Emergency tree service in Johnson Lane, NV

Johnson Lane is the open northeast corner of the Carson Valley: single houses on roomy lots running out toward the Pine Nut foothills. There is no forest here. Nearly every tree was planted by someone, usually in a row, and the open ground gives the wind a clear run at them.

At a glance

• About 95% of homes are detached houses, and about 94% are owner-occupied
• A gauge in Johnson Lane averages 8.14 inches of precipitation a year: planted trees live on irrigation
• Driveway and private road clearing is part of emergency service
• About 28 minutes from our yard without traffic

What does a windstorm do to a planted windbreak?

A gauge less than a mile from the center of Johnson Lane (Minden 6.0 NNE) averages 8.14 inches of precipitation a year (NOAA 1991-2020 normals). That is desert. The trees that stand here are rows and clusters planted for shade and shelter and kept alive by irrigation.

Fast-growing windbreak trees get tall quickly and are often planted close together along a fence or drive. When one goes over it can take the fence, lean into the next tree, or fall the length of the driveway. A row that has lost one tree has a gap the wind now pushes through, so ask the arborist to look at its neighbors.

Whose call is it? Almost always the owner's

About 94% of occupied homes in Johnson Lane are lived in by their owners, and about 95% of the housing is detached houses (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024). In practice the person who phones us can approve the work on the spot, which keeps things simple. Have ready:

• What the tree is on: house, shop, trailer, fence, corral, well house
• Whether animals are loose or at risk
• How long the driveway is and whether the tree blocks it
• Whether you can see any wires near the tree

Room to work

The lots here give our crew space most town jobs do not. The boom truck, the chipper and the track loader can usually get beside the tree, and the wood can be sorted on site. If the tree is on the house, the crane lifts it off in sections. If it is on the ground, the loader and chipper make short work of the clean-up, and the debris is hauled away unless you ask for the wood to be left.

Snow counts here too

The Carson City station, about six miles away at nearly the same elevation, averages 14.0 inches of snowfall a year. It takes only one wet storm with leaves on the trees to break long limbs. The morning after, stay out from under anything cracked and read heavy wet snow and broken limbs.

Keeping it from happening twice

Homes in Johnson Lane have a median build year of 1995, so many of the planted rows are about thirty years old and reaching full height. Dead wooding and reduction pruning take weight and sail out of a crown. Topping does the opposite over time; see why topping a tree is not pruning.