Took 6 hours to save a red oak people wanted gone

Had a client in Portland who was dead set on cutting down this big red oak. Said it looked sick and was dropping too many branches. I spent a whole day just doing a full root collar excavation and found a girdling root strangling it. Cut that one root and the tree probably has another 20 years in it. Has anyone else dealt with homeowners who want to remove trees that just need a simple fix?

2 comments

2 Comments

evand653d ago

Play devil's advocate here, but sometimes dropping branches is a real safety risk with kids or cars around, and a quick fix doesn't change that the tree is a liability. Maybe the client just didn't want to be told their gut instinct was wrong after already worrying about it.

susanm223d ago

Oh I totally get it, I once had a guy so convinced his maple was dying he already had the stump grinder booked. I just poked at a root and the tree was fine. I guess my sales pitch of "your tree is actually healthy" isn't as exciting as "let's spend two grand removing it.