Emergency tree service in Old Southwest Reno

No Reno ZIP we serve has older housing. About 62% of homes here were built before 1980 and about a quarter before 1960. The street trees and yard trees are the same age as the houses or older, and they are the reason people love the neighborhood. They are also heavy.

At a glance

• About 62% of homes in ZIP 89509 built before 1980, about 25% before 1960
• Large-limb and whole-tree failures on roofs, garages and cars
• Planting-strip trees may be in the City right-of-way
• About 41 minutes from our Carson City yard without traffic

What makes an old-neighborhood emergency harder?

Weight and room. A limb from a 70-year-old shade tree can be as big as an entire tree in a new subdivision. The lots are narrow, some blocks have garages on an alley, and overhead wires often run from the pole to the house. There is rarely a clear place to drop anything.

This is the job a crane exists for. Each piece is cut, lifted straight up and swung out to the street, so nothing slides down the roof. Where the crane cannot set up, the 75-foot boom truck or a climber does the same job more slowly. The method is the arborist's decision after seeing the tree. Removing a tree in a tight backyard shows the options.

Is the tree by the curb mine?

Maybe not. The strip between the sidewalk and the curb is the usual grey area. On private property the City of Reno needs no permit for removal. A tree in a City right-of-way requires a Tree Work Permit and a Certified Arborist, and Reno Urban Forestry (775-321-8373) decides how a fallen one is handled. If a street tree is blocking the road, report it to the City. If it is lying on your house, make the safety calls and then call us. We have an ISA Certified Arborist on staff, WE-11728A.

Old trees give warnings

Mature trees seldom fail out of nowhere. Dead wood in the crown, a crack at a fork, mushrooms at the base, soil lifting on one side: each is worth a look before the next wind. Dead wooding and cabling and bracing are the two services that keep an old tree standing longer, and hazard pruning can be done in any season.

Weather on record

The airport station, about 3 miles away, averages 20.9 inches of snowfall a year, and the gauge Reno 2.4 SSW, about a mile from the middle of the ZIP, averages about 9.6 inches of total precipitation (NOAA 1991-2020 normals). These trees live on irrigation. A big old tree that lost its water years ago may look fine until a storm finds the dead roots.

Distance and priority

We drive up from Carson City, about 33 miles. Without traffic that is about 41 minutes, which we give as a fact about the road and not as a response time. After a severe storm, existing clients are served first and then anyone else in need.