Stump grinding in Reno, NV

Reno is two cities for stump work. About 37% of its homes were built before 1980 and about 36% since 2000 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024). The first group has old shade-tree stumps with heavy roots. The second has young stumps in small yards full of drip line.

At a glance

• No City of Reno permit for stump work on private property
• Within 10 feet of a public tree: contact the Urban Forester before digging
• About 43 minutes from our yard without traffic
• Renters: about half of Reno homes are rented, so get the owner's OK

Does a stump near the street need the city's say?

It can. The Truckee Meadows Water Authority's summary of local tree ordinances notes that Reno's ordinance requires anyone working within 10 feet of publicly owned trees to contact the City's Urban Forester prior to any digging. A stump in your own yard that sits close to a street tree falls under that.

A stump that is itself in the City right-of-way is the City's tree. Work there needs a Tree Work Permit and a Certified Arborist. Battle Born Tree Service has ISA Certified Arborist WE-11728A on staff. Reno Urban Forestry's number is 775-321-8373. The city decides. We can tell you what to ask.

Which Reno are you in?

In the older neighborhoods the stump is the hard part: wide, dense and tied into roots that have had 60 years to spread. Our page on stump grinding in Old Southwest Reno covers that kind of job.

In the subdivisions built since 2000 the stump is small and the yard is the hard part. Narrow side gates, rock mulch over landscape fabric and irrigation tubing a few inches down. See stump grinding in South Reno for that.

Who orders the work on a rental?

The Census Bureau puts owner-occupied homes in Reno at about 50%, so about half of Reno households rent. If you rent, the owner or the property manager has to approve work on the ground, and they are the ones who know where the private lines run. Managers with several properties can put stumps at more than one address on a single request.

How do we make a 43-minute drive worth it?

By doing the whole list in one trip. If you have three stumps, name all three. If a tree is coming down too, put the stump on the same estimate as the Reno tree removal. A photo of each stump with something for scale, plus the width of your gate, lets the office plan the visit properly. We do not promise dates on this page. We do answer the phone seven days a week.

A dry city and a slow-rotting stump

Wood rots with moisture, and Reno does not have much. The NOAA station just north of downtown, Reno 1.4 NNE, averages about 9.2 inches of precipitation a year. A stump left to rot on its own will be in the yard for a long time, and a sprouting species will keep sending up shoots while you wait.