How much does it cost to clear an acre of land in Middle Tennessee?

Most land clearing runs $1,200 to $8,000 per acre depending on what is growing on it. A lightly wooded acre typically lands between $500 and $2,333, while a heavily wooded acre runs roughly $3,000 to $6,155. Cedar thicket, stump removal and haul-off push the number toward the high end.

What is the cheapest way to clear overgrown land?

For brush and small trees, forestry mulching is usually the cheapest path because nothing gets hauled or burned. Consumer pricing guides put mulching at $500 to $1,000 or more per acre, well under full clear-and-haul work on the same ground. It only falls short when stumps have to come out for construction.

Does clearing cost more if the land is going to be built on?

Usually, yes. A buildable finish means stumps dug and hauled instead of ground flush, plus rough grading, and often a pad. Those steps add real machine and trucking hours. If you are clearing for pasture, views or trails, mulching in place skips most of that cost.

How much does stump removal add?

Pricing guides put individual stump removal around $100 to $350 per stump depending on size and access. On a wooded acre that adds up fast, which is why the stump decision — dig them or grind them flush — is one of the first things a good contractor settles on the walk-through.

How do I get an exact price instead of a range?

Have a contractor walk the property. Growth density, tree size, rock, access and haul distance change the number more than raw acreage, and none of them can be judged over the phone. The walk-through and the written quote should be free, and the number should hold unless the scope changes.

How much does land clearing cost per acre in Middle Tennessee?

Most land clearing in the Franklin area runs $1,200 to $8,000 per acre, and the spread is that wide because “clearing” covers everything from mowing down briars to digging out a wooded homesite. A lightly wooded acre typically prices between $500 and $2,333. A heavily wooded acre runs about $3,000 to $6,155. This guide breaks down where your property lands in that range and what moves the number.

If you want a real price instead of a range, our land clearing quotes are free and written after a walk of your ground.

What drives the price per acre

The growth sets the price, not the acreage. An acre of goldenrod and blackberry cane is a fast machine day. An acre of grown-up cedar with privet walls and six-inch hackberry is slow, deliberate work with real haul-off behind it. Same acre on paper, completely different job.

Here is how the 2026 consumer pricing guides break it down:

What is on the ground	Typical per-acre cost	What it looks like around here
Light growth, brush and saplings	$500 – $2,333	Idle field going brushy, scattered young cedar
Moderate growth, small trees	$2,500 – $4,500	Mixed thicket, privet rows, established saplings
Heavy growth, dense trees	$3,395 – $8,000	Ground gone back to woods, big stems, full canopy

Sources: HomeGuide, HomeAdvisor and LawnStarter 2026 cost guides. Local quotes move inside these ranges based on access, rock and how much has to leave the property.

The Middle Tennessee factors that move the number

Three things around Williamson and Rutherford counties change a clearing quote more than anything else.

Cedar. Eastern redcedar takes over idle ground here fast, and cedar density is the difference between a mowing pass and a grinding job. Young cedar mulches cheap. Trunk-diameter cedar takes machine time, and machine time is the bill.

Rock. Parts of this area run shallow to limestone, especially toward the Rutherford County side. Rock barely matters if brush is being mulched in place, but it matters a lot when stumps have to come out of the ground. An honest quote names that risk up front.

What has to leave. Debris handling is the quiet half of a clearing bill. Burn piles are a headache near neighborhoods, so cleared material either gets ground where it stood or loaded and hauled. Hauling costs truck time. Companies that run their own trucks, like ours, control that cost instead of subbing it out.

Clearing for use versus clearing for construction

The finish decides the budget. If the land is going back to pasture, trails, views or hunting ground, forestry mulching usually wins on price: the brush gets ground into chips right where it grew, nothing gets hauled, and pricing guides put it at $500 to $1,000 or more per acre.

If the ground is taking a foundation, a barn or a driveway, the stumps have to come out and the dirt has to be shaped. That is clearing plus site preparation, and the per-acre number climbs because excavators, trucks and compaction join the job. The right way to budget it is as one sequence, not two separate hires, because mobilizing one crew once is cheaper than mobilizing two crews twice.

Small parcels and minimum charges

Moving machines costs the same whether they work one hour or eight, so most clearing outfits carry a minimum charge. On small jobs, expect the minimum rather than a tiny per-acre bill. The upside is that small jobs usually finish same-day, and adding work to the same visit, a fence row, a field edge, a load of gravel, is the cheapest add-on you will ever buy.

What to ask before you sign a clearing quote

Ask what happens to the stumps, because “cleared” can mean flush-ground or dug-and-gone and the two prices are far apart. Ask where the debris goes and whose trucks move it. Ask whether the quote includes rough grading of the disturbed ground. And ask for the whole thing in writing with a timeline. A contractor who walks your property should hand you all of that without being pushed.

Around Franklin, Brentwood, Spring Hill and the rest of our 20-mile map, we do exactly that. The walk-through is free, the quote is written, and the same crew that clears the ground can grade it, haul it and finish it.