Commercial land clearing contractor with transparent cost-per-acre pricing. Forestry mulching, grubbing, stump removal, and solar farm clearing across New York. NYSDEC-compliant, SWPPP-ready, fully insured.
If you are searching for land clearing cost per acre, a land clearing contractor near me, or a commercial land clearing service for a solar farm, commercial development, or rural industrial site, Backwell is the New York contractor built for this work. We clear from half-acre commercial lots to 200-acre utility-scale solar sites, operate our own forestry mulching, grubbing, chipping, and haul equipment, and handle the SWPPP, permitting, and erosion control that commercial land clearing now requires in this state.
Most of our land clearing runs alongside a bigger civil package, site preparation, commercial excavation, or solar farm site prep, but we also take stand-alone clearing jobs when that is all a developer needs. Our clearing crews are CPESC-adjacent (we have current NYS Erosion and Sediment Control Inspector staff on site), OSHA 30 certified, and trained on forestry-safety standards (ANSI Z133). This is not residential brush-hogging. This is the clearing package for commercial and industrial development in Central and Western New York.
The first question every land clearing client asks is what the cost per acre will be. The honest answer is that it depends on five things: vegetation density, timber size, stump disposition, haul distance, and whether the job triggers SWPPP. The table below gives realistic 2026 ranges for the commercial work Backwell performs in New York. Numbers include equipment, labor, fuel, supervision, and standard erosion control; they exclude bonds, tree survey / wetland delineation (usually the owner's environmental consultant), and tipping fees when off-site haul is required.
| Vegetation / Project Type | Cost Per Acre | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Light brush and field regrowth | $800–$2,200 | Brush hog or light mulcher, no stump work |
| Forestry mulching, light wooded | $2,500–$4,500 | Trees up to 8" DBH, chips stay on site |
| Forestry mulching, medium wooded | $4,500–$7,500 | Mixed hardwood/softwood to 12" DBH |
| Traditional clearing + grubbing | $5,000–$12,000 | Tree fell, buck, chip or haul, full stump grub |
| Heavy timber with off-site haul | $10,000–$22,000+ | Mature hardwood, full haul-off, disposal fees |
| Solar farm site clearing | $6,000–$14,000 | Includes SWPPP, wetland buffers, access roads |
| Commercial development lot | $7,000–$15,000 | Typically 1–10 acres, higher per-acre cost on small lots |
| Prevailing wage uplift | +15–30% | Davis-Bacon / IRA-qualifying solar work |
A few rules of thumb for New York land clearing pricing: per-acre cost drops on larger jobs (a 40-acre contract will price 15–25% lower per acre than a 3-acre lot because mobilization, permits, and overhead spread across more acres); wet or steep sites add 15–40% due to access and stability requirements; sites with extensive root networks or glacial-till rock add stump-removal cost; sites near regulated wetlands or streams require tree-protection buffers that reduce billable clearing area but still cost money to delineate and protect. For a deeper cost walk-through on commercial clearing jobs, see our land clearing cost per acre guide and commercial land clearing costs breakdown.
Every land clearing job is not the same job. Depending on the vegetation, the site conditions, and what will happen to the land after clearing, Backwell uses different methods and different equipment. The five types below cover 95% of what we do.
Forestry mulching is our go-to method for light and medium wooded land where the chips can stay on site. A tracked carrier (we run Fecon-style mulcher heads on compact track loaders and larger skid-steers) grinds standing trees and brush in place into a 4–8 inch layer of wood chips. The chips stabilize the soil, reduce erosion, and decompose into organic matter over 1–2 years. Mulching is the fastest clearing method, leaves no stump holes or hauling fees, and is often the right call for solar farm clearing, recreational land, and wildfire mitigation. Limitations: mulching does not remove stumps below grade, so sites that will be excavated or built on need a follow-up grubbing pass.
Traditional clearing uses excavators, dozers, and grapple-equipped loaders to fell trees, push out stumps, and pile debris. Merchantable timber is bucked to sawmill lengths and staged for haul. Non-merch wood goes to a tub grinder or chipper. Stumps are grubbed out with the excavator bucket or a stumper attachment, loaded, and hauled. This is the method we use for commercial building lots, agricultural conversion, and any site that will be excavated or built on within 12 months.
Selective clearing is what we do when only some trees need to come down, utility corridors, view corridors, solar panel sight lines, or tree-protection zones around preserved specimens. We flag, fell, and remove only marked trees and protect the remaining canopy. This requires more crew planning and careful equipment positioning but causes less ground disturbance than full clearing.
Stumps can be ground below grade with a dedicated stump grinder (leaves the root ball in place, fine for most construction) or fully grubbed out with an excavator (required for foundations, septic, or deep utility trenches). Backwell runs both options and recommends grubbing for anything that will be excavated, ground-out for landscaping and surface-level conversion. Stump disposal runs $4–$12 per cubic yard at most Central New York C&D facilities.
