless of county. Below an acre, it depends on your county's grading ordinance and the parcel's zoning, so check with your local planning department before work starts.
How long does clearing add to a construction timeline?
Plan on one to two weeks ahead of grading for most residential lots, longer if stumps need time to dry before grinding or if you're waiting on a permissive burn day to dispose of debris. Building that time into the schedule up front keeps a framing crew from showing up to a lot that isn't ready.
Bottom line
Land clearing costs less to estimate accurately than it does to guess at, and the guess usually goes wrong on access and debris disposal, not the vegetation itself. If you're clearing for a build, get the clearing quoted as its own line item before you lock in a grading or driveway price. If you're clearing for defensible space, walk the property with your county's fire department guidelines in hand so you're not paying for more, or less, than the law actually requires. Walberg, Inc. has run its own excavators and dozers across Tehama, Butte, and Shasta counties as an owner-operated contractor since 1999, and can request a free estimate after a look at your specific ground, slope, and access before anything gets scheduled.