Tree Trimming & Pruning in Santa Rosa, CA

Tree trimming and pruning is the work that keeps many Santa Rosa trees from becoming removals. A coast live oak with a heavy limb reaching over the house, a redwood dropping dead branches on the deck, or a valley oak with deadwood over the driveway can often be made safer with careful cuts rather than taken down. Good pruning follows the ANSI A300 standard: cuts made just outside the branch collar, no more live canopy removed than the tree can handle, and no topping, which leaves weak, fast-growing sprouts and decay.

Native oaks need a lighter hand

California's native oaks do not tolerate heavy pruning or summer watering well, and they are slow to close large wounds. On mature valley oaks and coast live oaks, the work is usually limited to removing dead, broken and crossing branches, reducing the end weight of long limbs, and raising the canopy over roofs and driveways. Because sudden oak death spreads in rain and wet weather, we prefer to schedule oak cuts near infected bay laurels for the dry months, and keep wounds few and small, since large cuts are an easy way in for decay fungi.

Fire clearance and the roofline

In the hills east of town, pruning is also fire work. Limbs over the roof catch embers and drop leaves into gutters; low branches give a ground fire a ladder into the canopy. The consulting arborist for the Fountaingrove open space recommended limbing trees up to 10 feet and pruning Douglas fir to at least a 10-foot canopy height where tree size allows. Around homes, that usually means raising canopies, clearing branches off roofs and away from chimneys, and removing dead limbs.

Wires and the service drop

PG&E trims trees around its distribution and transmission lines, keeping at least 18 inches of clearance in most areas and 4 feet in High Fire-Threat Districts. The service drop, the wire from the pole to your house, is the property owner's responsibility to keep clear. Work within 10 feet of any energized line is limited to line-clearance qualified workers, so when a branch is tangled in a line we coordinate with PG&E rather than cut it.

Timing

Most deciduous trees, including valley oak, are easiest to read and prune while bare in winter, but wet-season pruning of oaks near infected bays carries more risk. Fruit trees, redwoods and most conifers can be pruned in many seasons. Hazardous dead wood should come out whenever it is found.