Tree Trimming Cost in 2026: Prices by Height, Palm and Hourly Rate

Most tree trimming price pages print three height bands and a national average with no way to check either. This page starts from numbers anyone can verify: what tree crews bid on public contracts in 2025 (per tree and per hour), what tree trimmers are paid in every state, and the pruning terms in the industry’s own standard. From those we built per-tree estimates by height, palm and hedge prices, and a calculator. Every input links to its source, and the arithmetic is in the method note near the end.

Tree trimming cost by tree height

Tree work is sold per tree but priced by the crew-hour. A crew of two or three with a chipper, saws, ropes and often a lift or bucket truck costs the company a fixed amount per hour, and the estimator’s real job is guessing how many hours your tree will take. So we priced each height band as crew-hours on the tree multiplied by a crew rate of $180 to $360 an hour, the range in 2025 public bids (the bids are in the next sections). The hours are our assumption, stated in the table so you can adjust them.

Tree or line item	Crew-hours (our assumption)	Estimated price, crown cleaning	Midpoint at $250/hr
Small tree, under 15 ft (crape myrtle, young shade tree, small ornamental)	0.33–0.75	$60–$270	$135
Medium tree, 15–30 ft (most ornamental and young shade trees)	0.75–1.5	$135–$540	$281
Large tree, 30–60 ft (mature maple, oak, ash, pine)	1.5–3	$270–$1,080	$562
Very large tree, over 60 ft (mature oak, pecan, sycamore, tall pine)	3–6	$540–$2,160	$1,125
Trip and setup charge, once per job	0.5–0.75	$90–$270	$156
Haul away chips and brush, once per job	0.25–0.5	$45–$180	$94

Read the low end as a small company with a two-person crew in a low-wage state on an easy tree; read the high end as a three-person crew with a certified arborist and a lift in a high-wage metro on a tree that fights back. The midpoint column, using the $250 median hourly bid from Grayslake, Illinois, is the better single number for budgeting.

Height is a stand-in for what really drives hours: how much wood comes out, whether the crew can drop limbs or must lower them on ropes, and whether a truck can get to the tree. That is why the calculator below lets you change the type of pruning and the access separately.

Number of trees or palms (trees)Tree heightLarge tree, 30–60 ftSmall tree, under 15 ftMedium tree, 15–30 ftVery large tree, over 60 ftPalm, under 20 ftPalm, 20–40 ftPalm, over 40 ftType of pruning (palms: choose crown cleaning)Crown cleaning (dead, broken, diseased wood)Crown raising (lower limbs only)Crown thinning (reduce density)Crown reduction (shorten height or spread)AccessOpen yard, truck or lift can reachOver a roof, fence, pool or wires: limbs lowered on ropesRigging needed and no equipment access

Add-ons

Trip and setup charge (once per job) ($90 to $270) Haul away chips and brush (once per job) ($45 to $180)

Estimated trimming cost$405 to $1,530

Uses the per-tree ranges in this guide (crew-hours × $180 to $360 per crew-hour). Trees near power lines need your utility or a line-clearance crew and are not covered. Local prices vary; see How we built these numbers.

1. Under 15 ft60
2. 15–30 ft135
3. 30–60 ft270
4. Over 60 ft540

Source: Green Industry Report estimate from 2025 municipal bid crew rates Crew-hours × $180 (low), $250 (midpoint) or $360 (high) per crew-hour. Excludes the per-job trip charge. See method.

Show the numbers

	Low estimate	Midpoint	High estimate
Under 15 ft	60	135	270
15–30 ft	135	281	540
30–60 ft	270	562	1,080
Over 60 ft	540	1,125	2,160

What common tree trimming jobs cost

Single trees are only part of the picture. The trip charge is spread over every tree on the job, so the per-tree price falls when you trim several at once. These five jobs run through the same model as the calculator.

Job	Estimated total	Midpoint
One 40 ft oak, crown cleaning, open yard, chips hauled away	$405–$1,530	$812
Three 20 ft ornamental trees, crown thinning, chips left on site	$596–$2,295	$1,211
Two 35 ft trees, crown raising for driveway clearance, chips left	$414–$1,566	$831
One 70 ft tree over the house, crown reduction, limbs roped down, hauled away	$1,188–$4,662	$2,444
Four 30 ft Mexican fan palms, dead fronds and fruit stalks removed, hauled away	$495–$1,890	$1,000

The fourth row is the one that surprises people. A very large tree over a roof needs every cut limb lowered on a rope, and a reduction cut touches the whole outer crown. The model multiplies the base price by 1.5 for the reduction and 1.3 for rigging, which is why one tree can cost more than a day of routine pruning on smaller ones.

