Land clearing rules, permits, and programs in Arkansas

Does your job need a permit?

A rule comes in when the work builds something, reaches a wetland, adds a septic system, or uses fire. Mark's Arkansas Land Clearing Service clears land across Arkansas from three Google listings, in Hindsville, Greenbrier, and Hot Springs, and runs into each of these rules on the ground.

Find the line that sounds like your job. The rule on the right is the one to check.

1. You're clearing and grading for a house, a shop, a road, or a pad, and the ground you disturb adds up to 1 acre or more.Stormwater permit
2. The machine will work in a wet bottom, a marshy low spot, or ground the Corps could call a wetland.Section 404
3. The new house needs a septic system.Septic permit
4. You plan a controlled fire for the brush piles once the clearing is done.Burn bans
5. The job needs a federal permit, such as a Section 404 permit, or uses federal money.Listed species
6. You're mulching or brush hogging dry ground, nothing is being built, and there's no fire. None of the state or federal rules here is set off by that alone.County and city

Which agency handles each rule

Each rule below was checked on the agency's own page in November 2026. Approval under one of them doesn't settle the others.

1. Stormwater

   Arkansas DEQ's construction stormwater permit, ARR150000, covers construction that disturbs 1 acre or more. Sites of 1 acre to under 5 acres get automatic coverage, and the operator posts the Notice of Coverage, the stormwater pollution prevention plan, and the inspection form on site before construction starts. At 5 acres or more, a Notice of Intent and its fee go in through DEQ's online SEEK system first.Source: Arkansas DEQ, Construction Stormwater Permits page, ARR150000 renewal effective November 1, 2026

2. Wetlands

   The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Little Rock District, states that clearing wetlands with mechanized equipment, land leveling, and placing fill require a permit under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. That covers a mulcher as much as a dozer. Arkansas DEQ sends wetland questions to the Corps, which decides whether a site counts as a wetland at all.Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Little Rock District, Regulatory Division, jurisdictional determination letters; Arkansas DEQ, NPDES questions

3. Septic systems

   A septic system needs a permit from the Arkansas Department of Health. The health unit in the county where the land sits has an Onsite Environmental Specialist, who gives you the list of licensed people who do the soil tests and design the system.Source: Arkansas Department of Health, Onsite Wastewater questions

4. Burn bans and controlled fire

   County judges declare burn bans county by county, and the Arkansas Department of Agriculture's Forestry Division shows every county on its Wildfire Danger and Burn Ban Map. Arkansas DEQ allows a controlled fire for land clearing when it's set where the material was cleared, but a county burn ban still stops it. The Forestry Division asks for every prescribed fire to be reported to its dispatch center ahead of time.Source: Arkansas Department of Agriculture, Forestry Division, Prescribed Fire page and burn ban notices; Arkansas DEQ, Air Division questions

5. Listed species

   The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Arkansas Ecological Services Field Office, in Conway, reviews federally funded or authorized projects to keep harm to listed species down. A clearing job that needs a Corps permit falls in that group. The Service's ECOS database lists the federally listed species for any area.Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Arkansas Ecological Services Field Office page

Your county or city may add rules of its own

The state and federal rules are the floor. A county or a city can add its own on top, so two lots an hour apart can need different paperwork for the same clearing job.

On the first visit we tell you which Arkansas rules may touch your job (burn bans, the 1-acre stormwater permit, septic permits) and who handles each.

What your written quote lists

The earlier version of this guide gave general prices for the work these rules touch. Here they are as it gave them.

Clearing, 2024 average

$1,500 to $3,000per acre

Light clearing

$3,000 to $6,000per acre

Intense or intricate clearing

$6,000 to $12,000per acre

Tree removal

$400 to $2,000per tree, by size and location

Stump removal

$150 to $800per stump, by size and access

Ecological assessment

$1,500 to $5,000where one is needed

These are general Arkansas ranges from the earlier version of this guide. Your written quote lists every charge, travel included.

Your written quote says what happens to every bit of cut material: mulched in place, piled, or hauled away. Your quote comes with a start week. If the weather moves it, we call you.

Programs that can pay part of the work

Two USDA programs can pay part of a clearing job on farm or forest land. The agency, not the contractor, decides who qualifies and what it pays.

1. Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)

   USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service calls EQIP its flagship conservation program, helping farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners put conservation into working lands. Payments are made on completed practices in an EQIP contract that meet NRCS standards, at rates set each fiscal year. You apply through your local USDA Service Center.Source: USDA NRCS, Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Arkansas page

2. Emergency Conservation Program (ECP)

   USDA's Farm Service Agency runs ECP for farmland hit by a natural disaster. Its practices include removing post-disaster debris from farmland and grading, shaping, or re-leveling land. ECP cost-share runs up to 75% of the allowable cost of approved practices, and up to 90% for limited resource producers. Applications open in signup periods announced after a disaster.Source: USDA Farm Service Agency, Emergency Conservation Program page