Land Clearing Cost per Acre in Jacksonville, FL (2026): Flatwoods, Scrub, Hammock and Lot Prices from Real Invoices

How Much Does It Cost to Clear Land in Jacksonville? Average Cost by the Acre

The average cost to clear land in the six counties is $1,400 to 2,300 an acre for palmetto and pine flatwoods mulched in place and $2,800 to 5,000 an acre to clear to bare ground with the stumps out. Trail Ridge scrub is cheaper, $1,100 to 1,700. Live oak hammock where the county keeps the oaks is dearer, $2,000 to 3,200, because it is selective clearing with a saw and a small machine. National price guide numbers run lower because they average in pasture from states with no palmetto root mat and no tortoise rule. Those are land costs here, whoever you hire. A land owner considering land clearing budgets the per acre figure for every acre of land, a $400 to 900 tortoise survey, and one wet-season day. That is the cost of land clearing, squared away before a machine moves.

Cost to Clear a Quarter Acre, Half an Acre, One Acre, 3 Acres, 6 Acres and a 12-Acre Tract

• Quarter-acre infill lot: $1,900 flat, half a day.
• Half acre: one machine day, $2,700. Case 2, a Nocatee-area lot, 3 live oaks kept.
• One acre of flatwoods: $1,400 to 2,300 mulched. With the $3,900 pad, a full acre with a house site is about $6,600. Case 4, Yulee.
• Two acres: $2,800 to 4,600 mulched, one long day or two.
• 3 acres: $5,400 on case 1 off CR 218, two days.
• 5 acres of flatwoods: $7,000 to 11,500 mulched, three to four days.
• 6 acres of scrub: $7,200, case 5 at Keystone Heights, two days.
• Twelve acres of pasture: $12,300 plus transport on the 300-hp machine, case 3 near Callahan.

Clearing one acre costs more by the acre than clearing twelve. Trailer, fuel and setup are the same fixed cost on a single acre as on a section. Past 5 acres the dedicated mulcher takes over and the per acre figure drops.

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Day Rates: $2,700 Skid Steer Mulcher or $4,100 Dedicated 300-hp Mulcher

The skid steer forestry mulcher costs $2,700 a day, transport included inside Duval, St. Johns, Clay, Nassau and Baker and in Flagler north of Palm Coast. It handles stems to about 8 inches and clears one to two acres a day on palmetto. The dedicated 300-hp mulcher costs $4,100 a day plus transport. It takes pine the smaller machine cannot, clears two to three acres a day, and pays past 5 acres or on planted pine. On a half-acre lot it never does. I pick the machine by the tract; you see one line on the quote.

Clearing Rates per Hour vs. per Acre vs. per Day: the $165 Dozer

Hourly, daily and per acre are three ways to write the same number, and the cost per hour is the one I quote least. The dozer with root rake and operator runs $165 an hour because grubbing time depends on what the roots do. Mulching goes by the day because a day is what the machine produces: one to two acres, known in advance. Pricing per acre to clear fits a uniform tract, pasture or planted pine. Excavation cost on a pond or a footing runs hourly on the excavator, $165 with operator. Time and cost line up when the ground is dry; in August an hourly job gets longer and a day-rate job gets an extra day.

Cost by Clearing Methods: Forestry Mulching, Dozer and Root Rake, Excavator and Haul-Off

Forestry mulching cost per acre: $1,400 to 2,300 on flatwoods, the mulch left in place, nothing hauled. Dozer clearing with a root rake: $165 an hour plus haul-off at $650 to 1,200 per 10-yard load, and a 3-acre flatwoods lot generates 8 to 12 loads. Excavator and haul-off, the traditional clearing method where big pine and a pad are coming: $2,800 to 5,000 an acre with the stumps out. Mulching wins wherever the mulch can stay. Dozer clearing wins when the stumps must come out. Burning is not on the list: on a platted lot it is effectively out, and a Florida Forest Service burn authorization is required for any pile. The method of clearing changes the price more than the acreage does.

