Mixed timber is what most wooded ground here actually looks like: some mature trees, a lot of pole-sized material, a dense understory of honeysuckle and vine, and it varies noticeably from one part of a property to another.
It is the hardest condition to price because a per-acre rate assumes uniformity, and this ground is not uniform. A contractor who walks it can see that; one quoting from a map cannot.
It is also where selective work — keeping some trees, removing others — is most likely to be what the owner actually wants, and selective work is a genuinely different operation from clearing through.
Why selective work costs more
A machine clearing through open ground works continuously. A machine working around trees that must survive stops, repositions, approaches from particular angles and avoids damaging bark and roots. That is slower, and slower is the cost.
It is usually worth it. Releasing good trees by removing what is crowding and shading them is one of the highest-value things you can do to wooded ground, and it is not achievable by clearing through.
Marking, and why it has to happen on foot
Selective work depends entirely on both parties agreeing what stays. Flagging tape on the trees to keep, walked and agreed before the machine arrives, is the only reliable method. Describing it in words does not survive contact with a working site.
Mark generously. It is easy to remove a tree you marked to keep, and impossible to reverse the opposite mistake.
Expect variable pricing, and ask for it
On genuinely variable ground, a single per-acre number either overprices the easy parts or underprices the hard ones. Asking for the property to be broken into zones — the thick bottom, the open ridge, the honeysuckle flat — usually produces both a fairer price and a better plan.
It also gives you the option to do the high-value parts now and leave the rest, which on mixed ground is often the right call.
Timing
When to ask for estimates
- After walking and flagging, since the marked trees are the scope.
- Ask for zone-based pricing rather than a single rate across variable ground.
- Ask what the price would be for understory release only, as a comparison.
Send the project details when it is — one short form, written for independent contractors working your county, free and with no obligation.
On the walkthrough
Questions worth asking
- Walking this with me, how would you divide the property into pricing zones?
- What is the risk of damage to the trees I am keeping, and how do you manage it?
- Would understory release alone get me most of what I want here?
- What size machine are you bringing, and can it work between these trees?
Questions
Common questions on this
Why do quotes vary so much on wooded ground?
Usually because the contractors are quoting different scopes rather than different prices. On mixed timber, one may have assumed clearing through and another selective work around retained trees, and those are genuinely different jobs. Compare what each says will be standing when they leave before comparing the numbers.
How do I tell the contractor which trees to keep?
Flag them, walking the property together before any machine arrives. Verbal descriptions and gestures do not survive a working site with a machine running. Mark generously — removing a tree you marked is easy, and putting back one you did not is not possible.
Is it worth thinning rather than clearing?
Frequently, and it is under-considered. Removing the honeysuckle understory and the crowded pole-sized material releases the good trees, opens the ground for walking and regeneration, and costs less than clearing the same acreage. If your goal is usable woods rather than open ground, ask what a release thin would look like.
Keep planning
Related planning guides
- Clearing heavy woods and mature timberOnce stems get large enough, the question stops being how to cut them and becomes what to do with the volume.
- Forestry mulchers: what they do and where they stopOne machine that cuts and disposes in a single pass — which is its whole advantage and the source of every one of its limits.
- Planning habitat and access improvements on hunting groundOn hunting ground, when you do the work matters nearly as much as what you do.
- Clearing a wooded residential lotOn a bounded lot, access and disposal drive the price — the vegetation itself is often the smaller part.
- Clearing light brush and seasonal overgrowthThis is the cheapest clearing there is, and the one most likely to be needed again in two years.
Everything else is in the planning workspace.
Get it quoted
Services this relates to
Evansville Mulching is a free matching service, not a contractor. Nothing on this page is a determination about your property — a contractor standing on the ground is the only person who can make one.
Covering 10 towns across the Evansville tri-state area, and all 14 services.