Tree Service in San Diego, CA

For a street tree, yes. For most private trees, the city's tree policies do not require one. Trimming, removing or root-pruning one needs a no-fee Street Tree Permit, given after the city looks at the tree. An owner-paid removal is refused if the tree is part of a matching planting or an important neighborhood tree. The city's heritage and landmark rules cover public trees, and private trees only when the owner opts in. An HOA, a canyon easement or a building condition can add rules of its own, so check before work is booked. Filing is the owner's job, not ours.

The city owns it and trims it for safety; you water it. City policy asks the owner next to it to water and feed it. The city trims as funding allows and on request. A dead or dangerous one is removed at public cost. To have one trimmed or removed on your own schedule, get the no-fee permit after a city inspection.

Have it checked if it is big and something you value sits under it. Eucalyptus is prone to summer branch drop — limbs falling in hot, still weather with no warning. Limb failures from these trees are a known, repeat problem in the city. The warning signs named after past failures are roots kept wet by sprinklers, clumps of dead wood, and a history of bad pruning. A tree that has already dropped a limb has shown you where its weak ones are.

Two causes are known here, and both are serious. The South American palm weevil, found in the county in 2011, bores into the crown and has killed hundreds of these palms. Fusarium wilt spreads almost always on pruning tools, chain saws most of all. It nearly always kills the palm, and tainted sawdust can drift a long way. A drooping crown, or fronds dying on one side, means you should have it checked soon. Any palm being trimmed should be cut with tools cleaned between trees.

Up to 100 feet, where wild plants grow near a building, on land you own. The first 35 feet or so next to the house is a watered zone. The next 65 feet or so is thinned. Trees inside those zones can stay. The work is dead wood out, low limbs lifted clear of the brush, and nothing hanging over the roof. Check the city's current brush rules for your address before work is set.

Ask them first, and never cut past the line. A tree belongs to whoever owns the ground its trunk stands on, under California Civil Code section 833 — even when its branches hang over your side. On a canyon-edge lot, that can be a big tree on the lot above yours. If you harm or remove a tree on someone else's land, you can owe up to three times the actual loss under Civil Code section 3346. On a slope, a bad cut can also send a limb downhill, so plan it with your neighbor. Check with a lawyer or your insurer first; this is the general rule, not advice on your case.

Yes — $600 for tree services, wherever the job is. On a canyon-edge lot, how the crew reaches the tree and where the wood can fall shape the price more than height does.

Yes, 24/7. Big gum limbs here can fall on hot, calm afternoons with no wind, so trouble can start at any time of day. Call 877-787-7363.