top of page

Tree Services

Pruning

There are several reasons to prune trees:  Reducing the risk of tree or branch failure, provide clearance, reduce shade or wind resistance, maintaining health or improving aesthetics.  The most common pruning we do is crown cleaning (to remove deadwood), crown thinning or crown raising to remove some unwanted limbs.  We can do a proper crown reduction to reduce size of the tree.  We do not "top" trees.  Topping is an improper pruning practice that diminishes the health and structure of the tree.  Crown restoration is sometimes necessary when the tree has been damaged by a storm or improper pruning in the past.   Our pruning is in accordance with the ISA's Best Management Practices for Tree Pruning.     

Removals

Timelapse of Bur Oak Cleaning

Vista Pruning

Climbing, Pruning and Cleaning Oak

We have removed some of the most difficult trees in the area, including removal of the largest tree in Burlington – An Eastern Cottonwood that was just over 8’ in diameter, about 120’ tall and a spread of about 120’ also.  Unfortunately the tree was hollow thus posing a great risk to a local business and had to be taken down.  We dubbed it "The Glory Tree" because it was such a huge job, when it was all over, we did it for the glory - there wasn't much else left! See our Youtube video and slideshow of the removal of this incredible tree below.  Our removals go very smoothly, efficently and safely due to our use of the latest techniques and specialty rigging equipment.  

Emerald Ash Borer Treatment - Trunk Injection

Trunk injection can be used to treat a number of tree disorders.  Our main objective with trunk injection currently is protecting Ash trees from the Emerald Ash Borer.   Check out the link at the bottom of the page for more information, but to make a long story short, EAB was discovered in Detroit in 2002.  Apparently, it was imported from Asia in shipping materials.  Since then it has migrated in every direction killing hundreds of millions of trees.   Emerald Ash Borer was first discovered in Burlington in July of 2013, and confirmed in Lee County in July of 2015. The adult beetle does almost no harm to the tree, just feeding on the leaves.  However, the adult lays eggs in the tree and the larvae feed on the vascular system of the tree, eventually killing it within about 4 years.  It is very important to treat your tree before you see symptoms of EAB.  Here’s why:  A female EAB lays 75 eggs per year, resulting is 75 feeding larvae when the eggs hatch, so if half of those are female, each female produces 37 more females that will lay 75 eggs the next year.  So if your tree starts with only one female, in the 4th year you will have almost 4,000,000 feeding larvae.  And this is why there is no 5th year.  EAB kills Ash trees in 3-4 years.  The Ash is a very hardy tree.  By the time it shows symptoms in the canopy, it is infested with thousands of EAB and there is considerable damage.  EAB damages the very same tissue that we inject insecticide into, so treating a tree infested with EAB isn’t nearly as successful as treating the tree as a preventative.  We inject the tree with Tree-age, an insecticide that is almost 100 percent effective if treated early, before symptoms appear.  We can treat with success if there is about 70% of the canopy still alive, and you can see some evidence of this in our Treatment Video, but the tree has been damaged, and will be stressed, leaving it more vulnerable to insects and pathogens.  Also, our treatment success rate is just not nearly as high.  Most importantly – DO NOT WAIT UNTIL YOUR TREE SHOWS SIGNS!  Once your tree has dead branches in the canopy, you will have the cost of pruning out dead branches in addition to the cost of treatment.

 

We use the most effective product available – Treeage, with the active ingredient emamectic benzoate.   We can treat the tree from middle of April until into the fall as long as temperatures remain above 40 degrees, but the best time is mid -April until mid- May when there is ample moisture in the ground.  Cost to treat is currently $10 per diameter inch.  So, if you measure around your tree at breast height, about 4’ off the ground, and divide the number of inches of circumference by 3.14, this will give you the number of inches of diameter.  Multiply number of inches diameter by $10.  This treatment will protect the tree for 3 years. 