Clearing is only half the job, getting the material off site is the other half. Backwell owns tandem and tri-axle dump trucks, roll-off trailers, and tub grinders for debris processing. We coordinate with local sawmills, firewood processors, and biomass facilities on material destinations, which keeps haul costs lower than paying straight tip fees. On solar farm clearing we routinely process 500–2,000 tons of brush and timber per site; our debris handling scales.
Commercial land clearing looks simple from the road. It rarely is. Here is how Backwell runs a clearing job from the first walk to final turnover.
Every clearing job starts with a walk. We assess vegetation density and size class, flag wetland indicators (phragmites stands, wet swales, permanent standing water), locate any protected or specimen trees, verify access for equipment and haul trucks, and identify any site hazards (buried debris, old foundations, abandoned wells). For larger jobs we overlay NRCS Web Soil Survey data and NWI wetland mapping to anticipate regulatory constraints.
Any clearing that disturbs 1+ acre triggers the NYSDEC SPDES GP-0-20-001 general permit and requires a SWPPP. If the site is in or adjacent to an NYSDEC-regulated wetland, Article 24 review applies. Agricultural Districts Law may trigger town or county notice for clearing farmland. Solar projects fall under ORES Article VIII siting. We coordinate the SWPPP with the design team, file the Notice of Intent as qualified contractor of record where needed, and install perimeter erosion control before any clearing begins.
On commercial sites with preserved trees (site plan conditions, stream buffers, specimen trees), we install tree-protection fencing before mobilization and maintain it throughout clearing. Clearing limits are flagged in the field with high-visibility ribbon. We do not clear beyond the marked limits under any circumstance.
With silt fence and tree protection in place, clearing begins. Mulching crews run 5–10 acres per day depending on vegetation; traditional crews with excavator, dozer, and haul trucks run 2–5 acres per day on medium wooded land with full grubbing. Timber staging is outside the active clearing footprint. Haul trucks run continuously during clearing to keep debris piles manageable.
After the last stump leaves the site, we do a final grade pass to smooth ruts and clean up disturbed areas, reinforce the erosion control for the post-clearing SWPPP phase (the site will sit disturbed until the next contractor mobilizes), and walk the site with the owner or GC for acceptance. Documentation package: before/after photos, permit and SWPPP record, C&D haul tickets, and stump count if specified.
The iron drives the cost and the speed. Backwell's land clearing fleet runs the spectrum from precision forestry mulching to high-volume mechanical clearing. Our equipment includes forestry mulchers (Fecon and Denis Cimaf heads on Case and Cat tracked carriers), compact track loaders with grapples and brush cutters for tight-access clearing, Case CX210 and CX350D hydraulic excavators with thumb and grapple attachments for stump work and debris loading, Case 750 and 1150 dozers for pushing and piling, grapple-equipped wheel loaders for truck loading, tandem and tri-axle dump trucks for road-legal haul, roll-off trailers for debris containers, tub grinders for on-site wood processing, chippers for small-diameter material, stump grinders for finish stump work, and silt-fence installers and hydroseeders for erosion control. We operate, maintain, and fuel all of it. No rental surprises.
If you have hired a residential brush-hogger before, commercial land clearing is a different animal. Here is what changes when the project is commercial.
The companies that can clear a backyard cannot run a 200-acre solar site. That is the gap Backwell fills.
A growing share of Backwell's land clearing is utility-scale solar. These projects ship under NYSERDA, NY-Sun, or private-developer awards, run under ORES Article VIII, and carry IRA Section 45 or Section 48 tax-credit compliance requirements that the clearing contractor has to support. Solar clearing is typically 60–200 acres with extensive wetland buffers, access-road construction, and tight SWPPP compliance. We clear, grub, and haul; coordinate with the civil contractor on access road build-out; and support the EPC on apprenticeship and prevailing wage documentation. Our solar farm site prep service covers the full civil package; our IRA tax credit compliance guide covers the paperwork.
Backwell provides commercial land clearing across Central and Western New York. Our core seven-county service area covers Onondaga, Oswego, Madison, Cayuga, Oneida, Seneca, Wayne, and Cortland counties. We mobilize daily to the I-81, I-90, and I-690 corridor markets. Primary service cities: Syracuse, Oswego, Auburn, Utica, Rome, Fulton, Oneida, Baldwinsville, Pulaski, Constantia, Mexico, Central Square, Chittenango, Hamilton, Cazenovia, Cortland, Geneva, and Seneca Falls. Solar and large commercial development projects pull us statewide.
Land clearing is almost always the first phase of a larger project. The work that follows typically falls under one or more of these service pages:
Commercial land clearing bids should not take two weeks. Backwell responds to RFPs within one business day and walks qualified commercial sites within a week of the initial contact. Call (315) 400-2654 or email [email protected] with the site address, estimated acreage, and any site plans or survey data. Ron Starusnak handles commercial estimates personally and you will reach the contractor, not a call center.
If your project involves rental property, multi-family, or commercial real estate in New York, our sister company RenPro Property Management can take over operations after the dirt work is done. RenPro manages office buildings, retail space, and industrial properties. More about our network.