Tree Trimming in Centerton, AR

Why pruning matters so much on Centerton ground

A tree here is anchored in a shallow, rocky root plate. It cannot hold as much sail area as the same species growing in deep bottomland soil. So the way you keep a mature tree standing in this town is to stop letting it get top heavy and end heavy.

That means taking length off the long horizontal limbs, opening the canopy enough that a gust passes through instead of pushing against it, and pulling out the dead and crossing wood that will fail first. Done right, you cannot really tell we were there. The tree just looks like a slightly tidier version of itself.

The four jobs we are usually doing

Weight reduction

Shortening the heavy ends of limbs back to a good lateral branch. This is the single most useful thing we do for silver maples, sweetgums, and any big old hackberry hanging over a house. It is also what saves Bradford pears from splitting for a few more years.

Deadwooding

Pulling every dead limb over an inch or so out of the canopy. Oaks around here shed interior deadwood constantly, and those pieces are the ones that come down in the first hard wind of the season. Nobody plans for a four-inch dead limb, and a four-inch dead limb is plenty to go through a windshield.

Clearance

Getting limbs off the roof, out of the gutters, off the siding, and up high enough over the drive that a delivery truck is not dragging through them. Limbs resting on shingles hold moisture and wear the granules off fast, and they are a highway for squirrels into your attic.

Young tree shaping

In the newer parts of town there are a lot of young maples and pears that were planted three to eight years ago and have never been touched. Fifteen minutes of cuts now, choosing a single leader and widening the branch angles, decides whether that tree is an asset or a problem at twenty years. This is the cheapest work we do and it pays off the most.

Timing, and why we ask what kind of tree it is

Late fall through winter is the best window for most of what we do. The canopy is off, we can actually see the structure, the ground is firmer, and the tree is not spending stored energy to respond.

For red oaks and pin oaks, timing is not just preference. Oak wilt is present in this region and it moves through root grafts and through beetles attracted to fresh spring cuts, so we avoid non-urgent oak pruning from about April into early summer. If a limb is over your kid's bedroom we cut it whenever you call, and we seal the wound. Otherwise it waits for the right window.

What we will not do

We do not top trees. Cutting the crown off flat makes a tree sprout dozens of weak shoots that are attached only at the surface, and in five years you have a bigger hazard than you started with plus a tree that will never recover. If somebody quoted you a cheap price to "cut it back hard," that is what they are describing.

We also will not prune a tree that is past saving just to take your money. If the trunk is hollow, the root plate is lifting, or the top third is gone, we will tell you the tree has to come down and price it that way. And if you have a whole overgrown fence row rather than individual trees, clearing a whole tree line is usually the cheaper approach than pruning each one.

What it costs

Trimming a single mid-sized yard tree usually runs $250 to $700. Large multi-limb work over a house, where every piece has to be roped down, runs higher. Cleanup is always included. If you have several trees, ask us to quote them together, because most of the cost of a visit is getting the truck and chipper in place. Curious who's behind this crew before you call? Fair enough.