​

The first step is to look at your tree and evaluate it's chances of being treated successfully.  Then we will measure it to determine cost and then discuss the benefits of keeping the tree versus cost of treatment, and cost of removing deadwood if necessary.

 

If we go ahead with treatment, several 3/8" holes are drilled in the lower trunk and root flares of the tree.  Then an Arbor plug is driven into each hole.  The arbor plug seals the hole, but it has a small diaphragm in the center of it, through which insectide is injected into the cambium layer of the tree, to be distributed throughout the canopy.   Distribution in a healthy tree with ample moisture in the ground is complete within about 5 days and any larvae feeding in the tree will be killed.  The insecticide is also in the leaves and kills the adult EAB with just one bite. 

 

The insecticide is residual and protects the tree for 3 years, and which time we will want to treat again.  If you treat early, you will probably need to have 3 treatments, now, again in 3 years and again is 6 years.  At this point almost every healthy ash in the area will be dead, so the food source is diminished and EAB populations will diminish.  At this point we will continue to observe and look for signs in our treated trees.  If there is a resurgence, we may want to treat again.       

​

​

​

​

          

https://www.extension.iastate.edu/psep/emeraldashborer.html 

Slideshow of Monster Cottonwood - The Glory Tree

Video of Monster Cottonwood - The Glory Tree

Treating an Ash Tree, although not a very good video. 

Tree Risk Assessment

It is impossible to own and maintain trees completely free of risk.  Some level of risk has to be accepted to experience the benefits that trees provide.  Perhaps you have a tree you are concerned about, or your neighbor has a tree that you think may be in a condition that poses an unreasonable risk to your property or your family.  I have taken the ISA’s Tree Risk Assessment Qualification Course (TRAQ).  This means we recognize various tree defects, can estimate the seriousness of defects, and can systematically evaluate your tree, or your neighbor’s tree and determine its overall condition and the risk that it poses to personal property or human life surrounding it.  As you can see in the pics on this page, trees may have defects and decay that cannot be seen from the ground, or if it is visible, it may warrant an aerial inspection to determine the seriousness of the defect or decay.  We then suggest mitigation options.  We may determine the tree doesn’t pose an unreasonable risk and recommend no action, or maybe some pruning, removal of deadwood, cabling or removal of the tree if it is found to be a high risk tree.  No matter what our findings are, a written tree risk assessment and completed risk assessment form from a TRAQ qualified arborist is considered a professional opinion and can be helpful in settling a legal dispute or simply easing concerns about a tree.    

The surrounding photos are a Silver Maple that had been previously topped.  The tree is partially over the neighbors backyard where children play on a trampoline and a swingset.  It had previously lost a main leader, the adjacent leader was found to have a 10" hollow cavity at the base of it.  The defect wasn't visible from the ground, but the previous failure warranted an aerial inspection.  Climbing and probing the cavity confirmed the hazard in the large limb an revealed several other cavities and weak branch unions caused by the tree being topped in the past.  

Storm Damage

Plant Health Care

We can diagnose and treat many ailments your tree could be suffering from and there are many.  They can be abiotic, meaning non living factors such as chemical damage, poor soil quality, lack of water, mechanical damage or weather related injury.  Trees are also threatened and sometimes suffer from biotic disorders ranging from insects and diseases, most of which can be treated.  Some disorders are very easy to recognize and others are not.  I certainly don’t claim to know everything about trees and the various disorders they can suffer from, but if you have an issue I can usually determine the problem and prescribe a treatment.  We can treat or the client can treat themselves in many cases.  It it’s a mystery we can’t diagnose we can also send foliar or soil samples to the Iowa State University for testing.   

Stump Grinding

Our stump grinder is self propelled so we don't need a big truck to pull it across your lawn.  It's small enough that it fits through a 36" gate, yet powerful enough to handle any grinding job.  We offer grinding only, or grinding with optional cleanup, quality black dirt, grading and seeding

bottom of page