Hazardous Removal
Controlled removal of trees that cannot be saved — over houses, across power drops, on failed root plates, and after storms.
We remove trees that cannot safely stay — over houses, across power drops, on lifted root plates, and after storms. Nothing is felled; the tree comes down in rigged, controlled pieces. Storm calls on the island are answered the same day. Fully insured, certificates on request.
This is the work the company was built around, and it is the work that separates an arborist from a crew with a saw.
A hazardous removal is not felling. Nothing is dropped. The tree comes down in pieces small enough to control, lowered on rigging lines through whatever gap exists, usually over something expensive. The variables are the ones you cannot see from the ground: how much sound wood is left in the trunk, whether the root plate has already lifted, where the tension and compression are in a leaning stem, and what happens to the crown load when the first big limb comes off.
On the Vineyard the same failures repeat. Pitch pine rarely rots from the top; it goes at the root plate after a week of rain and fifty knots of wind. Black oaks fail at co-dominant unions with included bark. Leyland cypress planted as a windbreak in a line pulls straight out of sandy soil, roots and all, because it was never a windbreak species for this soil. Storm-damaged trees are the most dangerous of all, because the load in a hung-up or partially failed stem is nothing like the load in a standing one.
We are fully insured for exactly this, and we will show you the certificate without being asked. Ask any tree company for theirs before they start work over your roof.
What we are looking for
- The soil is lifting or cracking on one side of the trunk — the root plate is already moving and the tree is finished
- A lean that has changed since last year, especially after a wet spring
- Mushrooms or brackets at the base, meaning the butt is compromised whatever the crown looks like
- A hollow that sounds different when you knock along the trunk
- Storm damage: a hung-up limb, a split stem, or a tree leaning into another
- A dead pitch pine over a roof, a driveway or the neighbour's guest house
- Anything touching a power drop — call the utility first, then call us
The job, step by step
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Assessment
Root plate, trunk, unions, targets and access. We say plainly whether it has to come out or whether cabling buys you five years.
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A plan on paper
Rigging points, drop zones, crew size, what gets lowered and what can be cut free. Everything protected that needs protecting.
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Site protection
Plywood and mats over the lawn and the septic, beds screened, the drive kept clear for the chipper.
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Rigged, not dropped
Pieces small enough to control, lowered on lines. Spikes only on a tree that is going.
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Stump and cleanup
Grinding priced up front, chip hauled or left, the site raked before we leave.
$850–$6,500 for most jobs
Nobody on the island publishes numbers, which helps nobody. This is the honest range — the estimate is exact, and it is free.
What moves it up or down
- Height, diameter and how much of it has to be rigged rather than dropped
- What is underneath — an open field is a different job from a slate roof and a conservatory
- Access for a chipper and whether a crane can reach the site
- Whether the wood stays as firewood or leaves on the truck
- Stump grinding, and how close the stump is to a foundation or a utility line
- Emergency and storm call-outs, which are priced by the situation, not by a surcharge
Questions we get asked
Most removals on the island land between $850 and $6,500. A 40-foot pitch pine in an open field with chipper access is at the bottom of that range. A 70-foot black oak that has to be rigged down in pieces over a slate roof, with the stump ground and the wood hauled, is at the top. The estimate is free and it is a fixed number, not a day rate.
Yes, and we are staged on the island rather than ferrying a crew over, which is the part that matters. During a named storm event the phone is answered around the clock. If a tree is on a house, across a road, or into a power line, call rather than email — and call the utility first if there are wires involved.
Yes to both. General liability and workers' compensation, and the certificates go out with the estimate without being asked. This is worth checking with any company working over your roof: if an uninsured climber is hurt on your property, that becomes your problem, not theirs.
It depends on the town and on where the tree stands. Work near wetlands, on a coastal bank or inside a District of Critical Planning Concern generally needs a filing with the town conservation commission. Historic districts add their own review. Many parcels also carry a conservation restriction the current owner has never read. We check all of it before quoting.
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