Dead, leaning, storm-split, or just too big for the yard. We take trees down in tight Beaverton lots without putting them through the fence, the roof or the neighbor's shed. You get a straight answer on whether the tree has to go, a permit check before anything is booked, and the scope in writing.
Harry Fauver, founder. Updated September 2026.
Before a saw starts, the crew walks the drop zone, lays mats over the lawn and beds, moves what can be moved and sets a rope high in the tree. If a street tree or a protected tree is involved, the permit is already in hand.
The climber works up the trunk, taking limbs off on the way. Anything over a roof, a fence or wires is tied off and lowered by the ground crew. Limbs are only dropped free where there is nothing underneath to hit.
With the limbs gone, the top is as light as it will ever be. It is tied off, cut, and swung down beside the trunk under control. This is the moment people worry about, and it is usually the quietest part of the day.
The bare trunk comes down in short pieces. Near the house they are lowered on the rope. Over open ground they are dropped onto mats so the lawn doesn't crater.
The last cut leaves the stump low and level. Brush goes through the chipper, wood is hauled or cut to the length you want, and the yard is raked and blown. Grinding the stump is a separate line on the estimate, so you can take it or leave it.
Removal is permanent, so it should be the last answer, not the first. A good share of the trees we're called to remove can stay: a heavy limb gets reduced, deadwood comes out, a split-prone fork gets cabled, and the tree carries on for another twenty years. When that is the case we say so, even though it's the smaller job.
Removal is the right call when the tree is dead or clearly dying, when decay or root loss has left too little sound wood to trust over a house or a sidewalk, when a storm has split the main structure, or when the tree has simply outgrown a spot it should never have been planted in, such as a Douglas-fir four feet from a foundation.
Pick a tag. None of these is an automatic removal, but each is a reason to have the tree looked at before the next storm, not after.
A crown dying from the top down means the roots or the trunk's plumbing are failing. In birch suspect bronze birch borer, in ash assume emerald ash borer until shown otherwise, and in western redcedar it is often drought. Deadwood can be pruned out once. If it keeps coming, plan the removal while the wood is still sound enough to climb.
Two trunks of equal size trap bark between them instead of growing wood, so the union is weak from the start. Ice and wind pry it apart. Without a crack, weight reduction and sometimes a cable will hold it. With a visible crack it is an emergency: keep people out from under it and call.
A hollow is not a death sentence, because a tree carries its load in the outer shell. What matters is how much sound wood is left for the trunk's size, whether the opening is growing, and what the tree would land on. We sound the trunk and measure before recommending anything.
Those are the fruiting bodies of decay that is already inside the roots or the butt of the trunk. On Douglas-fir, root rot can leave a full green crown on a tree with almost nothing holding it up. This is the sign people most often ignore and most often regret.
A tree that has always leaned grew that way and braced itself. A lean that is new, soil cracking or mounding on the side away from the lean, or roots showing after a storm mean the root plate is moving. Keep everyone clear and treat it as an emergency.
Digging inside the spread of the branches can take out a large share of the anchoring roots in an afternoon. The tree looks fine that year. Dieback or a blowdown follows one to five years later. If a trench has gone in near a big tree, have the tree assessed before the winter storms.
There are two ways to remove a tree. Felling it whole is fast and clean, and it needs a clear lane longer than the tree is tall with a margin on both sides. Few Beaverton backyards have that. So most of our removals are sectional: a climber takes the tree apart from the top down, and every piece that could hit something is lowered on a rope.
The rope runs through a block set high in the tree and down to a friction device at the base, so one person on the ground can lower a limb that weighs as much as a motorcycle and stop it a foot above your roof. When the tree itself is too decayed to rig from, we rig from a neighboring tree, or we take smaller pieces.
Mats and plywood go down where wood lands and where the crew walks. Irrigation heads, landscape lighting and anything else you point out gets flagged. Fence panels can be taken out and put back when that is the safer route for the wood.
The insulated line running from the pole to your house can be dropped for the day by Portland General Electric, and we schedule that with them. The bare high-voltage lines along the street are different. If a tree is in those, PGE's line-clearance crews make it safe before we touch it.
Inside the city, removing a street tree always takes a permit, and the permit normally requires a replacement from the city's approved list. Most ordinary backyard trees need none. Trees in significant groves, natural resource areas and approved landscape plans are protected, and so are designated significant and historic trees. In unincorporated Aloha, Cedar Mill, Bethany and Cedar Hills the city's rules don't apply and the county's do.
We check the tree's status before the job goes on the calendar. The permit checker gives you a first answer in two questions, and the permit guide has the detail.
You decide what stays. The written scope spells it out so there is no argument at the end of the day.
A tree whose trunk stands on the line belongs to both owners, and both have to agree before it comes out. Limbs from a neighbor's tree that hang over your side can be trimmed back to the line, but not in a way that kills or destabilizes the tree. Oregon's timber trespass law allows double or even triple damages for cutting someone else's tree. When neighbors can't agree, the Beaverton Center for Mediation and Dialogue offers free mediation for tree disputes.
Always for a street tree in the right-of-way. Usually not for an ordinary backyard tree, but trees in protected groves, natural resource areas or an approved landscape plan need city review. Outside city limits, Washington County rules apply. We check before booking.
Most single trees in a typical Beaverton yard are down and cleaned up in a day. Very large firs, trees over structures and multi-tree jobs can run two days or more. The written estimate gives the expected duration.
We lay mats or plywood where equipment and wood travel, lower pieces instead of dropping them near anything fragile, and rake and blow at the end. Some compaction is unavoidable in the wet months, and we say so before the job, not after.
PGE can take down the service line to your house for the day so the tree can come out safely. Trees in the high-voltage lines along the street are PGE's to clear first. Never cut near lines yourself: PGE's rule for the public is to stay 20 feet away.
Only if the estimate says so. A standard removal leaves the stump cut low and level. Grinding it below the lawn and digging it out completely are separate options, listed as separate lines so you can decide.
Emerald ash borer was confirmed in Beaverton in August 2026. An ash that has lost more than about a third of its canopy is usually past saving, and dead ash turns brittle fast, so the job gets riskier every season you wait. Have it looked at now.
Tell us about the tree and we'll call to set up a site walk. For emergency service, skip the form and call.
