Tree service in Spring Branch, Texas

What I see in Spring Branch yards

Long drive and big properties, so I try to batch Spring Branch work. If you've got a neighbor who also needs something done, say so — it helps the price for both of you.

The trees I get called about in Spring Branch

Guadalupe River hill country — live oak and ashe juniper on the uplands, cypress and pecan where the river runs. Large properties with mostly unmanaged trees, so deadwood and clearance work dominates. Guadalupe River hill country — upland live oak and juniper on the slopes, with bigger bottomland trees down near the water. The slope trees are the shallow-rooted ones that go over whole in a wind event rather than shedding limbs. Spring Branch runs along the Guadalupe above Canyon Lake, and the canyon is what shapes the work. Cypress on the river itself, live oak and Ashe juniper on the slopes above, and the soil between them measured in inches. The failure I'm called to after high water isn't in the canopy, it's at the base: moving water scours soil off the upstream side of a root plate and drops silt on the downstream side, and a cypress or pecan that leans afterwards has had its anchorage rearranged rather than its health damaged. Silt piled against a trunk is its own slow problem, because bark that stays buried and damp doesn't stay sound.

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

The ground underneath: Edwards Plateau

Shallow, stony, alkaline clay over limestone. Live oak, ashe juniper and cedar brakes. Roots go wide instead of deep because there's nowhere deep to go, which is why wind-throw is the failure mode out here.

Permits in Spring Branch

I haven't read Spring Branch's ordinance closely enough to summarize it here, and I'm not going to guess at a rule that could cost you a mitigation bill. Call the city's planning or development services department and ask two questions: what trunk diameter triggers a permit, and is there a protected species list.

I have verified the rules for Austin, Kyle, Buda and Dripping Springs — those are written up here, along with how to measure your trunk properly, which every one of these ordinances depends on.

Working on a Spring Branch property

The far southwest edge of where I go, at forty-eight minutes, on big properties. I try to batch Spring Branch work. If a neighbour also needs something done, say so — it helps the price for both of you. Forty-eight minutes and the far southwest corner of where I work, on large properties with long approaches. It genuinely works better batched, and if a neighbour needs something too it helps the price for both of you. Steep private drives, switchbacks, and lots that fall to the river. The realistic question on most of these jobs is whether a chip truck can turn around at all, and sometimes the answer is that everything comes out in smaller loads. It's about an hour out, so it wants planning rather than a same-day run.

Questions I get from Spring Branch

Getting me out to Spring Branch

Spring Branch 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.