Everything below applies countywide — the permitting, the burn rules, the floodplain, the soils, what grows here and why it drives the work.
If you want the version for your town, it’s on the town pages listed below, because the answers genuinely differ depending on where in this county you are. A tree question in the Conroe city limit and the same question on twenty acres off FM 1097 have almost nothing in common.
Incorporated or unincorporated — the question that decides your permits
Most of Montgomery County is unincorporated, and unincorporated Texas counties have no zoning. There is no county tree ordinance, no county clearing permit, and nobody counting canopy percentages on your acreage. That is the single biggest practical difference between clearing land here and clearing land inside a city.
The county still permits several things, through the permit department and Environmental Health:
| What | When it applies |
|---|---|
| Floodplain development permit | Moving dirt — digging, grading, filling — in a mapped 100-year floodplain |
| Development permit | Enclosed structures, additions, manufactured homes being set on a lot |
| OSSF (septic) permit | A new septic system, changes to an existing one, or properly abandoning one during a demolition |
| 911 address | Each livable structure |
| Driveway culvert | Permit through the county Permit Department; the precinct sizes and inspects the pipe, and in some precincts installs it |
Incorporated cities are a separate answer every time. Montgomery County contains Conroe, Willis, Montgomery, Magnolia, Oak Ridge North, Shenandoah, Panorama Village, Splendora, Patton Village, Roman Forest, Woodbranch, Woodloch, Cut and Shoot, Stagecoach and a sliver of Houston. Each sets its own rules.
Conroe is the one that matters most for clearing. The city has a tree ordinance under Chapter 102 protecting trees six inches DBH and larger, with a clearing permit through Engineering for new construction, subdivision and commercial work, and canopy requirements on non-residential sites. Homeowner removal on an existing single-family lot is exempt, and new dwellings carry a replacement planting requirement. Details on the Conroe page.
The Woodlands is a township, not a city. It operates under its own covenants and development standards layered on top of county rules — a third category people routinely misjudge.
On the southwestern edge you may not be in this county at all. Spring Creek is the Harris–Montgomery line. The City of Tomball is entirely in Harris County, but the Tomball mailing area runs north across the creek into Decker Prairie, Pinehurst and Stagecoach, which are Montgomery County. Rose Hill, just west of Tomball, is on the Harris side. See Tomball.
We check the parcel before quoting. It changes the scope, sometimes the schedule, and occasionally whether the job is legal as described.
Burn bans, and what you can burn when there isn’t one
Montgomery County Commissioners Court adopts burn bans. The Fire Marshal’s office enforces them. They go on and off through dry stretches — commonly late summer into fall, but not only then.
During a ban you cannot burn clearing debris. That removes the cheapest disposal method and leaves two options: mulch in place, or haul off. This is the most common reason a clearing plan changes between the day it’s scoped and the day work starts, so check current status before you plan around burning anything.
Even with no ban in effect, the rules are narrower than most people think. Under Texas outdoor burning rules you may burn plant growth — trees, brush, grass, leaves, branches — only where there’s no practical alternative, and only material that originated on the property or came from right-of-way or canal maintenance. In unincorporated Montgomery County, burning household refuse is prohibited on properties under five acres, and separately on any lot in a platted subdivision or on ground touching one within 300 feet — either condition bars it, and you do not need both. Inside a city limit the city’s own rules govern instead, and burning household garbage is barred anywhere trash collection is provided. Violations are a Class C misdemeanor.
That is a large part of why forestry mulching took over this county. A ban doesn’t stop it, there’s no pile, no trucks, and the mulch mat holds soil and suppresses regrowth.
Floodplain, and the four watersheds that shape this county
Montgomery County drains through the San Jacinto system, and where you sit in it determines a lot.
West Fork San Jacinto — impounded as Lake Conroe, then running south and east below the dam through Conroe. Releases from the dam are a real factor downstream.
East Fork San Jacinto, with Caney Creek and Peach Creek — the east side of the county through New Caney, Porter and Splendora. Low, flat, poorly drained ground with wide mapped flood zones — the corridor Harvey and Imelda both found. This is where floodplain is a first question rather than a footnote.
Lake Creek — across the center and west of the county toward Montgomery and Magnolia, joining the West Fork near Conroe.
Spring Creek — the southern county line with Harris County, carrying a broad flood zone along most of its length.
Moving dirt in a mapped 100-year floodplain needs a county floodplain development permit. Clearing alone is usually the simpler case; filling and grading are where the permit bites, because raising your ground moves water onto someone else’s. Separately, persistently wet low ground can meet federal wetland criteria, which is a different question from the FEMA map and a different agency. If your property has a creek, a slough, or an area that stays wet weeks after rain, confirm before anyone starts. We flag it at the quote stage when an address or a description raises it.
The soil, and why the work stops when it’s wet
Most of the county is clay-heavy. Clay holds water, doesn’t absorb, ruts deeply under heavy equipment when saturated, and shrinks and swells enough with moisture change to crack slabs and driveways that weren’t compacted and crowned properly. Every pad we build gets shaped to move water away, because on clay it isn’t going anywhere else.
The north county is sandier. Around Willis and north, the ground sits on the sandy, gravelly Willis Formation, named for the town. It drains better, ruts less, and lets us work more days a year. It is also a worse pond bottom — sand won’t hold water without a keyed clay core, so a pond up there is a soil question before it’s anything else.
