Land clearing cost

STA 0+120Clearing, grubbing, mulching and timber salvage are different scopes

"Land clearing" bundles several distinct operations that Alberta prices separately, in combination:

• Clearing. Cutting and removing standing trees and brush from the site.
• Grubbing. Removing stumps and roots so the ground can be graded, usually priced together with clearing on a civil contract rather than as its own item.
• Mulching. Grinding the cleared material on site instead of hauling it away — cheaper to dispose of, and the mulch can sometimes be reused on site.
• Timber salvage. Merchantable logs are cut, sorted and removed for sale rather than mulched or burned, which changes both the cost and, on a large enough job, the revenue side of the project.

The full sequence, including how clearing fits before topsoil stripping and bulk earthworks, is in the earthworks and excavation discipline page.

STA 0+2402026 prices, per hectare

Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors publishes the average of the three lowest bids for each clearing combination, across contracts tendered May 1, 2025 to June 24, 2026:

Mulching adds to the price of clearing alone ($18,278 per ha¹ plainly cleared and burned or hauled, versus $16,439 per ha¹ with mulching), while timber salvage without mulching came in below plain clearing at $11,501 per ha¹ — likely reflecting that salvaged timber has value that offsets part of the clearing cost on the contracts included in that average. The fullest combination, clearing with both timber salvage and mulching, averaged $25,624 per ha¹, the highest of the four. Regionally, clearing-and-mulching price varies with the density and type of vegetation being cleared:

STA 0+360Converting to a per-acre price

One hectare equals about 2.47 acres, so a per-hectare price divided by 2.47 gives a per-acre figure: clearing alone at $18,278 per ha¹ per hectare works out to roughly $7,400 per acre on the same 2026 average, before any of the small-job adjustments below are applied. Use this as a unit conversion of the published figure, not as a separate, independently sourced acre price.

STA 0+480How land gets cleared

The method a contractor chooses changes both the price and what is left behind:

• Mulching heads. A skid steer or excavator-mounted mulching head grinds standing trees and brush into mulch in place, leaving material on site rather than hauling it. This is what Alberta's mulching items above price.
• Feller-buncher and skidder. Trees are cut and bunched by a feller, then skidded to a landing for processing — the standard method where timber salvage has value, since it keeps logs intact rather than grinding them.
• Dozer with a rake or blade. Pushes trees, brush and roots into piles for burning or hauling — fast for clearing scattered vegetation but less selective and harder on the topsoil underneath.

Which method applies depends on tree size and density, whether timber has salvage value, and what the cleared land is for next. A contractor pricing the job needs to know the end use of the material as much as the area being cleared, and whether the cleared surface itself needs to be left rough, raked, or graded ready for the next trade to start on it.

STA 0+600What changes the number on a small lot

Alberta's averages are for highway rights-of-way, often tens of hectares at a stretch. A residential lot, an acreage building site or a few hectares for a small development price very differently:

• Mobilization. Bringing a mulcher, feller and disposal trucks to a half-hectare lot costs close to the same as bringing them to a much larger one; the cost lands on far less area.
• Tree size and density. Mature, dense forest costs more to clear per hectare than scattered brush or young growth — the highway averages blend a wide range of vegetation types and do not isolate this variable.
• Disposal method and local burning rules. Burning slash on site is the lowest-cost disposal method where local fire bylaws and burn permits allow it; where they do not, or in a fire-ban period, material has to be chipped, mulched or hauled instead, adding cost.
• Stump removal and grubbing depth. A site being built on needs stumps and major roots grubbed out to the depth of the planned foundation or pavement; a site being left as cleared land often does not.
• Access. A treed lot with no existing access road costs more to clear than one already served by a trail or road wide enough for equipment.

Treat the Alberta hectare rates as a floor for the clearing operation itself, before any of these site-specific factors are added.

STA 0+720What comes after clearing

Clearing is the first step, not the whole scope, on almost every project that needs it. Once a site is cleared, topsoil stripping, subgrade preparation and bulk earthworks follow — covered in the site preparation cost guide — and any building site still needs its own excavation, priced in the excavation cost guide. Budgeting clearing alone without the site-prep work that follows it is a common way a land-development estimate comes in short.

STA 0+840What to send for a price

For a comparable clearing quote: the area in hectares or acres, what is currently on the site (open brush, scattered trees or dense mature forest, if known), whether merchantable timber should be salvaged for value or cleared and disposed of, local rules on open burning, and whether stumps need to be grubbed for construction or can be left. Photos or a site visit let a contractor judge vegetation density far better than a written description alone.