Land and lot clearing in Washington and Oregon

The three permit systems that usually apply

A single-tree removal is a city question. Clearing is usually a county question, and the county asks three things: how much ground you are disturbing, whether any of it is a wetland, slope, stream buffer or habitat, and whether the trees are timber.

County clearing-and-grading permits

King County requires a clearing permit for any tree or vegetation removal in a critical area or on land under urban clearing standards, for clearing over 7,000 square feet on RA-zoned (rural) parcels, and for removal of 5,000 board feet of merchantable timber. A grading permit kicks in at 100 cubic yards of cut and fill or 2,000 square feet of new impervious surface; over 500 cubic yards also needs a SEPA checklist. Exemptions are listed in KCC 16.82.050, including clearing of listed noxious weeds under 7,000 square feet a year [1].

Clark County treats forest practices as a county permit under CCC 40.260.080: a Class IV-General forest practices approval from the county before any such operation, with an exemption for Class I removals under 5,000 board feet for personal use in 12 months [3]. On the grading side the county’s erosion-control page says every land-disturbing activity needs a signed erosion control agreement before a building permit issues, with bare soil limited to 2 days of exposure from October through April and 7 days from May through September [3].

Washington County, Oregon says grading permits are needed for any grading, filling, excavating or disposal of soil, under its 2008 grading ordinance (Ord. 689), and it splits erosion control three ways: Clean Water Services inside its service area, the county for sites under 1 acre outside it, and DEQ for sites of 1 acre or more [4].

Deschutes County lists no stand-alone clearing permit on its “what permits do I need” page. What it regulates is where the clearing sits: the Landscape Management combining zone adds aesthetic and setback review to building projects along scenic corridors, the Wildlife Area zone restricts land divisions and dwelling siting, and from April 1, 2026 every new dwelling in unincorporated Deschutes County and in Sisters must meet the R327 fire-hardening code [5].

Critical areas and sensitive lands

Washington’s Growth Management Act defines five critical areas in RCW 36.70A.030(12): wetlands, aquifer recharge areas, fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas, frequently flooded areas and geologically hazardous areas, and RCW 36.70A.060(2) requires every county and city to adopt regulations that protect them [6]. That is why Tacoma, Everett and Marysville, which otherwise ask nothing about a private tree, require a permit when it stands in a critical area or buffer [22].

Oregon does the same through Statewide Planning Goal 5 and OAR 660-023, under which cities and counties inventory riparian corridors, wetlands and wildlife habitat and adopt a protection program for each site [7]. The programs show up as overlays: Portland’s environmental zones (where trees under 12 inches still need a permit), Tigard’s sensitive lands chapter, Oregon City’s water-quality and habitat overlays [8][23], and St. Helens, where a permit is required only for a tree 6 inches DBH or larger on sensitive lands (SHCDC 17.132) [8]. Eugene adds a lot-scale rule: felling more than 5 trees in 12 months from a parcel of 20,000 square feet or more needs a tree-felling permit, more than 10 trees needs a logging plan, and the fee runs from $152.07 for 1–10 trees to $991.23 plus $1.91 a tree past 100 (EC 6.305–6.330) [8].

The city-by-city rules are in tree removal permits in Washington and tree removal permits in Oregon.

Forest practices notification

If the lot is forestland and the trees are merchantable, the Oregon Forest Practices Act applies to the harvest even when the end use is a house. The person responsible for the work files a Notification of Operation with the Oregon Department of Forestry through FERNS at least 15 days before starting; the online filing carries no fee [9]. Under ORS 527.670 an operator, timber owner or landowner must notify the State Forester before beginning, and where a written plan is required the Forester comments between 14 and 21 days after filing [10]. Reforestation rules then run: replanting within two years of harvest and free-to-grow seedlings within six, unless the land is lawfully converted [9].

Washington runs the same split through DNR and the counties. Class I and II practices outside an urban growth area go to DNR; Class IV-General, which covers land being converted to another use, goes to the county, and King County and Clark County both administer it [2][3]. The catch is the moratorium: land harvested under a DNR approval without a conversion plan is barred from development permits for 6 years (RCW 76.09.050) [2]. If you intend to build, say so on the application.