Running equipment on saturated clay damages a site for a season. Deep rutting, compaction, and ground that takes a growing cycle to recover. A contractor who works through a wet week to protect his own schedule is spending your property to do it. We move the date.
Best working conditions here are typically late fall through early spring — which is also when demand peaks, so book earlier than feels necessary.
What grows here, and why it drives the work
Density, not acreage, is what you’re paying for. Two neighboring tracts of the same size, bought the same week, can be a three-day job and a three-week job depending on nothing but what is standing on them. That is the single most common surprise in this county, and it is why how this work gets priced starts with density rather than acres.
Yaupon holly — the dominant understory across most of the county. Dense, woody, and it resprouts from the root crown if it’s cut rather than ground out. A property described as “lightly wooded” that turns out to be solid yaupon underneath surprises its owner every single time.
Chinese tallow — invasive, thick along every creek bottom in the county, and the most aggressive resprouter here. Cut one and you get five. Worst on the wet east side. It needs a method that kills the stump.
Loblolly pine — the overstory nearly countywide. Past roughly eight inches at the trunk it won’t go through a mulching head and needs an excavator or a feller. Mature pine stumps are significant work if you want them out rather than ground.
Hardwood bottoms — water oak, elm and sweetgum on wet ground along the creeks. Bigger trunks, softer footing, slower going.
Privet and briar — mulches easily, but it’s volume, and volume is machine hours.
On mature pine acreage, talk to a timber buyer before you mulch it into the ground. With enough volume, timber value can offset part of your clearing cost. It’s free to ask and irreversible if you don’t.
Ag valuation and keeping it
A lot of county acreage carries 1-d-1 open-space agricultural or timber valuation through the Montgomery County Appraisal District, and losing it brings rollback taxes with interest for prior years.
Ag valuation requires genuine, ongoing agricultural use to a degree of intensity typical for the area — not simply land with a fence around it. The appraisal district sets the local standards and makes the call, so that conversation is with them, not with us.
What we handle is the condition side: brush hogging, fence line clearing, and forestry mulching or underbrush clearing when a pasture has gone far enough that a mower won’t bring it back.
What we do, countywide — and which service you actually need
| Service | When it’s the right call |
|---|---|
| Land clearing | Taking a tract from woods to usable ground — trees, stumps and all |
| Forestry mulching | Brush and understory, no pile, no haul-off, works during a burn ban |
| Excavation | Pads, ponds, trenching, cut and fill, drainage |
| Demolition | Houses, mobile homes, barns, slabs and foundations |
| Stump grinding | Stumps left after clearing or tree work — ground flush, or dug out complete under a slab |
| Ponds | Stock, irrigation and detention ponds, and old ponds that no longer hold |
| Dirt work and fill | Select fill, topsoil and base brought in, or spoil hauled away |
| Driveways and culverts | A drive and a culvert before anything else can reach the site |
| Site prep and grading | Getting a cleared site ready to build on: elevation, compaction, drainage |
| Lot clearing | A single residential lot or small parcel, usually with neighbors close |
| Brush clearing | Overgrown ground where the brush, not the trees, is the problem |
| Underbrush clearing | Clear beneath the canopy and keep the mature trees standing |
Where we work in Montgomery County
Conroe — county seat, city tree ordinance and clearing permits, heavy subdivision growth, and the county’s real teardown market.
Willis — north county, larger tracts, heavier timber, sandier Willis Formation ground, barndominium builds.
Tomball — southwest edge, pasture and horse properties, city zoning inside the limits, and the Harris–Montgomery line running through the mailing area.
New Caney — east side, Grand Parkway growth, low wet ground, floodplain, and mobile home removal.
Also: Montgomery · Magnolia · Splendora · Porter · Cut and Shoot · Grangerland · Dobbin · Richards · Pinehurst · Decker Prairie · Stagecoach · Todd Mission · Panorama Village · Oak Ridge North · Shenandoah · Patton Village · Roman Forest · Woodbranch · The Woodlands
Further out: Cleveland in Liberty County and Huntsville TX in Walker County. Larger acreage beyond that — ask.
Or start your free quote right here:
Common questions
Do I need a permit to clear my land in Montgomery County? In unincorporated county, generally no — there’s no zoning and no county tree ordinance. Inside a city limit, possibly, and Conroe in particular. Moving dirt in a mapped floodplain needs a county permit regardless of the clearing.
Is there a burn ban right now? Check the county Fire Marshal’s office for current status, because it changes. Never plan a job around burning without confirming, and remember the standing restrictions apply even when no ban is in effect.
How much can you clear in a day? Mulching light understory, a few acres. Heavy clearing with stumps coming out, a fraction of an acre. Density decides it, not the plat.
Do you remove stumps or grind them? Your call, and it comes down to what the ground has to carry afterward. Grinding is enough if you’re mowing it or running cattle on it. If a slab, a driveway or a utility trench is going over that spot, the root ball has to come out.
Will it grow back? Yaupon and tallow will, if the roots survive — both come back from the root crown, which is why the depth of the grind matters more than how clean it looks the day the machine leaves. Plan on a second visit in the following growing season. A quote written as though one visit ends it is a quote written to win, not to work.
How soon can you start? Usually a matter of weeks, weather depending. Faster in a dry stretch, slower after a wet one — and we’d rather push a date than rut your property.
Anywhere in this county, the same handful of variables decide the number. They are all listed here, before you start collecting quotes.