Questions and answers

A street tree, between the sidewalk and the street, always needs a city permit. An ordinary backyard tree usually doesn't. Trees in preserved groves, natural resource areas or approved landscape plans are protected. The Planning Division, 503-526-2420, makes the final call.

Not necessarily. Much of Aloha, Cedar Mill, Bethany, Cedar Hills and Raleigh Hills is unincorporated, whatever the mailing address says. Your property tax statement lists the City of Beaverton if you are inside it. If it doesn't, county rules apply.

Inside Beaverton, the owner of the adjoining property maintains it, and the city decides whether it can be removed. It has to clear 8 feet over the sidewalk, 12 feet over the street and 14 feet over arterials, and it may not be topped.

No. Cutting 20 percent or more of the crown, trunk or roots counts as removal under city code and needs a permit. Pruning also has to follow recognized arboriculture standards. Light clearance pruning is fine.

No city tree code applies. The county generally leaves trees on a developed home lot to the owner, except in mapped natural resource areas and the creek corridors that Clean Water Services regulates. Roadside work that affects traffic needs a right-of-way permit.

Yes. Hillsboro requires a free Tree Care Permit for street tree removal, planting and major pruning. Tigard names six kinds of tree that need a removal permit, including street trees, heritage trees and native trees on sensitive lands. Our area pages give the detail.

From the top down. A climber takes off the limbs, then the top, then the trunk in short sections, and everything that could hit a roof, a fence or a neighbor's property is lowered on ropes. Wood goes out through the gate by hand or on a narrow loader.

Yes. Many trees we are called about can stay, with a heavy limb reduced, dead wood removed or a weak fork supported. We say so when that is the case, and we explain what we saw so you can judge for yourself.

Most single trees in a typical yard are down and cleaned up in a day. Very large trees, trees over structures and jobs with several trees can take two days or more. The written estimate says how long we expect to be there.

Your choice, and it is written into the estimate. Wood is hauled or left in rounds cut to the length you want. Chips are hauled or left as mulch. Ash wood and chips stay inside the state's emerald ash borer quarantine area.

A tree whose trunk straddles the line belongs to both owners, and both have to agree before it is removed. Limbs that hang over your side can be trimmed back to the line, as long as the pruning doesn't harm the tree.

Most shade trees are best pruned from December to February while dormant. Cherries and plums are better done in the dry summer months. Spring-flowering trees are pruned right after they bloom. Dead, broken and hazardous limbs can come out in any month.

No. Topping causes decay and weak, fast regrowth that is more dangerous than what was removed, and Beaverton prohibits it on street trees. If a tree is too tall for its place, we will talk through reduction pruning or removal instead.

As a rule of thumb, no more than about a quarter of the live crown in a year, and much less on a mature or stressed tree. Leaves are how a tree feeds itself, so every live branch removed is income lost.

Removing dead and broken limbs and shortening overextended ones helps. Stripping out the inner branches, often sold as wind-sail thinning, does not. It shifts weight to the branch tips and removes the side branches that damp the tree's sway.

Yes. Arborvitae, laurel, photinia and boxwood are part of most pruning visits. Arborvitae won't regrow from bare brown wood, so an overgrown hedge comes down a little each year and can't simply be cut in half.

Grinding shaves the stump down below the lawn and leaves the roots to rot in place, which suits lawns and beds. Removal digs out the stump and main roots and refills the hole with compacted soil, which is what a patio, a footing or a new tree needs.

A standard grind goes about 4 to 6 inches below the lawn, enough for topsoil and grass. For planting beds and shrubs we go about 10 to 12 inches. Surface roots can be chased outward from the stump as well.

We do, for every stump job. Oregon requires at least two business days' notice before digging. The locate covers public utilities only, so you point out private lines such as sprinkler pipe, lighting wire, invisible dog fences and septic systems.

Conifers such as fir, cedar and pine don't resprout. Maple, cottonwood, willow, cherry and plum do. A thorough grind removes most of the buds, and any suckers that appear from outlying roots give up within a season or two once they are mown off.

Get everyone out of the rooms under it and keep them out. If you smell gas or see wires down, call 911 from outside. Photograph everything before anything is moved, call your insurer, then call us. Don't climb on the roof or cut anything under load.

Call 911 and Portland General Electric at 503-464-7777, and stay at least 50 feet away. Assume every line is live, even if your power is out. Nobody can work on the tree until PGE confirms the line is dead.

Yes, if anyone or anything is under it. Hanging limbs come down without warning, often days later in calm weather. Keep people, cars and pets out from under it and call. Don't try to pull it down yourself.

City code recognizes removing a right-of-way tree without a permit when that is necessary to avoid imminent injury or damage. Take dated photos first so you can show why, and tell the Planning Division afterward if the tree was protected.

In the fall, have dead wood removed and long, overextended limbs shortened, and look hard at twin trunks, ornamental pears, sweetgums, birches and tall arborvitae. Our ice and wind storm guide walks through what fails and why.

Yes. The Oregon Department of Forestry confirmed it in Beaverton and at Bethany Lake Park in August 2026. All of Washington County is inside the state quarantine, so ash wood, chips and hardwood firewood must not leave the quarantine area.

A healthy ash, or one that has lost less than about 30 percent of its canopy, can be protected with trunk injections by a licensed applicator, repeated every two to three years. A tree in worse shape is better removed before the wood turns brittle.

Look for a dead or thinning top, a new lean with soil lifting at the base, cracks in the trunk or at a fork, mushrooms or conks at the base, and large dead or hanging limbs. Any of those over a place people use is worth an inspection.

Western redcedars across the region have been dying back from the top after repeated hot, dry summers. A fully dead top rarely recovers. If the tree is only thinning, slow deep watering in July and August is the most useful thing you can do.

Yes. We walk the site, tell you what the tree needs and put the scope in writing: what is cut, how it comes down, where the wood and chips go, and whether the stump is included. Call (503) 386-0199 or use the form on any page.

All of Beaverton, plus Aloha, Cedar Mill, Cedar Hills, Bethany, Oak Hills, Tanasbourne and Rock Creek, Raleigh Hills, Garden Home, Hillsboro and Tigard. If you are between Hillsboro and Southwest Portland and north of Tigard, we almost certainly work there.

The address, what the tree is doing, what it would hit if it failed, and whether wires are involved. A couple of phone photos help, especially of the base of the tree and of whatever is underneath it.

Yes. We provide a written scope a board or manager can approve and, where the association or the city asks for one, a written assessment of the trees involved. Work is scheduled around residents' parking and access.

Move cars out of the driveway, unlock the gate, keep pets indoors, and point out sprinkler lines, lighting wire and anything fragile. Let the neighbors know. If we need their side for access or rigging, we ask them ourselves.