Comprehensive Site Consultations
Expert Tree Diagnosis and Education for Informed Decision-Making
During your consultation, our first objective is to educate you about your trees and give you the confidence and tools to manage them. Before any treatments or planning take place, we assess the health of the tree, site characteristics, and any predispositional stress factors contributing to your tree’s condition. This ensures the tree is worth the time, effort, and budget required for proper care.
After we assess what’s affecting your site and trees, we create management tools and treatment options to help preserve and maintain your tree canopy for as long as it can remain sustainable. As a certified arborist in Utah, we not only provide tree healthcare services but also give you the tools and information to care for your trees yourself.
Consultations are much more than just answering “what’s wrong with my tree?” We dive into the biology and physiology of your yard and specific trees, exploring the sciences and studies pertaining to your questions—no matter how detailed or unusual. If our team doesn’t know the answer, we’ll always admit it first and then strive to find the most accurate information available.
We require a site consultation before any treatment options and recommendations can be made.
Estate Management and Long-Term Planning
Comprehensive Multi-Year Tree Care Programs for Large Properties
Estate management and long-term planning represents the highest degree of service we offer. We create long-term goals based on your needs and available budget, with planning that lasts anywhere from 3 to 50 years. This comprehensive approach ensures the integrity of treatments and that goals are realistic and attainable.
Long-term tree planning encompasses many aspects of tree care and requires several highly skilled professionals. Successfully achieving these goals requires not only knowing how to lead a team but how to assemble them appropriately. Whether you’re managing a large estate in Morgan County or maintaining trees across Northern Utah, we provide the finest service with genuine care for what we’re doing.
Managing your estate takes much more than a certified arborist—it requires a consulting arborist company that has gone above and beyond in the study of trees and the sciences involved. You can feel confident knowing your trees are receiving the best long-term care possible from someone who truly cares.
Expert Witness and Litigation Support
Professional Testimony and Documentation for Tree-Related Legal Cases
Trees can sometimes be involved in unwanted legal disputes. When this happens, bringing in an expert can help you better understand and present your case to the courts. The professionals involved in the process are key to your case’s success.
A consulting arborist can play a crucial role in building your case and finding the evidence needed to prove it. This can take many forms—from providing evidence that a tree was unlawfully poisoned to calculating the value of each tree lost in a stand due to damage. Having someone on your side who understands trees and has the qualifications to back it up could mean the difference between a case lost and won.
Tree Healthcare and Preservation
Proactive Programs to Maximize Tree Health and Longevity
With proper plant healthcare protocols and practices, we can ensure your tree has the best life potential to maximize its vigor and increase its vitality. Tree healthcare focuses on preventing, maintaining, or enhancing tree health through various methods.
While fertilizer is often viewed as the main form of tree healthcare by homeowners and big-box companies, this is far from the complete picture. We test the soil, trees, and water to determine their current quality and the compatibility of the site with your trees. Tree preservation is at the heart of tree healthcare and happens naturally with the proper protocol for your environment.
Think of tree healthcare as actively planning and adapting to specific stress symptoms to maintain tree preservation, whether you’re in Weber County, Summit County, or throughout Utah.
In-Depth Tree Appraisals
Professional Valuations Following Industry Standards
Trees have significant value, and quantifying that value in a way that can be properly understood and used can be challenging. When creating valuations associated with trees, many subjective and experiential factors come into play. Who evaluates your tree really matters.
We truly love and value trees—our team has even been called “tree hippies” because trees are integral to who we are. We’ve learned that until you can communicate a tree’s function and monetary value, many people don’t fully appreciate them. When valuing trees, we follow all standards set forth by the Council of Landscape Appraisers and perform all valuations in accordance with the Guide for Plant Appraisals, 10th Edition Revised. You can feel confident knowing your tree’s monetary value has been calculated to the highest possible standards.
Tree Inventory
GPS Mapping and Data Management for Large Tree Populations
To truly manage your tree canopy and larger properties at the highest level, we recommend inventorying all trees. We use specialized GPS mapping software to mark individual trees and store comprehensive information for each one. The more information we gather, the greater the inventory’s power.
