Expert Tree Trimming and Removals

Because a photograph hides the two things that set the price: what is holding the tree up, and what sits underneath it. An arborist inspects the root flare, stem and crown on your Santa Rosa property, then writes a fixed figure against a named method before leaving.

Two trees of the same height on the same street can differ in price by a factor of four. The difference is rarely the tree. It is the access, the target beneath the crown, and whether the stem can be climbed or has to be picked apart from a crane.

Tree service contractors in California work under the D-49 Tree Service classification, which covers pruning, removal and stump work. Source: California Contractors State License Board.

The assessment itself is a Level 2 basic tree risk assessment. Robert Vasquez inspects the root flare for decay and girdling roots, sounds the lower stem with a mallet, then reads the crown for deadwood and included bark, and only then is a figure written for the property.

Three zones, in order. The root plate first, because a failing root plate is the one nobody sees coming. Then the stem, sounded for decay columns and cavities. Then the crown, for deadwood and included bark. Each zone is written into the scope you keep.

The walk-round runs in a fixed order, so nothing gets skipped on a busy afternoon:

1. Walk the drip line and check the root plate for lifting, cracking or fungal fruiting bodies.
2. Sound the lower stem with a mallet and note any hollow response or open cavity.
3. Read the union of every scaffold branch for included bark and codominant stems.
4. Identify what sits under the crown: your roof, the driveway, a conductor, a play area, a neighbor.
5. Record the access: gate widths, slope, overhead lines and the drop zone available.
6. Write the method, the equipment and the fixed figure while still on your property.

Yes. The figure on your written scope is the figure invoiced. That document names the pruning specification or the removal method, what happens to the debris, and the condition your site is handed back in. Extra work happens only when you ask for it in writing.

Tree work is bid on judgement, and judgement is easy to revise upward once the crew is already on site and you have nowhere else to go. Writing the judgement down first is what stops that. Your scope says which cuts are being made and to which standard, and a cut that does not meet that standard is corrected at no charge within 12 months.

• The pruning specification, written against ANSI A300 Part 1 rather than described to you as a trim.
• The removal method: climbed and rigged, or crane-picked, with the drop zone named.
• What happens to the wood, the brush and the chips before the crew leaves your property.
• The grade your stump site is left at, when grinding is part of the same visit.
• The fixed price, and the conditions under which it could change.

Look up the licence number yourself. It sits in the footer of every page here next to a link to the California state register, which returns the status, the classifications held, the bond and the workers compensation record. Current cover is evidenced before a crew starts.

Verifying a contractor takes about a minute and is worth doing for any company, including this one. The Contractors State License Board publishes a public lookup, and a screenshot of a licence card is not the same thing as a live record. Check the status on the day work is due to start rather than the day you accept the quote.

If your structure sits in a State Responsibility Area, yes. California asks for 100 feet, split into a 30-foot inner zone and a 30-to-100-foot outer zone. That rule decides which limbs come off your trees, how far apart crowns must sit, and what ladder fuel gets cleared.

California requires 100 feet of defensible space around structures in State Responsibility Areas, and the requirement is enforced by inspection. Source: CAL FIRE, Public Resources Code 4291.

The 2017 Tubbs Fire destroyed 5,643 structures across Sonoma and Napa counties, and rebuilding reshaped what property owners here ask a tree company for. Source: CAL FIRE incident statistics.

Fuel reduction is not the same job as ornamental pruning, and being quoted for one when you needed the other produces a bill nobody expected. Clearing ladder fuel means lifting the lower canopy away from the grass and shrub layers, opening horizontal spacing between crowns on a slope, and taking out the dead material that carries fire from ground level up into a canopy.

Zone 1 runs from your wall out to 30 feet, and that is where dead material and limbs overhanging the roof come off first. Zone 2 runs from 30 feet to 100 feet and is mostly about spacing between crowns. Both zones are marked on your scope.

• Zone 1, 0 to 30 feet from the structure: remove deadwood, lift crowns clear of the roof, and clear any limb within 10 feet of a chimney.
• Zone 2, 30 to 100 feet: open horizontal spacing between crowns, cut the ladder fuel underneath them, and thin dense conifer stands.

Four, and each has its own page with the method, the standards and the published price range. Tree removal, ANSI A300 pruning, 24-hour storm response and stump grinding, across Santa Rosa, Windsor and Sebastopol. An arborist assessment can come before any of them.

Each service page carries the full technical description, the pricing band and the questions customers ask most: Tree Removal, Tree Trimming and Pruning, Emergency Storm Response, Stump Grinding.

Removal runs $650 to $4,800 a tree, pruning $375 to $2,200, storm call-outs $850 to $6,500, and stump grinding $180 to $900 a stump. Where your job lands inside a band depends on access, the target underneath, and whether a crane is needed.

