How Much Does Land Clearing Cost Per Acre in Kansas?

Three national cost guides put lightly wooded land at about $580 to $2,500 an acre. Heavily wooded land runs about $3,300 to $8,000 an acre. A contractor directory’s Kansas cost report averages about $1,685 an acre, in a range of $1,108 to $2,262.

Those are market numbers, not our price list. Where your acre lands depends on what grows on it and what happens to the brush. We price land clearing in Parker, Kansas after we look at the land.

What do national cost guides say an acre costs?

The three guides were updated in 2025 and 2026. They agree that thicker growth and bigger trees cost more. They disagree on the numbers, sometimes by a lot.

Guide 3 adds a middle band of $2,500 to $4,500 an acre for thicker brush and medium trees. Guide 2 says its clearing prices leave out grading and leveling. Guide 1 puts hourly work at $120 to $265 an hour.

Two of the guides put a land clearing permit at about $200 to $250 where one is needed. Guide 1 adds $310 to $750 for a land survey.

What do Kansas numbers show?

Kansas has less published data. Two sources give state numbers.

The directory’s figure comes from prices reported back to it, and its page carries no date. The custom rates survey comes from the Kansas Department of Agriculture and K-State. It asks Kansas farmers what they paid for custom work. Its rates include the machine and the person running it.

Only eight eastern Kansas reports covered tree shearing. The survey itself says state averages may not be typical of any one area. An hourly rate also turns into an acre price only once you know how many hours the acre takes.

What makes one acre cost more than another?

Six things move the price per acre. Most jobs involve several of them.

• How thick the growth is. Brush and saplings go fast. Thick growth takes more machine hours, so heavily wooded land costs more in every guide.
• How big the trees are. Big trunks take longer to cut, and big stumps take longer to dig out. One guide says hardwoods take longer to cut and remove than softwoods.
• Whether the stumps come out. A house pad needs the stumps and roots out, and pulling them adds machine time. On pasture, cedar stumps can stay, because K-State says one cut below its lowest green branch will not sprout back. Hedge and honey locust do sprout from the roots.
• Slope and access. The guides say hills and hard-to-reach ground raise the bill. Within five miles of Parker, the federal soil survey shows mostly gentle slopes. Steeper rocky hillsides sit where limestone crops out, and the creek bottoms flood.
• How many acres. Per-acre prices often drop on bigger jobs. Guides say the cost of moving machines to the site gets spread over more acres. One guide prices 1 acre at $1,200 to $8,000 and 5 acres at $4,500 to $35,000.
• Wet ground. Much of the ground around Parker is silt loam over a tight clay subsoil. In many of these soils, the federal soil survey shows a wet layer from late fall through spring. A Forest Service bulletin says wheeled machines rut wet soil and advises working when soils are dry.

What happens to the brush, and what does that add?

Every cleared acre leaves wood behind. Where it goes changes the price.

Forestry mulching grinds brush and small trees where they stand, and the mulch stays on the ground. Guide 1 says mulching uses one machine and leaves nothing to pile or remove. It says that makes mulching cost less than standard land clearing. Our guide to forestry mulching versus traditional land clearing compares the two methods.

A building site is different. Our lot clearing for a building site pulls each stump with the excavator, and the wood is piled on site. Pulling stumps counts as excavation under Kansas law, so a Kansas 811 locate request comes first.

Some owners want the wood gone instead. Hauling it away is a separate job for another company. Guide 3 notes that some quotes include disposal while others charge for it separately.

Can you burn brush piles in Kansas?

Yes, under rules that depend on why the land was cleared. K-State’s summary of the state rules says open burning is banned unless an exception applies.

Burning for range or pasture management is one exception. The local fire authority must be told before the burn starts, unless local government says notice is not needed.

Clearing for a home site or other development counts as nonagricultural land clearing. Burning that brush needs prior approval under state rules, on top of local fire rules. K-State’s summary says the written request goes to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Counties add their own steps on top of the state rules. They differ from one county to the next:

• Linn County: call the county before you burn.
• Franklin County: a burn permit is required for most open burning outside city limits.
• Anderson County: anyone burning brush piles must call the county communications center before lighting them.
• Johnson County: a state rule bans almost all open burning in April.

When the owner burns the piles, those calls and permits are the owner’s to make. Check with the county before the first match.

How do you get a real number for your land?

The guides give you a starting range. A real number comes from looking at the growth and the ground on your land.

We look at the job and put the quote in writing. We clear land around Parker with a skid loader and an excavator. Read how our land clearing works, then call or text (620) 252-9314.