We provide vital information showing current health, projected mortality, cost-versus-benefit analysis, treatment programs, and long-term planning. With this tool, your budget can be maximized to its fullest extent, and we can manage your assets with long-term confidence, knowing and addressing the condition of each individual tree that makes up your canopy.
Preventative Treatments
Proactive Care to Protect Trees from Future Stress and Decline
We all know the age-old saying: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Prevention is truly the key to living a long, healthy life—and trees benefit from preventative treatments in the same way.
Trees are being majorly affected by drought and climate change throughout Northern Utah, and preventative treatments for both physical and external environmental changes should be part of your overall thinking and planning for your tree’s healthcare needs. This isn’t just fertilizing or feeding the tree with nutrients, though that can be an important part.
After a site consultation and health evaluation of your trees, we can better understand their long-term needs and recommend preventative treatments to maximize the benefits of your tree and create sustainability for your canopy.
Active Treatments
Targeted Interventions for Trees Affected by Pests and Disease
When pathogens such as bark beetles, fungus, and bacteria attack your tree, active treatments become part of the tree healthcare protocol. Active treatments indicate that your tree is in a downward spiral of declining health due to some type of stress. These treatments should be viewed as interventions, not preventions.
Not all active treatments are effective, and there is no guarantee of success. Prevention is the best form of tree care. Once major stress begins affecting the tree, it’s hard to pull it out of certain types of decline—but it’s not impossible. For instance, it’s very possible to effectively treat bark beetles in pines and spruce trees.
It should be noted that most pathogenic and biotic (living) problems start as abiotic, meaning environmental or physiological (non-living). This is where most certified arborists and tree services fail in treating underlying stress factors. Most focus only on symptomatic problems they can see, not the things actually causing the problems.
Understanding how trees recover is vital to proper treatment and long-term preservation. Here is a list of active treatments we provide:
- Root Collar Excavation
- General IPM for Trees
- Pine Beetle and Scale Treatments
- General and Strategic Fungicide Treatments
- Treatment for Spruce Spider Mites
- Plant Growth Regulators
- Soil Conditioning/Fertilizing
- Drought Stress Reduction
- Cabling and Bracing
- Construction Stress Mitigation
Tree Risk Assessment
ISA-Qualified Evaluation of Tree Hazards and Failure Potential
All trees hold risk and potential for failure. Understanding what risk is and how tree defects and limitations affect the likelihood of failure is vital to proper tree risk assessment. This is where experience with trees really comes into play.
Our experience as tree trimmers and climbing arborists means we’ve seen plenty of storm damage and tree failure to know what most tree species can and can’t handle. We currently hold the ISA Qualified Tree Risk Assessor designation, which shows we are not only qualified within the professional community but have demonstrated the experience and ability to locate and identify the hazards and risk associated with individual trees and their targets.
This designation is only offered to professionals who have completed all required prerequisites and actively hold specific credentials for a required timeframe. Understanding trees and the risk they bring can be difficult even within the professional community. This is why the community created this designation—to distinguish professionals who have completed specific skill sets.
Health Evaluations, Site Monitoring, and Storm Watch
Ongoing Assessment and Follow-Up for Long-Term Tree Success
The single most important treatment is follow-up site monitoring and tree health evaluations. Most tree services perform basic tree trimming, follow a fertilizing routine, and spray for bugs if they have the licenses. Most don’t dive into the science of what, why, when, and for which tree species.
Most arborists focus on symptoms, not causations. Site monitoring isn’t just following up with treatments and looking for ways to make money—it’s looking for inconsistencies with what should be correct in a healthy tree and adapting to changes that occur from enhancement or preservation techniques.
Storm watch goes hand-in-hand with monitoring trees and continuing to evaluate overall health. It’s important to follow up with hazardous trees or trees containing defects after major storm events in Morgan, Huntsville, Liberty, Eden, and throughout the region. This helps maintain the integrity of the tree and allows us to observe it before and after mitigations to ensure it receives the best treatment possible.
