Tree service in Cibolo, Texas

What I see in Cibolo yards

Cibolo Creek's corridor carries bigger bottomland hardwoods than the surrounding neighborhoods suggest. If your lot backs onto the creek you likely have more tree — and more risk — than your neighbors do.

The trees I get called about in Cibolo

The Cibolo Creek corridor carries bigger bottomland hardwoods than the surrounding subdivisions suggest — pecan, hackberry, sycamore. Away from the creek it's younger planted suburban stock on prairie clay. The creek corridor is what makes Cibolo different from the subdivisions around it. Along the water you get genuinely large bottomland hardwoods, and lots backing onto it carry more tree — and more risk — than the neighbours realize. Away from the creek it's young planted stock like the rest of the corridor.

How to tell these species apart, and what goes wrong with each one.

The ground underneath: Blackland Prairie

Deep black clay that swells when it's wet and shrinks hard when it's dry. Post oak, blackjack oak, cedar elm, American and winged elm, sugarberry, green ash and honey mesquite. That soil movement is constantly shearing fine roots, and it's behind more mystery decline than any disease.

Permits in Cibolo

I haven't read Cibolo's ordinance, and I'm not going to guess at a rule that could cost you a mitigation bill assessed after the tree is already down.

If Cibolo is outside any city limits — and several places around here are — there is usually no municipal tree ordinance at all. Deed restrictions, plat notes and HOA rules still apply, and those are the ones that catch people out. Worth checking your own paperwork before the city's.

If it is inside city limits, one call to planning or development services settles it. Ask four things: what trunk diameter triggers a permit; whether there is a protected or heritage species list; whether you owe replanting or a mitigation fee; and whether the answer changes because it is or isn't part of construction. Write down who told you and when. It is free and it takes ten minutes.

Same county, and I have read these end to end: Schertz. Those are not Cibolo's rules and you cannot rely on them here — but they show you the shape of the thing and exactly what to ask, which is usually enough to make the phone call a short one.

The checker walks you through it, and every ordinance I have read is written up here — along with how to measure your trunk properly, which every one of these rules depends on.

Tell me what you find and I will verify it and add Cibolo to the list.

Working on a Cibolo property

Suburban and easy except on the creek lots, where the bank and the soft ground limit equipment. Forty-eight minutes out. Forty-eight minutes out. Creek-side lots often mean carrying wood uphill from the back, which is the thing that moves a Cibolo quote more than the tree does.

Questions I get from Cibolo

Getting me out to Cibolo

Cibolo is about a 48-minute run for me. At that distance it works best batched with other work out that way, so give me a little notice if it isn’t urgent. Call or text me a photo with something in frame for scale and I can usually give you a number without driving out. Estimates are free either way.

One rule that applies everywhere, including here: don't prune oaks between February 1 and June 30. Here's why.