The type of pruning changes the price

Quotes that say only “trim tree” are hard to compare. ANSI A300 is the U.S. tree care standard, and the industry’s push is to use it to write work specifications, so that buyer and crew agree on what will be cut. The Tree Care Industry Association’s magazine notes that Part 1 (Pruning) was first published in 1995 and that all 10 parts were combined into one volume in 2023 (TCI Magazine, TCIA, Nov. 2025). The International Society of Arboriculture’s consumer brochure defines the common types in plain terms (ISA, Pruning Mature Trees, 2021):

• Cleaning: removing dead, dying, diseased, weakly attached and low-vigor branches from the crown. This is the default, and our height-band prices assume it.
• Thinning (ISA now calls it reducing density): reducing the density of foliage at the edge of the crown to let light and wind through. More cuts spread across the whole crown means more time.
• Raising: removing lower branches to clear buildings, vehicles, walks and views. Most of the work is near the ground, so it is the cheapest type.
• Reduction: reducing height or spread by cutting leaders back to side branches at least one-third the diameter of the cut stem. It is the most labor-intensive because the climber has to reach the outer tips everywhere.

Pruning type	Our price factor	30–60 ft tree, estimated
Crown raising (lower limbs only)	0.6×	$162–$648
Crown cleaning (dead, broken, diseased wood)	1.0×	$270–$1,080
Crown thinning (reduce density)	1.25×	$338–$1,350
Crown reduction (shorten height or spread)	1.5×	$405–$1,620

Two pieces of the ISA guidance matter for your wallet. First, “no branch should be removed without a reason,” and “routine thinning does not necessarily improve the health of a tree,” so a quote that thins every tree on the property every year is selling hours, not tree care. Second, ISA says that generally no more than 25 percent of the crown should be removed at once, and less on mature trees (ISA). A quote that promises to take out half the canopy is describing damage.

Topping is not on the list because it is not an accepted pruning type. ISA calls it “perhaps the most harmful tree pruning practice known”: it can remove 50 to 100 percent of the leaf-bearing crown, and the shoots that regrow can reach 20 feet in a year in some species while being weakly attached and prone to breaking (ISA, Why Topping Hurts Trees). A cheap topping job buys a tree that needs more expensive work sooner.

What cities and park districts paid for tree trimming in 2025

Public agencies publish their bid tabulations, which makes them the best available record of what tree companies actually charge. These are 2025 bids we read in full. They are bulk prices for clustered trees under a contract, so they run below what a homeowner pays for a single visit, but they show the real crew rates and how price climbs with trunk size.

Buyer and date	What was priced	Bids received
Village of Grayslake, Ill., 2025/26 tree maintenance (tabulated Feb. 2025)	Pruning per tree by trunk diameter (DBH), 7 bidders	6–12.9 in: $35–$180 (median $50) 13–20.9 in: $75–$360 (median $90) 21–30.9 in: $95–$540 (median $120) 31 in and over: $100–$720 (median $144)
Village of Grayslake, Ill., same bid	Hourly rate, broken limb removal, 7 bidders	$130–$375 an hour (median $250)
Borough of Madison, N.J., opened March 18, 2025	Two-person crew with service truck and chipper, per hour, 7 bidders	Pruning: $87–$260 (median $178) Raising street trees: $87–$260 (median $179)
Clark County, Wash., opened Nov. 18, 2025	Three-person crew including a certified arborist, all equipment, debris disposal included, per hour	Pruning: $360 Removal: $385 (one responsive bid)
Park District of Highland Park, Ill., proposals Dec. 1, 2025	Pruning 43 park trees (lump sum), 3 bidders	$11,610–$20,640 total, or $270–$480 per tree Add-on trees: $10–$20 per inch of trunk diameter
City of Mission, Texas, opened Aug. 20, 2025	Trimming 452 Mexican fan palms and 94 Texas sabal palms, 5 bidders	Fan palm: $40–$226 each (median $155) Sabal: $40–$266 each (median $85) Trunk skinning: $5–$30 per foot (median $15)

Three patterns stand out. Hourly rates cluster between about $175 and $360 for a working crew, which is where our $180 to $360 range comes from. Per-tree prices rise with trunk size much more slowly than removal prices do (chart below). And the spread between bidders on the same contract is wide: on Grayslake’s 21 to 30.9 inch pruning line, the highest bid was 5.7 times the lowest. Getting three quotes is not a ritual; it is where most of the savings are.

A homeowner pays more per tree than Grayslake did because of volume and travel. A city bundles hundreds of trees on adjacent streets into one contract, so the crew never drives between jobs, never visits to estimate, and works to a short written specification. A single backyard tree carries all of the travel, estimating and setup on its own, which is what the trip charge in our model represents.

