Tree work is the trade where the worst outcome and the most common request are frequently the same thing. Somebody wants a big tree made smaller, a crew is happy to do it, and the tree pays for that transaction for the rest of its life. Understanding why takes about ten minutes and saves a great deal of money and regret.
These guides cover what a homeowner most needs. Why topping damages a tree and what proper reduction looks like instead. How to read the signals a tree gives before it fails, from a new lean to a split fork to mushrooms at the base. And what to do first the morning after wind or heavy wet snow, when the instinct to start cleaning up is exactly the wrong instinct.
None of this makes you an arborist. It does mean that when someone quotes you a percentage off the top, you will know to ask which limbs and why.
Topping is cutting the main limbs of a tree back to stubs, without regard to where a branch union or a suitable lateral sits. It gets sold under gentler names: hat-racking,…
Read the guide →Not every leaning tree is failing. Plenty of trees grow at an angle their whole lives, reaching for light around a building or out of a slope, and they build extra wood to…
Read the guide →Before anything else, work out what is over your head and stay out of that space. The hazard after a storm is rarely the wood on the ground. It is the limb that broke and did…
Read the guide →The tree trade has an uncomfortable structure: most companies are paid to cut, and the honest answer is frequently to cut less. That is worth knowing when you get a bid. A crew that walks your property and tells you the tree is fine, or that it needs three specific limbs rather than a general reduction, is giving away revenue to give you the right answer. Those are the crews worth keeping a number for, and they exist in every part of the valley.
The single most useful habit is looking up on purpose a couple of times a year. Almost every tree emergency was visible as a small problem for a season or two before it became an emergency, and almost nobody was looking.
Get the tree looked at by someone who will tell you to leave it alone.
Request an AssessmentDescribe the tree, what is under it, and what changed. We will take it from there.