Utilities, and the trees you keep

Two things on a clearing site outlast the crew: what is buried, and the trees left standing. ISA’s brochure on tree and utility conflicts says gas operators often keep the ground over a pipeline and 10 feet on each side free of trees, with height or diameter limits as far as 25 feet beyond that, and it says to call the utility locator before any digging, because buried lines are often shallower than people assume [24]. On a rural parcel that easement is where the stump grinder and the excavator should not freelance.

Partial clearing is harder on the trees left behind than it looks. ISA’s construction brochure explains that closely spaced trees grow as a group, so removing some exposes the rest to sunscald and structural failure, and that root cutting, grading and compaction from equipment can kill a retained tree years after the job [25]. Its fixes are cheap if planned: have an arborist mark a tree protection zone, fence it before equipment arrives, and cut roots cleanly ahead of any trench [25]. A Mississippi State University Extension worksheet gives a general rule of thumb for how big that zone needs to be: a radius of 1.5 feet per inch of trunk diameter, with damage to more than 40 percent of it rated high risk [26].

A Connecticut roadside study published by the USDA Forest Service (Stormwise, 2016) adds a principle for thinning a mature stand rather than clearing it: do not cut down to the final spacing in one pass. Take out the trees with obvious defects first, cavities, codominant stems with included bark, heavy lean, upper-crown dieback, then thin again 10 to 15 years later, once the remaining trees have built taper and roots [27]. It is out-of-region research, offered as a method, but it matches the windthrow risk a newly exposed edge of Douglas fir faces in a Northwest winter; see Douglas fir.

Burning the debris

Plan on not burning. Inside any Washington urban growth area or any city over 10,000 people, outdoor burning is prohibited (RCW 70A.15.5020, WAC 173-425-040), and land-clearing burning is banned wherever density exceeds 1,000 people per square mile [11]. DNR, which permits burning on the lands it protects, does not permit burning of land-clearing debris at all, and a written permit is required for any fire within 50 feet of a structure or 500 feet of forest slash (WAC 332-24-205) [11].

The regional agencies add their own layers. Southwest Clean Air (Clark, Cowlitz, Lewis, Skamania, Wahkiakum) permanently bans yard-debris burning in UGAs, allows a self-issued permit outside them for a single dry pile under 10 by 10 by 6 feet, and requires a site-specific permit for land-clearing burns (SWCAA 425). Spokane’s agency prohibits land-clearing fires except DNR-managed silvicultural burns. Northwest Clean Air bans burning in every city and UGA in Whatcom, Skagit, Island and San Juan counties, and Olympic Region Clean Air requires a paid permit for land-clearing burns in Thurston, Clallam, Mason and neighboring counties [12].

Oregon is stricter in the metro and looser in the hills. DEQ’s open-burning rule (OAR 340-264) bans backyard burning year-round inside the Portland-area boundaries in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties, limits burning elsewhere in those counties to March 1–June 15 and October 1–December 15, and prohibits plastics, treated wood and anything that makes dense smoke everywhere [13]. LRAPA bans yard-debris burning inside Eugene and Florence city limits, requires a 2-acre lot in the Eugene UGB and a half-acre in Springfield’s, and closes all burning during fire season [13]. On ODF-protected land a burning permit is required during fire season, and it is unlawful to set an open fire inside or within an eighth of a mile of a forest protection district without a written permit unless the forester waives it outside fire season (ORS 477.515) [13]. Slash burning needs a permit in every district.

Current bans and permit links by county are in yard debris burning rules in Oregon and yard debris burning rules in Washington.

Chipping and hauling instead

Chipping is the default on a city lot, and it is now a pest-control rule as well. Oregon’s emerald ash borer quarantine (OAR 603-052-1075) covers Washington, Yamhill, Marion, Clackamas and Multnomah counties: ash logs, branches, stumps, roots, chips and mulch, and the firewood of all hardwoods, may leave those counties only after an approved treatment, such as chipping to 1 inch or less, or under an ODA compliance agreement, with civil penalties up to $10,000. ODF’s guidance is to move ash only as chips 1 inch or smaller or as kiln-dried, debarked lumber, and ODA’s quarantine flyer asks owners to remove and prune ash between October 1 and March 31; the other seasonal limits on felling are in the best time of year to cut down a tree. For Mediterranean oak borer, ODF says to chip infested Oregon white oak to 1 inch, including the stump, and not to move oak firewood more than 10 miles. In Curry County, host material may not leave the sudden oak death quarantine area [14].

