Websites for arborists.

Very often, yes. Many municipalities protect trees over a certain trunk diameter, and some protect every tree on the lot, with real fines for removing one without approval. The rules vary street by street, and there are usually exemptions for dead or hazardous trees. We check your municipality's by-law before quoting and prepare the application when one is needed.

That is what an assessment is for. Decay, root damage from an excavation, a codominant stem with included bark, or a new lean after a storm all raise the risk, but many of those can be managed with pruning or a cable rather than removal. We tell you what we see, what the risk actually is and what the options cost. We do not sell removals we would not recommend to our own street.

Topping cuts a tree back to stubs, which forces a mass of weakly attached regrowth, exposes the trunk to decay, and produces a tree that is more dangerous in five years than it was before, not less. It also permanently disfigures it. Proper crown reduction removes weight and length at appropriate branches, which achieves what people want without any of that.

Ask for a certificate of liability insurance and proof of workers' compensation coverage, and ask for it before the work, not after. If a member of an uninsured crew is hurt on your property or a limb goes through your roof, you can end up carrying it. Any real tree company hands these over without being pushed.

Yes — the site is raked and blown clean before we leave, and that is in the price. We take the wood and chips away by default, or leave you rounds for firewood and chips for mulch if you want them, which sometimes reduces the cost. If the tree is ash or under a quarantine, disposal has to follow the movement rules for that pest.

Late winter through early spring is ideal for most species, before the leaves come out — the structure is visible and the tree responds well. Dead, damaged or hazardous limbs come out whenever we find them. A few species, oaks and elms in particular, are best not pruned during the seasons when disease-carrying insects are active.