Cost by Vegetation: Palmetto Flatwoods, Trail Ridge Scrub, Live Oak Hammock, Planted Pine, Pasture

Palmetto flatwoods, the common case, $1,400 to 2,300 an acre by density: light brush clearing under open pine at the bottom, chest-high palmetto with gallberry at the top. The root mat is the cost factor; a rotary cutter leaves it to resprout, the mulcher grinds it. Trail Ridge scrub at Keystone Heights and Baldwin: $1,100 to 1,700, sugar sand, small stems, fast. Live oak hammock on the St. Johns and Black Creek: $2,000 to 3,200, selective, the protected oaks staked and kept. Planted slash pine in Nassau and Baker: the 300-hp machine by the day, clearing brush and rows together. Pasture with wax myrtle ran about $1,025 an acre on case 3. Heavily wooded land with 60-year pine costs the most to clear because the wood has to go somewhere.

Cost to Clear Land by County: Duval, St. Johns, Clay, Nassau, Flagler and Baker

The per acre price to clear is the same in all six counties. What changes is transport, permits and ground. Duval: no transport charge; City of Jacksonville Chapter 656 tree permit when a protected oak comes down, pulled at cost. St. Johns: no transport; St. Johns County LDC tree protection at 8 inches; CDD review inside Nocatee, SilverLeaf and RiverTown. Clay: home county, yard in Middleburg; Clay County LDC clearing permit over 1 acre or before a building permit. Nassau: no transport; Nassau County tree ordinance, heritage oaks at 36 inches. Flagler: transport included north of Palm Coast, a line south of it and in Bunnell; City of Palm Coast allows no clearing without a building permit; scrub-jay and tortoise surveys on the ITT lots. Baker: no transport; Baker County LDR; the one county where a burn authorization is sometimes practical. Census Building Permits Survey 2025 single-family units: Duval 3,732, St. Johns 3,554, Clay 1,240, Nassau 887, Flagler 1,950, Baker 99.

Lot Clearing Cost for a New Home in Jacksonville: $1,900 Quarter Acre, $2,700 Half Acre

A quarter-acre infill lot costs $1,900 flat to clear. A half-acre residential lot costs $2,700, one machine day. Add the pad and a one-acre lot with a house site is about $6,600 before fill. Lot clearing is the one place the price is fixed before I see the lot: a platted lot has a known size and a known road. Not fixed: a protected oak in the footprint, which adds a permit and a saw day; a wooded lot with 60-year pine, which adds haul-off; a wet corner, which adds a day June to September. Land clearing services in Jacksonville quoted by phone leave those out and add them back on the invoice. Mine are in the written pricing. Take a walk-through slot on the online calendar or call (904) 406-7990; the same evening you get my text confirming it.

What a House Pad Costs: 12 Inches of Compacted Fill Above Crown of Road

A house pad from us is rough grade plus 12 inches of compacted fill above crown of road, quoted per pad. Case 4: a 1-acre lot in Yulee near Wildlight, one day of mulching at $2,700 and the pad at $3,900. The pad price covers fill delivered, placed in 8 to 10 inch lifts, three roller passes per lift, and a proof-roll before I call it done. Pads on Black Creek and the St. Johns cost more because the FEMA base flood elevation sets them higher; Black Creek hit 28 feet at CR 218 in Irma. Pads on flatwoods sand over hardpan cost one more day of waiting in the wet season; Trail Ridge sugar sand pads are the cheapest. I learned pad elevations as a Seabee and have not found a reason to change the number.

