Which Cedar to Clear, and Which to Keep
Clear cedar that crowds your oaks, sits close to the house, or forms dense thickets of young trees over open ground. Keep big old cedars in mixed stands, cedar holding steep slopes and creek banks, and cedar shading young oaks that aren't established yet. Selective clearing almost always works out better than taking it all.
First, Cedar Is Native
Ashe juniper gets called an invader, but it isn't. Botanist Ferdinand Lindheimer described Central Texas hills and ravines covered with cedar back in 1845, and fossil pollen shows it's been in the region for thousands of years. What changed is how land has been used. With less fire and more grazing over the last century and a half, cedar spread into grasslands and thickened up on hillsides where it used to be scattered.
So the goal isn't to wipe it out. It's to get the balance back.
Clear It When
It's crowding an oak. Cedar inside the drip line of a live oak or Spanish oak competes hard for water and light. Oaks with cedar grown up through their canopy get thin and spindly on that side. Clearing cedar around good oaks is usually the best return on any clearing job.
It's close to the house. Cedar holds resinous foliage that burns hot. Thinning cedar near structures and limbing up what stays is a standard part of creating defensible space around a home in fire-prone country.
It's a thicket of young trees over open ground. Dense young cedar shades out grass and wildflowers. Thinning these stands helps grass come back, which slows runoff and erosion.
It's blocking access. Drives, fence lines, building sites, septic fields, and paths to the creek.
It's dead. Standing dead cedar is fuel and comes down eventually. Take it out.
Keep It When
It's an old tree in a mixed stand. Tall, shaggy-barked cedars mixed with oaks, especially in canyons and draws, are a different thing from a young thicket. These woodlands are valuable habitat and worth keeping.
It's holding a slope or bank. Cedar roots grip thin soil on steep ground. Clear-cutting a slope can lead to erosion, especially in a heavy rain.
It's shading young oaks. Young oaks often get their start in the shade of cedar. Researchers in Central Texas have pointed to cedar helping oaks establish. Clearing every cedar around seedling oaks can leave them baking in full sun.
It's a screen you'd miss. Cedar makes a fast, evergreen privacy screen or windbreak along a road or property line.
The Warbler Question
The golden-cheeked warbler is a federally endangered songbird that nests only in Central Texas, in mixed Ashe juniper and oak woodlands of ravines and canyons. It strips bark from mature cedars to build nests, arrives in March and leaves in July.
If your land has that kind of woodland, especially in the canyons on the west side of San Marcos, check with Texas Parks and Wildlife or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before clearing, and keep any clearing in that habitat out of the March through July nesting season. A young cedar thicket on an old pasture is a different situation from a mature cedar-oak canyon.
Cutting It So It Stays Gone
Ashe juniper doesn't resprout from a stump cut below its lowest green branches. Cut low and it's gone for good. New cedar comes back from seed, which birds spread constantly, so expect seedlings. Pulling or cutting them every year or two while they're small keeps a cleared area clear for very little effort.
What to Do With the Brush
- Mulch it in place with a mulching machine on larger areas. It protects the soil and breaks down over time.
- Chip it and spread the chips on trails and beds.
- Haul it if you want it gone.
- Burn it only if you're outside city limits, there's no burn ban, and you follow county rules. In San Marcos city limits, open burning isn't allowed. Brush disposal options
Big brush piles left for years become rodent housing and fire fuel. Plan disposal before cutting.
A Note on Cedar Fever
Ashe juniper pollen peaks in winter, roughly December through February. Clearing cedar right around the house can cut pollen at your windows, but wind carries it for miles, so don't expect clearing to end allergy season.
Planning the Job
Walk the property and flag the oaks and cedars you want to keep before any cutting starts. On small lots and near trees you care about, hand crews with chainsaws do the gentlest work. On larger open areas, a skid steer with a mulching head moves faster. Cedar clearing and brush removal covers the methods, and the San Marcos service area page has notes on hillside lots on the west side.