Washington’s first emerald ash borer was confirmed in Hazel Dell, Clark County, in August 2026, so expect Clark County ash to be treated the same way soon [15]. If you are hauling rounds off a site, the lowest-risk plan is to leave hardwood firewood in the county it grew in. More on each pest is at tree pests and diseases in Washington and Oregon.

Wildfire defensible space

Many clearing calls in the dry counties are not about building anything; they are about fire. The Oregon State Fire Marshal’s guidance works in three zones: river rock, gravel or pavers and no bark mulch within 5 feet of the house; grass under 4 inches, tree crowns at least 10 feet apart and limbs pruned up to 6 feet in the 5–30 foot zone; and dead wood and heavy litter removed from 30 to 100 feet and beyond. It also wants 13 feet 6 inches of vertical and 20 feet of horizontal clearance on the driveway so an engine can reach the house [16].

Washington DNR runs the equivalent Firewise and Wildfire Ready programs and notes that about 85 percent of the state’s wildfires are started by people [17]. Some cities build fuel work into their tree codes: Ashland exempts wildfire fuel management from its tree removal permit [18], and Deschutes County’s R327 code (above) applies to the structure itself. The crew-level detail, including ladder fuels and what to leave for wildlife, is in creating a defensible space with fire risk abatement.

Erosion and stormwater

Clearing changes how a site sheds water, and both states draw the line at an acre. Washington’s Construction Stormwater General Permit is required when a project disturbs 1 acre or more through clearing, grading, excavating or stockpiling and stormwater could reach surface water or a conveyance, counting smaller phases of a common plan and any off-site staging areas [19]. Oregon DEQ’s 1200-C permit, reissued for December 15, 2025 through December 14, 2030, applies to construction disturbing 1 acre or more, including smaller pieces of a common plan of development [20].

Below an acre the county rules carry the load: Clark County’s 2-day and 7-day soil-exposure limits, Washington County’s under-1-acre review, and King County’s grading thresholds [1][3][4]. Whatever the acreage, a crew that leaves stumps and root mats in place on a slope has done less damage than one that grubs everything in November. Stumps can be ground later; see stump grinding in Washington and Oregon, and for root mats that do have to come out, how to remove tree roots.

What land clearing costs

Per-acre quotes vary by a factor of ten because “an acre” says nothing about what is on it. Thirty 80-foot Douglas firs, a blackberry thicket and an old orchard are three different jobs, and the quote also moves with slope, truck access, whether the logs have resale value, whether stumps come out, and how the debris leaves the site. Ask any crew to quote by the day or by crew-hour against a stated scope, not by the acre.

The model behind every cost figure on this site is a 3-person crew with chipper, truck and saws at $225 per crew-hour in Oregon and $210 in Washington, built from the BLS May 2025 labor index ($35.40 an hour in Oregon, $32.20 in Washington) with payroll burden, overhead and equipment [21]. An 8-hour crew-day therefore models at about $1,800 in Oregon and $1,700 in Washington. A lot with ten 25–50 foot trees, at the model’s 4–8 crew-hours each, is 40–80 crew-hours: $9,000–$18,000 in Oregon, $8,500–$17,000 in Washington, before stumps and before any crane or carry-out multiplier. Modeled estimate, not quotes (method).

Stump grinding adds a modeled $150–$450 per stump by diameter. The per-tree figures by height are on tree removal cost, and you can run your own tree list through the tree removal cost calculator.

Brush clearing

Brush is the part of a clearing job that rarely needs a permit and almost always comes back. King County’s exemption for clearing listed noxious weeds under 7,000 square feet a year is typical of how the counties treat blackberry and broom: it is maintenance, not clearing, as long as you are not grubbing a slope or a stream buffer [1]. What changes the answer is the ground under the brush, so check the critical-area map before the brush cutter arrives. Equipment, seasons and what to do with the cut material are on brush clearing in Washington and Oregon. Blackberry, broom and ivy each have a full removal guide: Himalayan blackberry, Scotch broom and English ivy on trees.

Land clearing by area

Statewide rules, costs and storm seasons: Land clearing in Washington · Land clearing in Oregon.

Related guides

• Himalayan blackberry: how to get rid of it for good
• Scotch broom: how to identify it and get rid of it
• English ivy on trees: how to remove it without hurting the tree
• Best time of year to cut down a tree in Washington and Oregon
• How to remove tree roots after the tree is gone