Real Clearing Jobs and What They Cost: Six Invoices

1. 3 acres, flatwoods lot off CR 218, Middleburg, Clay County. Palmetto and slash pine. 2 days, skid steer. $5,400. Two gopher tortoise burrows flagged at 25 feet.
2. 0.5-acre Nocatee-area lot, St. Johns County. 1 day. $2,700. 3 live oaks kept under the county tree ordinance.
3. 12 acres, pasture reclaim near Callahan, Nassau County. Wax myrtle and volunteer pine. 3 days, dedicated 300-hp mulcher. $12,300 plus transport.
4. 1-acre lot, Yulee near Wildlight, Nassau County. 1 day mulching plus pad. $2,700 plus $3,900 pad, 12 inches of compacted fill above crown of road.
5. 6-acre scrub tract, Keystone Heights, Clay County. Sandhill on Trail Ridge. 2 days. $7,200.
6. Irma debris, 2 acres, Julington Creek, St. Johns County. 11 loads hauled. $9,350.

Each was a clearing job with a written price before the trailer left Middleburg, and each invoice matched it. Land clearing tasks not on the quote, a third burrow or a buried slab, go on a change order you sign first. My invoices read like a Seabee checklist, mostly because I cannot write any other way.

Why June to September Adds a Day to the Cost on Flatwoods

June to September adds one day to any flatwoods job, and I write it into the price. Hardpan 12 to 30 inches under flatwoods sand holds the water table at the surface after an afternoon storm. A mulcher floats on that; a dozer sinks, and fill will not compact. On case 1 off CR 218 we walked it in June and the swale was full. We cleared it in two days in November. November to May is the clearing season, and that calendar fills first. The price per acre depending on the month: the same, with one more day in summer. If the total project cost matters more to the landowner than the date, book the dry season.

Gopher Tortoise Surveys and Permit Costs Before You Clear

A gopher tortoise survey by a licensed agent costs $400 to 900, and I will not clear a sandy lot without one. FWC requires the survey within 90 days of clearing, no work within 25 feet of a burrow, and a relocation permit before clearing if burrows are found. The City of Jacksonville Chapter 656 tree permit comes at cost, pulled by me. St. Johns and Clay clearing permits are county fees, also at cost. SJRWMD gets involved only when you fill a wetland or change drainage; clearing by itself needs no ERP. Permit fees are a small cost next to the fine for a buried burrow.

Storm Debris Cost by the Load: $650 to 1,200 per 10-Yard Load

Storm debris is priced by the load, $650 to 1,200 per 10-yard load, because nobody can mulch a pile of trees and brush tangled with a fence. Case 6: Irma debris on 2 acres in Julington Creek, 11 loads hauled, $9,350. Loads ran five to six an acre where laurel oak came down. FEMA pays for public roadside debris; a private lot is the owner's cost. Standing storm-killed pine is cheaper: felled and mulched at the normal per acre figure. Brush and small trees down in a spin-up mulch in place at the brush clearing cost, $1,400 to 2,300 an acre.

What Drives the Cost Up: Access, Haul-Off, Stumps, Fill, Live Oaks and Transport

• Access: no entrance means the dozer cuts one first, at $165 an hour.
• Haul-off: $650 to 1,200 a load, and a heavily wooded lot can run 10 loads.
• Stumps: stump removal in the footprint is $165 an hour on the rake; grinding is $4.25 an inch, $160 minimum per stump.
• Fill: pads sit 12 inches above crown of road, fill is per load, and the load count goes in the quote.
• Live oaks to keep: selective work around protected trees costs $2,000 to 3,200 an acre instead of $1,400 to 2,300.
• Transport: a line south of Palm Coast, and for the 300-hp machine anywhere.

These affect land clearing prices the most, and none of them show on the parcel map. The land clearing contractor who walks the lot finds them before the quote. The one who does not finds them on your invoice.

Are Land Clearing Costs Tax Deductible? Greenbelt Classification and Property Value

Clearing cost is a deductible expense on agricultural land with a greenbelt classification under Florida Statute 193.461, and a capital cost added to basis on a lot you build a house on. I am not your CPA; ask one. From the ground: a pasture reclaim like case 3 keeps the greenbelt classification a wax myrtle thicket loses. A dry, staked pad site on a cleared half acre sells faster than a palmetto wall. Land clearing investment on a timber tract follows the silviculture BMPs under Florida Statute 403.927. The cheapest clearing is the kind you do once.