• Tree Removal, from $650 to $4,800 per tree: climbed and rigged, or crane-picked where the drop zone will not allow a felling cut.
• Tree Trimming and Pruning, from $375 to $2,200 per tree: structural pruning, crown thinning, crown reduction and clearance work to ANSI A300 Part 1.
• Emergency Storm Response, from $850 to $6,500: make-safe first, photographic documentation for the adjuster, then removal.
• Stump Grinding, from $180 to $900 per stump: 6 to 12 inches below grade, roots chased, void backfilled and the grade restored.

A rigged sectional removal is the expensive end of that first band. The crew sets a lowering line and a redirect block at the base, then takes the stem down in sections small enough for one groundworker to control over a fence line and a neighboring roof, which is slower than felling and priced accordingly.

The storm line runs 24 hours. For a tree on a structure, a driveway or a power conductor in Santa Rosa, Windsor or Sebastopol, we aim to have a make-safe crew moving within the hour. Non-urgent follow-up work is booked separately once your site is safe.

Make-safe comes before clearing, and the order matters. The crew relieves the compression and tension sides of a wind-thrown stem in sequence so the trunk cannot roll, photographs the damage for your insurance adjuster while the evidence is still in place, and only then cuts the driveway clear.

• Get everyone clear of the tree and anything it is resting on.
• Call the utility first if a power conductor is involved, then call 707-843-2333.
• Photograph what you can safely reach before anything is moved.
• Leave the cutting to the crew: a stem under tension releases without warning.

Sometimes. You do if it is a protected species or over a protected size inside Santa Rosa city limits, or if your parcel sits in unincorporated Sonoma County. We check the parcel before quoting and prepare the arborist report an application needs, so nothing is cut before approval.

Santa Rosa regulates work on protected trees through its municipal tree ordinance, and removal without approval carries a penalty. Source: City of Santa Rosa.

Parcels outside city limits are handled by Permit Sonoma, which issues the county tree and grading permits. Source: Permit Sonoma, County of Sonoma.

Very little. A site plan, the species and diameter of every tree in scope, the reason for removal, and a signed arborist report. We prepare the report and the supporting photographs as part of the quoted work for any protected tree in Santa Rosa.

Applications fail on evidence rather than on merit. A hazard nobody photographed, a diameter measured at the wrong height, or a species named loosely will send your file back to the start. Measuring diameter at 4.5 feet above grade and photographing the defect from three angles avoids most of the rejections we see.

All of it is public. We hold a 5.0 rating from 3 published reviews on Yelp, reproduced below without editing. Customers write most often about the clean-down: 30 cubic yards of shredded bark hauled away in one case, four cypress removed and an ash pruned inside 4 hours in another.

Reviews are a weaker signal than a licence lookup and a stronger one than a slogan, so treat them as one input rather than the deciding one. The comments below are reproduced without editing, and the rating shown matches the figure in the structured data on this page.

If you are in Santa Rosa, Windsor or Sebastopol, yes, and each has its own page covering the local ordinance and the species common there. The service radius runs about 25 miles from the Santa Rosa office, so nearby parcels usually qualify too. Call if you are unsure.

Each service area has a page covering the local ordinance, the common species and the crews who cover it: Tree service in Santa Rosa, Tree service in Windsor, Tree service in Sebastopol.

Robert Vasquez has run All Tree Service since 1998, and the work has followed what Sonoma County needed at the time: routine pruning through the 2000s, then two years of fire-damaged conifers over rebuild sites in Coffey Park and Fountaingrove, and defensible space as a standing question ever since.

Call the Santa Rosa office on 707-843-2333, or send the form on the contact page. An arborist walks your property, writes a fixed-price scope on the spot, and leaves it with you. There is no charge for the assessment and no obligation attached to it.

The storm line is answered 24 hours a day for anything on a structure, a driveway or a conductor. Routine assessments are usually booked within 2 working days, and the arborist calls ahead rather than leaving you to wait inside a four-hour window.

Start here: Request a free tree service estimate, About All Tree Service.

An arborist calls within one business day to agree a time, then walks your Santa Rosa property with you. The written scope and the fixed figure arrive by email the same day. We do not take a deposit to produce a quote, and we do not price work over the telephone.

Bring anything you already know: a previous arborist report, a permit reference, an insurance claim number, or photographs of the tree before a storm. Prior evidence shortens the assessment and occasionally changes what we recommend you do.

Payment falls due on completion rather than up front. The invoice is written against your scope, and if you want the wood cut to firewood lengths or the chips left on site, say so before the crew loads out. Both changes are free, and both go on the scope so nobody argues about them afterwards.

• Telephone, answered 24 hours a day for storm work on 707-843-2333.
• The estimate form on the contact page, answered within 1 business day.
• Email to the address in the footer, for permit files and adjuster correspondence.
• Live chat during office hours, 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday.