What Does Orchard Removal Cost Per Acre in the Yakima Valley?

Published Washington figures put orchard removal at about $925 to $1,750 per acre when a grower hires it out. Those numbers come from the tree fruit cost estimates of the Washington State University (WSU) extension service. Getting the ground ready for a new orchard costs more on top of that. These are market numbers, not our price list.

Washington’s orchard burning guidance says commercial orchards are generally renewed on a 15 to 30 year rotation. A typical grower replaces 3 to 5 percent of the acres each year. Have an old block to pull? Our orchard removal service starts with a look at the rows and a written quote.

What does orchard removal cost per acre in Washington?

WSU builds its cost estimates with numbers from growers. Each estimate prices orchard work per acre, as if the grower hires it out. Six published figures touch an orchard teardown.

In the apple and cherry estimates, the tree removal line includes chipping the wood and working it into the soil. The spread between crops reflects different trees and different years. Replant disease hits new fruit trees, so a block headed for hay or a building may skip the fumigation line.

What drives the price per acre?

Four things move the number most.

• Tree age and size. Older trees carry more wood. The Yakima Regional Clean Air Agency’s burn permit worksheet ties tons of wood to tree age. By its math, an acre of 10-year-old trees holds about 8 tons. An acre of 40-year-old trees holds about 27 tons. The agency’s default is 21 tons per acre.
• Trellis posts and wire. Modern blocks in the WSU apple estimates carry 1,452 to 1,815 trees per acre. They grow on a seven-wire trellis with a metal post every 30 feet. That steel has to come out of the rows too. The clean air agency’s permit bars metal and treated wood from a burn pile.
• Access. Open rows on firm ground are the simple case. A block beside a canal or a house takes more care. The WSU figures assume blocks of 9 to 48 acres. A small backyard block still needs the machine hauled in, so its cost per acre can run higher.
• Disposal. Chipping the wood back into the soil is one path. Piling it for a permitted burn is another. Hauling it off adds trucking and disposal costs.

Our written quote covers what is in your rows.

How does an orchard come out, step by step?

State guidance describes the job as removing the entire tree, including the trunk and root ball. Growers most often do it in the fall after harvest or early in spring.

1. Mark what is buried. Washington law has whoever digs notify 811 two to 10 full business days ahead. Private lines, such as power run to an outbuilding, are the owner’s to locate.
2. Pull the trees. Each tree comes out with its root ball, so fewer roots stay behind.
3. Clean up the roots. WSU notes that the organisms behind replant disease survive in old roots and soil.
4. Handle the wood. Some jobs chip it into the soil. Others pile it to dry for a permitted burn or haul it away.
5. Work the ground. In the WSU estimates, a replant block gets ripped and disked next, then fumigated.

Fumigation is a separate job from the teardown.

Can you burn orchard wood in Yakima County?

Often, with a permit. The Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) keeps a list of burns that need a permit. Vineyard and orchard tree tear-outs are on it, while annual orchard prunings are not.

Who issues the permit depends on where the orchard sits:

• Yakima County: the Yakima Regional Clean Air Agency
• Benton County: the Benton Clean Air Agency
• Franklin County: Ecology’s Eastern Regional Office or the Franklin Conservation District
• Tribal land: the tribal government, with help from the EPA

Ecology’s pile permit covers land that stays in farming. The Yakima agency’s application asks for a copy of the farm’s IRS Schedule F. Its permit also asks growers to use every practical alternative to burning first. At the agency’s 21-ton default, a 10-acre teardown comes to about 210 tons. At the rate Ecology lists, that is a permit fee of about $210.

The Yakima agency’s permit sets the working rules. The wood must dry at least 30 days, and each burn needs the agency’s go-ahead for that day. Only natural vegetation goes in the pile. State guidance adds that orchard trees can take up to eight months to dry.

If the ground is leaving farming for houses, the state’s orchard guidance says a land-clearing permit usually applies instead. That burning is not allowed inside urban growth areas, with narrow exceptions. The clean air agency answers the final question for your parcel, and we point you there.

What can the ground become after the orchard comes out?

Another orchard. WSU says replant disease shows up when new apple trees go into ground just taken out of apples. Growers usually fumigate. WSU puts the best soil conditions for it in October and early November, or April and later.

Hay or pasture. Ground that stays in farming needs the root holes filled and the field smoothed. Land grading levels the field for the next crop.

A building site. A house or shop needs a firm base. Site preparation takes the cleared ground to a rough grade and a compacted pad. Ecology also flags old orchard soil in Yakima and Chelan counties. It may hold lead and arsenic from a pesticide sprayed in the early 1900s. Before homes go in, Ecology asks builders to check the land’s history and test the soil.

How do you get a written quote for orchard removal?

Start with the acres and the age of the trees. Mention any trellis or buried lines you know about. Then tell us what the ground becomes next.

Bedrock Excavation and General Contracting pulls old orchards across the Lower Yakima Valley and the Tri-Cities. We recently cleared 2 acres of old apple trees. We pile the wood or haul it away, and the quote says which. See what our orchard removal covers, or call or text (509) 439-2533. We look at the rows and put the quote in writing.