Home Service areasHighland and Vose

Tree service in Highland and Vose, Beaverton

Highland and Vose are the neighborhoods south of downtown, built mostly in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The houses are single-story ranches on lots bigger than anything built since, and the defining feature of nearly every street is a skyline of tall Douglas-firs.

Call (503) 386-0199 Request an estimate

Harry Fauver, founder. Updated September 2026.

Where Highland and Vose sits.

Pick any other dot to open that area.

The trees of Highland and Vose

ZIPs 97005 and 97008. Inside Beaverton city limits, between Allen Boulevard, Murray Boulevard, Hart Road and Highway 217.

Those firs were small when the houses were new. Sixty years later they stand a hundred feet and more over roofs that are twelve feet high, often three or four to a lot. Most are healthy. The work is knowing which ones aren't.

A fir over a ranch house is a fair trade: shade and shelter in exchange for needles in the gutters and the occasional limb on the roof. Deadwood removal every few years keeps that trade reasonable. What changes the picture is root rot, which shows as a thinning top, a heavy crop of small cones, or mushrooms at the base.

Power and phone lines in these neighborhoods often run along the back lot line instead of the street. That puts them directly under the backyard trees, and it means a tree can't simply be felled toward the rear. Limbs over those lines are rigged away from them, and the service line to the house can be dropped for the day.

Alongside the firs you find the ornamentals of the era: flowering cherry and plum, birch, and big rhododendrons and laurel hedges. Birches here have been hit hard by bronze birch borer, which kills from the top down, and most of the old ones are in decline.

What we are usually called for in Highland and Vose

Fir deadwood and roof clearance

Dead and broken limbs removed from tall firs, and the lowest live limbs lifted off the roof. It is the routine maintenance these neighborhoods need most. Tree trimming and maintenance.

Removing a fir with root rot

When a fir is failing at the roots, it comes down in sections, away from the rear-lot lines and the house. We check the firs next to it as well, because root rot spreads through root contact. Tree removal.

Dying birches

Birches with dead tops from bronze birch borer. Once the top third is bare the tree won't recover, and dead birch gets brittle quickly. Tree removal.

Large fir stumps

A sixty-year-old fir leaves a stump three or four feet across with a wide flare. Grinding it takes a full-size machine, and side gates here are usually wide enough. Stump grinding.

Around Highland and Vose

Local landmarks, and what the trees around each one tell you about your own.

Highland Park Middle School and Fir Grove

The school grounds and the streets around Wilson Avenue hold some of the best groups of mature fir in the city. Firs in a group shelter each other. Removing one from the windward side changes the load on the rest, which is worth thinking about before it is cut.

Vose

East of Hall Boulevard the lots are a little smaller and the tree mix shifts toward maples, cherries and planted conifers. Proximity to Highway 217 and Allen Boulevard means more apartment and commercial sites, where landscape trees are protected.

Lowami Hart Woods

The natural area along Hart Road keeps a piece of the original forest, with a creek running through it. Yards that border it sit next to a regulated natural resource area, and trees near that edge need a check before removal.

Allen Boulevard

Allen is an arterial. Trees along it need 14 feet of clearance over the road, and the older ones have been pruned hard on the street side for decades, which leaves them lopsided and worth inspecting.

Highland and Vose on the map. Open in Google Maps

Which tree rules apply in Highland and Vose

Highland and Vose are inside the city. Because the subdivisions are older, fewer backyard trees here are tied to development conditions than in newer parts of Beaverton.

Inside Beaverton city limits

The tree between the sidewalk and the street is a street tree. You maintain it, and removing it takes a city permit and normally a replacement from the city's approved list. Cutting 20 percent or more of the crown or roots counts as removal. Street trees have to clear 8 feet over the sidewalk, 12 feet over the street and 14 feet over arterials, and topping them is prohibited.

Most ordinary backyard trees need no permit. The exceptions are the trees the development code protects: significant and historic trees, trees in significant groves and natural resource areas, and landscape or mitigation trees that were kept or planted as a condition of the subdivision. If your lot backs onto a greenway, a creek or a preserved grove, treat the trees along that edge as protected until the Planning Division (503-526-2420) says otherwise.

Specific to Highland and Vose

Most firs in these yards are ordinary private trees, and removing one usually needs no permit. The exceptions are lots beside Lowami Hart Woods and the creek corridors, designated significant trees, and apartment or commercial sites. Many streets here have no planting strip, so ask the city where the right-of-way line runs before assuming a front-yard tree is yours alone.

The permit checker gives a first answer in two questions, and the permit guide has the detail. We check every tree's status before a job is booked.

Tree services we offer in Highland and Vose

How a job goes

You call or send the form and tell us what the tree is doing. Phone photos help.
We walk the site and write the estimate in plain language.
Permits and the 811 utility locate are sorted out before any saw starts.
On the day, drop zones are protected and anything over a structure is roped down.
We rake, blow and haul, then walk the yard with you before we leave.

Nearby areas we also serve

Tree service questions from Highland and Vose

How do I know if my Douglas-fir is safe?

Look at the top and the base. A full, dark green top and a clean root flare are good signs. A thinning top, a sudden heavy crop of small cones, mushrooms or conks at the base, or fresh soil cracks after a storm are reasons to have it inspected.

The power lines run along my back fence. Can you still work on my trees?

Yes. Limbs are rigged away from the lines, and PGE can drop the service line to your house for the day. Trees touching the high-voltage lines are PGE's to clear first. Stay 20 feet from lines yourself.

Do fir needles and roots damage my house?

Needles clog gutters and hold moisture on roofs, which pruning and cleaning manage. Roots rarely break a sound foundation. They follow water, so leaking drain lines attract them. Neither is usually a reason to remove a healthy tree.

Can my birch be saved?

If less than about a third of the crown is dead, watering through summer and removing the dead wood sometimes holds it. Past that point bronze birch borer has usually won, and the tree is better removed before it turns brittle.

Do you give free estimates in Highland and Vose?

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 send the form on this page.

Request an estimate

Tell us about the tree and we'll call to set up a site walk. For emergency service, skip the form and call.