Hi I have a 75’ tell Doug Fir in my front yard. We love the tree and want to keep it but I’m worried about the limbs falling off. They seem really saggy. A couple years ago a big branch fell on my car and did some pretty major damage, it’s a matter of time before it happens again. My girlfriend says it’s a waste to trim it back because the branches will fall off regardless. Just looking for some advice—we got a couple bids to trim it and they’re all $5k+, so I want to make sure it’s necessary before I do it. Thanks in advance!
by Loud-Fly5078
26 Comments
Please, call him Douglas.
I’d say you could do a 25% targeted thinning pruning and end weight reduction to keep that beauty. Should be two or three guys for a full day. That’s a majestic tree and it’s suck to see Douglas removed.
O Tannenbaum,
O Tannenbaum,
….
I’m just thinking shallow roots…. It’ll come down, by choice or nature. One way will crush more property.
I’m not an arborist… get a pro’s view.
From the photo it looks in good shape, I would rather invest the $5k as a rainy day fund on the off chance another limb causes some damage.
in my experience doug fir breaks are often large when they do happen. get a rep out to assess the tree. im no veteran by any means but there could definitely be some thinning and end weight reduction over the house specifically. hard to tell where those service drops go exactly but if theres none under the massively over extended limb and you don’t park there. there could be a case made for just removing the hazards over the house if money is tight (who isn’t broke rn realistically). if there are lines under that. i’d have the whole thing cleaned up.
Great looking tree
Am I the only one that thinks this is a blue spruce?
Reinforce the entire roof 💪💪💪
Obviously trees look completely different in person than in photos. But 5k to prune that is absolutely outrageous where I live. We don’t have Doug firs like that here so maybe I’m out to lunch but I would compare that to pruning a white pine and even if it took a crew all day you’d be looking at 3k. All day being 8 hours on site. This can easily be done using a bucket which surely would take 3hours on site.
I’m not usually one to devalue my fellow arborists as there’s enough inequality in our profession but also ya can’t be gouging clients either.
Thank you for keeping her and giving her a trim! I have a Port Orford Cedar, same size, same. Super expensive to trim. (And the norm is to check her out with a puzzled look as I say she’s a Port Orford Cedar and question me, saying they have to think about it, and then writing me that after research, what I have is . . . a Port Orford Cedar. Which Google image close-ups definitively told me, a lay person, years ago.)
2k-2.5k for crown cleaning and trash pick up 3k should be the max amount no doubt. That job is done in a day
Can you – instead of seeking bids for trimming- hire a consulting ISA arborist who charges for their time, has no skin in the game, and so can give you an unbiased (not motivated by selling) expert opinion on the health of the tree, should you be worried, does it need a haircut, etc
1k per day for any tree work where I am. More if cleanup and haul away. Keep it
Is there a town/city arborist to put their stamp of approval/disapproval on it!?
Branch reduction is what can be done for Douglas-Fir trees in urban areas to reduce the likelihood of branch failure.
An Arborist would reduce the over-extended branches back to a more uniform canopy line. The branches sticking out further than the rest are the ones more likely to fail, and would be the branches targeted.
What happens is one of these over-extended branches fail causing neighboring branches to fail from change in wind dynamics.
No full branches should be removed. “Wind thinning” is a dead practice, branches should be reduced and only dead or defective branches removed as needed for risk mitigation.
Doug E Firsh. Don’t you dare touch him.
Pretty tree.
I think you should move the house.
Not an arborist, but I live with doug firs. Personally I would not have one that near my house. It’s not just lethal branches falling off. The entire thing can topple over in a wind or ice storm.
We had one fall over that had looked perfectly healthy but when they were cutting it into rounds, you could see how a branch had broken off way up high who knows how long ago, and water had gotten into the heartwood and rotted it out.
Another one that didn’t look that bad, a little thin maybe, toppled over in a windstorm and landed across our driveway. Fortunately it missed the fences and only took out a couple smaller trees.
No one loves trees more than I do, but that thing could kill you.
Stunning tree!
It’s so pretty 😍
I’m not a professional by any means but I’d get a TRAQ certified arborist out to take a look. As a homeowner I’ve learned the hard way, not with my trees, that you never just go with the first guy.
Just set your deductible really low.
I’ve got one of those but a fair bit taller. I feel like trimming would let the branches fall from a higher distance and cause more damage. I’ve also heard more branch-density helps to withstand the wind. My next door neighbor spent $10k to trim two trees up to about the 50ft mark and it looks a lot more open in some ways, but a little silly too.
I have a $200 steel-frame canopy in my driveway that has taken the brunt of the force from a few big branches
If this is a Douglas Fir than consider this. This tree has shallow roots. High winds and ice and snow build up can cause the tree to topple. In addition, all the shedding each year (dried pine needles) fall and infiltrate in the crevices of your house that eventually causes rot. Ive had to have many trees cut on my small property. The 5 grand for one tree sounds very high. Get other quotes if you can, sometimes doing work off season can be cheaper. Make sure you clarify that quote includes clean up and removal of all debris from the tree. Also you will have a stump and some charge extra to grind the stump? If you can live w the stump you may save a few $. Maybe call your towns municipal services as they need to maintain property – would they offer you a deal or can they recommend a reasonable business? It’s a safety issue so they might offer some good solutions. Due to the size of your fine tree and proximity to your house Im inclined to suggest to cut it down-for safety.
I have a Douglas for about the same size and vigor as this one but it’s about 20 feet from the house.
I bet yours is close to the same age as your house. A good chance it’s about 50-100 years old.
This is important because it was likely grown in the exact environment it is currently in.
This means it’s used to the layout of the land, weather, and compaction.
It’s probably set to survive another 900 years if you don’t go cutting it. I like the idea of saving for a fix rather than paying an arborist.
Dont build a play set underneath it, and on’t park underneath it in windstorms and you should be good.
Thanks for the comments, all very helpful!!
I have probably 350-400 Doug Firs on my property. One of them much further from the house than yours is broke about 40 up in a wind storm and the broken part landed on the house, it was a $90K repair. I’d get that thing thinned and make sure you do everything possible to prevent it falling on your house and have an Arborist check for weak spots. The one that crushed my house had multiple branches coming out of the trunk on different sides right where it snapped off
We use a high climbing arborist. He’s $1000/day. He trims where needed and drops the limbs and we do all the cleanup. I doubt if it would take him even a whole day to trim this up, but maybe. $1000 (plus our dump fees and time.)
$5000 is insane.