In Murray, as across much of Salt Lake County, the strip of ground between the sidewalk and the curb is a place where ownership and authority do not line up the way…
In Murray, as across much of Salt Lake County, the strip of ground between the sidewalk and the curb is a place where ownership and authority do not line up the way homeowners assume. You mow it. You water it. That does not automatically mean you get to decide what happens to the tree standing in it. Municipalities commonly regulate park strip trees, covering what may be planted, what may be pruned, and whether a tree can be removed at all, because those trees sit in the public right of way and affect sight lines, sidewalks, and the street itself.
The practical consequence is simple: the phone call comes before the saw. Ask Murray City what applies to your address before you hire anyone or agree to a bid on that particular tree. A contractor who offers to take out a park strip tree with no mention of checking first is telling you something about how they work. The rules are usually not onerous, and most homeowners get their answer in a single call, but finding out afterward is the expensive version of the same conversation. Note who you spoke with and when, and keep any approval you are given with your records.
Have the specifics ready: your address, where the tree stands relative to the sidewalk and the curb, and what you want done. Then ask directly. Is this tree the city's responsibility or mine? Do I need approval to prune it, and does the answer change for removal? Are there species or size rules I should know about? If it comes out, am I required to replace it? Does the city handle its own street tree work, or do I hire a contractor and follow a standard? Those answers decide everything downstream, including whether a bid you already have is even relevant.
Utility clearance is its own lane, and worth separating out in your head. Where branches have grown into power lines, that work generally belongs to the utility rather than to you or to a crew you hire, and no homeowner should be working anywhere near the service drop that runs to the house. If a park strip tree has grown up into the lines, say so when you call. Line clearance follows a different process on a different schedule, handled by people trained specifically for it. Sorting that out first can change what is left for a private crew, sometimes to nothing.
A park strip tree gets a narrow, compacted volume of soil and grows into whatever it can reach, which is why lifted slabs and a cracked curb line are such a common complaint. The instinct is to cut the offending roots and be done with it. Roots that size are structural and feeding the tree at the same time, and severing them close to the trunk can quietly buy you a tree that is both less stable and less healthy. What can be cut, and how far out from the trunk, is a judgment call that deserves eyes on the actual root rather than a guess.
Because the walk is public, the remedy usually is not yours to choose alone either, which is one more reason the city conversation comes first. The answer might be grinding down a raised edge, replacing a slab, or a specific limited root pruning done to a standard. If removal really is the outcome, know that grinding the stump is separate work from taking the tree down, and that it generates a large volume of chips right where you have the least room to put them. Decide where those chips are going before the machine shows up.
Ask the city before you commit to anything. Park strip trees commonly fall under municipal rules, because the strip is public right of way, and those rules can cover removal, pruning, replacement, and what may be planted afterward. A short call with your address usually settles it. If approval is required and granted, keep the record with your paperwork. Any contractor worth hiring will expect that step and will not try to push you past it.
That depends on whether the city treats the tree as its own or as the adjacent owner's responsibility, and Murray can tell you which applies at your address. Either way, low limbs over a walkway are a legitimate clearance issue rather than a cosmetic one. When you call, describe the height and what the branches hang over. If the answer is that it falls to you, hire it as clearance pruning with a defined target, not as a general cut-back.
Not necessarily, and that should not be the first move. Cutting large roots near the trunk trades a bumpy slab for a less stable tree, so the real question is what can be pruned, how far from the trunk, and whether the slab can be addressed without touching structural roots at all. Because the sidewalk is public, loop the city in early. Removal is one possible answer, but it belongs at the end of the list rather than the start.
Some trees do have to come down. How that goes is decided by access, by what sits underneath the tree, and by whether it can be dropped whole or has to be taken apart in pieces from the top down.
Learn more →Real pruning takes specific limbs off at the branch collar for a specific reason: clearance, deadwood, a rubbing branch. It does not mean shortening everything on the tree, and we match you with crews that know the difference.
Learn more →Wind and heavy wet snow leave limbs hanging over driveways, cars and doorways. That is the real urgency. You get crews who triage the hazard over your head first and worry about tidy cleanup second.
Learn more →Grinding is a separate operation from removal, with its own machine and its own gate-width problem. It also makes a startling volume of chips, so you should decide up front how deep it goes and where those chips end up.
Learn more →A lean, a split fork, mushrooms at the base, a strip of bark gone: the tree is telling you something. An assessment reads it honestly, and often the honest answer is that the tree is fine and should be left alone.
Learn more →Get the tree looked at by someone who will tell you to leave it alone.
Call 801-823-6018Describe the tree, what is under it, and what changed. We will take it from there.