Emergency Tree Service

Call first, before you do anything

If a tree or limb is touching a power line, or has brought a line down, treat the line as live and stay well away from it — and from anything metal touching it, including fences. Call the utility before you call us. Nobody should be near that tree until the line is confirmed de-energised.

If a tree is on the structure, get everyone out of the affected rooms and out from under it. Don't climb on the roof to look, and don't start cutting. A tree that's already fallen is under load in ways that aren't visible — sections under tension release violently when cut in the wrong order, and that's how people get badly hurt.

Photograph everything before anything moves. Your insurer will want it, and it takes thirty seconds.

What counts as an emergency

Genuine emergencies are: a tree or major limb on a house, outbuilding or vehicle; a tree blocking the only access to a property; a tree or limb in contact with power lines; a partially fallen tree hung up in another tree or on a structure; and a tree with a fresh lean, cracked trunk or lifted root plate that's within reach of something occupied.

Things that can usually wait for a scheduled visit: a tree that's been dead for a while and isn't near anything, limbs down in the yard, a lean that's been there for years, and storm debris that isn't blocking anything. There's no shame in calling to check — we'd rather tell you it can wait than have you guess.

How we respond

We answer the phone around the clock. On the call we'll ask what's involved, what it's touching, and whether anyone is at risk, and we'll tell you honestly how quickly we can be there. If a utility needs to be involved before anyone touches it, we'll say so.

Storm work is different from a planned removal. Trees that have already failed are under stress in unpredictable directions, often tangled with other trees, fencing or structures, and the ground is usually wet. It gets taken apart in a deliberate order, releasing tension in stages, and it takes longer than the same tree standing.

Wind events on the Front are the common cause here — chinooks coming off the mountains, and heavy wet spring snow loading canopies that haven't hardened off yet. Those are the nights the phone rings.

What we do when we get there

The first thing is an assessment, not a saw. On a tree that's already failed we need to work out where the load is, what's holding what, and what happens when each piece is released. A tree lying on a roof is often the only thing holding the roof structure in the shape it's currently in, and cutting it in the wrong order makes the damage worse.

We'll usually secure and stabilise before removing — roping sections so they can't shift, taking weight off in stages, and working from the outside in. Where a crane or lift is the right answer we'll say so, and where the safe move is to wait for daylight or for a utility crew, we'll tell you that instead of pressing on.

Once the tree is off, we clear enough to make the property safe and usable — access opened, hazards down, debris out of the way. Full cleanup and any remaining hazard trees usually get scheduled properly rather than done at three in the morning.

Preventing the next one

Most emergency calls are trees that had been telling somebody for a while. Deadwood in a mature canopy, a cottonwood with over-extended limbs, a lean that got slowly worse, soil lifting on one side of a root plate, a fungal bracket at the base — these are visible months or years before the failure.

After a storm job we'll usually walk the rest of the property with you and point out anything else that's likely to be a problem, with no obligation. It's a five-minute conversation that occasionally saves a roof.

Two windows matter most here: late winter and early spring, when heavy wet snow loads canopies that aren't hardened off, and any chinook event coming off the Front. If you know you've got a marginal tree near the house, deal with it before one of those, not during.