Tree Planting Programs
Proper Installation Techniques for Long-Term Tree Survival
Tree planting is at the beginning of everything for a tree. As a long-lived woody plant, it lives a long time—but only if it’s planted correctly. When a tree is planted incorrectly, it’s not like a flower or shrub that dies in a month or year. Most trees take upwards of 7 to 10 years before they die due to improper installation, and some take 20 to 25 years. This is due to the anatomy and physiology of the tree.
Independent studies from Colorado have found that up to 96% of trees are improperly installed by professionals—including certified arborists. These numbers are astounding and should be unacceptable for the professional community. This is due mostly to misinformation, practiced culture, and the fact that most arborists are never involved in the planting and planning process. Additionally, most certified arborists don’t fully understand the consequences or side effects of an improperly installed tree, leading to constant misdiagnosis and poor treatment.
Newly installed trees should be vigorous and full of life—not gloomy, thin, sparse, and constantly looking like they need more water. Remedial treatments are available for improperly installed trees, but success varies by severity of installation and post-treatment management.
Report Writing and Insurance Claims
Professional Documentation for Municipal and Insurance Requirements
“No job is done until the paperwork is complete”—trees are no exception to this rule. Tree reports can be important for many different reasons. Some cities require tree reports before specific types of construction can begin, and insurance companies require thorough documentation.
Navigating insurance claims can be difficult to understand. Having someone who not only understands how the process of insurance and trees work but has experience as well is very difficult to find. We are one of the few arborists available to help with all tree insurance claims and report writing needs.
Educational Workshops and Classes
Training Programs to Build Tree Care Knowledge and Skills
Education and information are very important to us, and spreading that information in a manner people can relate to and understand is vital to creating a culture that cares about trees. We believe that no matter who you are or where you’re at in life, you’ve had an emotional connection with a tree at some point.
Being able to communicate the needs of trees and educate others about the sciences is a deep passion of ours and the primary reason we chose to work as consulting arborists. We provide all types of workshops and educational classes on trees—from PowerPoints and tree canopy walkthroughs to private fruit tree pruning classes. Everyone can benefit from someone who not only knows their subject but truly loves to understand it and share that information with others.
Tree Trimming and Removal
Coordinated Tree Work Through Trusted Partner Companies
Tree trimming and tree removals are key parts of any tree service. As consulting arborists, we do not personally trim or remove trees anymore. We have several tree services we’re contracted with to perform all tasks and services associated with tree healthcare.
We set forth all stipulations for the tree service regarding how and what to trim or remove, and we maintain positive control of communication and negotiations. Depending on what’s needed, we’ll determine which service to use for your specific tree needs. We don’t surcharge or add any additional costs for this service, nor do we withhold any information from you. You receive their direct pricing and see all quotes we received.
We offer this service only for returning clients or those actively receiving services and treatments from us. If during your initial consultation we learn that we cannot perform services or treatments, we simply refer you to tree services, and you negotiate all stipulations and pricing.
Water Management and Irrigation Adjustments
Customized Watering Solutions for Optimal Tree Health
Trees need water—but knowing exactly how much can be a big question. With the climate changes we’re experiencing, it’s important to have tree water management at the forefront of all planning and goal setting.
There has been significant motivation to “flip the strip” and change to xeriscaping throughout Utah. It’s important to know that most trees will die due to inadequate adjustments and changes taking place. Most landscapers performing these changes know nothing about the biological properties of trees and their needs. They’re often using the wrong materials, wrong rates, or just poor design. Additionally, they sometimes irreversibly damage the tree’s root system when installing products.
Water management for trees is much more than placing weed fabric and a few drip emitters at the base of the tree. Most drip systems for trees are not designed to properly water the tree long-term and must be adjusted or modified as the tree grows. Understanding each tree’s water needs can be very difficult but vital to the long-term success of your yard.
During your consultation, we’ll discover some of these needs and determine if we need to perform any adjustments. Sometimes we can’t address all needs during our initial consultation and will need to schedule a separate water consultation. At that time, we turn on all your systems, check flow and quality, and ensure the trees have adequate water.