I had eight down trees on property and FEMA couldn't help with the expense. I removed them all and cleaned up the brush. Can I deduct anything from the expense?

Yes, you can try to take a casualty loss for the cleanup expenses in federal disaster zones.  You enter a Fair Market Value for the property before the disaster and can use the cost of cleanup to deduct against that "before" value to arrive at an after value.  You cannot, however, use any cost for your own labor..