Crown reduction and thinning
Taking weight and sail area out of a canopy without topping it. Topping is what kills trees slowly and it is still the commonest thing done to them; we will not do it, and we will explain what we would do instead.
ISA Certified Arborists · fully insured for climbing and rigging
The tree decides when, not the calendar.
Climbing arborists for pruning, removals and storm damage. Tell us what you have and when you want it done, and we will tell you honestly whether that month is a good idea — including the times it is not.
- ISA Certified climbers
ISA Certified climbers
- Years in the county
Years in the county
- Storm callout response
Storm callout response
Can we do it?
Tell us the tree and the month.
Four questions, and you will know whether the job can go ahead, what has to happen first, and which month we would actually put you in. It will sometimes tell you no — that is the point of asking an arborist rather than a contractor with a chainsaw.
We will not cut a live oak in June
The tree gets surveyed before anyone climbs
Check your treeSurvey is free, and so is the permit application.
Disease windows and nesting dates follow widely applied US guidance; your city or state may set different ones, and a street tree is always the city's call. We confirm on survey. Nothing here is a permit or an inspection.
The work
What we actually do up there
Removals, in sections
Rigged down piece by piece when there is no room to fell — over a roof, a fence, a neighbour's glasshouse. The skill is in the rigging, not the saw.
Storm damage
Hung limbs, split forks, a tree resting on something it should not be. We come out around the clock for these, because a hung limb does not wait for office hours.
Reports and permits
Condition reports for insurers and mortgage lenders, and the permit applications for street and heritage trees. We prepare and file those, and we do not charge for the application itself.
How we quote
Priced from the ground, under the tree
Tree work cannot be quoted from a photograph, and anyone who does it is guessing at the part that matters — what is above the first fork.
We climb before we price where it matters
On anything with a target under it, the estimator goes up. A decayed union is invisible from a driveway and it changes the whole method.
Rigging is the cost, not the cutting
A removal over open lawn and the same tree over a conservatory are different jobs at different prices. We show you which one yours is and why.
The wood is yours if you want it
Cordwood stacked, or chip left for your beds, at no charge. Hauling it away costs money, so we ask rather than assume.
We turn down work that should not happen
Healthy trees that someone wants gone for the leaves, oaks in June, topping. You will get a reason and, where there is one, a better option.
The firm
Four climbers and a chipper
No subcontracted crews — the people who quote your tree are the people who climb it, and they hold the certification and the insurance to be up there. We work across Dane County on planned work and take storm callouts anywhere we can reach inside an hour.
- ISA Certified climbers
ISA Certified climbers
- Years in the county
Years in the county
- Storm callout response
Storm callout response
I asked them to take the crown out of a bur oak in June and they said no, and told me why. They came back in September. The tree is still standing and I have since learned what happens to people who found someone willing.
The street tree permit was filed and tracked without me chasing anything, and the price on the invoice matched the one from under the tree. That is rarer than it should be.
Send us a tree and a month.
We survey from the ground, climb it if there is anything under it, and price it there and then. If the month you asked for is wrong, we will say so before you have arranged anything around it.