Tree Removal and Pruning

It takes a lot of expensive equipment, skilled labor, and extensive insurance to do what we do. The most expensive aspect of any tree job is the cleanup. If you’re willing to invest a little elbow grease and can do the cleanup yourself, you can save a considerable amount of money.

ArborServe generally charges by the job. Time, fuel, equipment, and disposal fees are calculated to produce a detailed, written estimate.

Yes, ArborServe grinds tree stumps, but grinding is the first part of the stump removal process. The ground-up materials (wood and dirt) can sometimes be left as is, but other times they must be completely removed, new soil brought in, and the area reseeded or sodded. We can handle all of that.

Yes, ArborServe removes invasive trees. These trees present the following problems:

• Paradise trees, or trees of heaven (Ailanthus altissima), are a highly invasive tree species from China that have naturalized in parts of the U.S. They spread prolifically by seed and serve as host plants for spotted lanternflies. Lanternflies (Lycorma delicatula), also from China, feed on the trees’ sap, and the sugary waste fluid they produce coats the trees and encourages mold growth. This mold covers the trees, ground, and anything underneath them. It is highly recommended that these trees be removed, as they will spread and host invasive insects.
• Callery pear trees (Pyrus calleryana) are another extremely common invasive tree. Sold at most nurseries, they’re planted for the full white blooms in early spring. These trees, spread by seed, are fast-growing and are extremely weak, with branch unions typically the points of failure. It’s common to see trees that have trunks in the 12-14″ diameter range that only have half of their crowns. Typically half of a tree will fail in a summer windstorm. Due to the nature of where they are planted (along driveways, near houses, parking lots, etc.), they are one of the most common trees to cause property damage. Although planting these trees is not advisable, if you have one, it can be maintained with proper pruning if done early in life and consistently over the course of the tree’s life. Thinning and structural pruning are the only ways to properly manage these trees and reduce the likelihood of failure.

ArborServe usually disposes of wood chips at a local dump site, and another company takes them to a power plant where they are burned to generate electricity. Sometimes customers choose to keep the chips to use as organic mulch — a great environmental choice that we strongly support.

Well, it depends on what your goals are! As a general rule of thumb, it is best for the tree to prune live branches in the winter (dormant season). For pruning out dead wood, it is best done in the summer (growing season). With green leaves on the trees, it is very easy to identify exactly what is dead.

No, ArborServe does not top trees. Topping is one of the most detrimental things that you can do to a tree. Trees Virginia (Virginia’s Urban Forest Council) is a great resource of information about why topping trees is bad.

Jarrett Wilkes, owner and operator of ArborServe, has been a professional tree climber for over twenty years, and that experience has helped him work on trees that bucket trucks cannot reach due to obstacles such as retaining walls, septic and drain fields, paver patios, sidewalks, etc. Bucket trucks are extremely useful, but they have their limitations.