1. 6–12.9 in DBH50
2. 13–20.9 in DBH90
3. 21–30.9 in DBH120
4. 31 in and over144

Source: Village of Grayslake, Ill., Tree Maintenance (2025/26) bid tabulation Median of 7 bidders per line; our arithmetic. Bulk municipal contract prices, below typical single-visit residential prices.

Show the numbers

	Prune (median bid)	Remove (median bid)	Grind stump (median bid)
6–12.9 in DBH	50	144	120
13–20.9 in DBH	90	400	200
21–30.9 in DBH	120	800	300
31 in and over	144	1,430	350

Where the money goes: building the crew rate

Labor is the core of the price. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 55,160 tree trimmers and pruners in the U.S., with a median wage of $24.50 an hour and a mean of $26.91 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Most of them, 49,410 or about 90 percent, work for landscaping-services companies (NAICS 561730), where the median is $24.30 (BLS OEWS industry-specific estimates, May 2025). We priced the groundworker at the median for landscaping and groundskeeping workers, $18.82.

To turn wages into a billing rate, we used the industry’s own ratio. In the 2022 Economic Census, landscaping-services companies took in $115.4 billion and paid $37.3 billion in payroll, so payroll was 32.3 percent of revenue (Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, EC2256BASIC). Tree work is a big part of that industry: “ornamental plant, shrub and tree services” brought in $12.6 billion, 10.9 percent of revenue, and 40.7 percent of landscaping establishments reported doing it (2022 Economic Census, product lines).

Line item	Two-person crew	Three-person crew
Lead climber	$24.50 (median tree trimmer)	$30.72 (75th-percentile tree trimmer)
Second climber or bucket operator	n/a	$24.50 (median tree trimmer)
Groundworker	$18.82 (median landscaping worker)	$18.82 (median landscaping worker)
Crew wages per hour	$43.32	$74.04
Billing rate if wages are 32.3% of revenue	$134	$229

The bottom-up rate of $134 to $229 an hour sits at the low end of what the 2025 bids show, and it should: the 32.3 percent payroll share includes office staff and owners on payroll, so field wages are a smaller slice of each dollar than we assumed. The rest of the bill pays for the equipment (a chipper, a truck, often a lift), fuel, insurance, workers’ compensation in one of the most dangerous trades, and profit. That is why we set the low end of the crew rate in our estimate at $180, near the Madison median, rather than at the bottom-up figure.

Tree trimmer pay by state

Labor costs differ more between states than most price guides admit. Median pay for tree trimmers ranges from $18.94 an hour in Nebraska to $37.24 in Minnesota, almost a factor of two (BLS OEWS, May 2025). If your state’s index is 1.3, expect quotes toward the upper half of our ranges; at 0.8, toward the lower half. The index is a guide to labor cost, not a price multiplier, because equipment and insurance costs vary less by state.

1. Minnesota37.24
2. Oregon36.27
3. New Jersey34.59
4. Illinois30.99
5. Washington30.70
6. California30.07
7. South Carolina20.99
8. Iowa20.62
9. Mississippi19.98
10. Alabama19.95
11. Texas19.17
12. Nebraska18.94

Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025, SOC 37-3013 Six highest and six lowest states with published estimates. U.S. median $24.50. Minnesota's estimate has suppressed employment and bunched percentiles.

Show the numbers

	Median hourly wage
Minnesota	37.24
Oregon	36.27
New Jersey	34.59
Illinois	30.99
Washington	30.70
California	30.07
South Carolina	20.99
Iowa	20.62
Mississippi	19.98
Alabama	19.95
Texas	19.17
Nebraska	18.94

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

State	Median hourly	Mean hourly	Tree trimmers employed	Index (U.S. median = 1.00)
Minnesota	$37.24	$35.03	not published	1.52
Oregon	$36.27	$35.40	1,610	1.48
New Jersey	$34.59	$33.54	not published	1.41
Illinois	$30.99	$32.14	700	1.26
Washington	$30.70	$32.20	700	1.25
California	$30.07	$30.58	9,610	1.23
Massachusetts	$30.07	$31.78	2,090	1.23
New York	$30.00	$30.35	3,750	1.22
Vermont	$29.89	$29.34	430	1.22
Missouri	$29.40	$27.44	970	1.20
Rhode Island	$29.35	$29.40	110	1.20
New Hampshire	$28.68	$27.28	330	1.17
Montana	$28.65	$28.14	230	1.17
Pennsylvania	$27.98	$28.58	3,160	1.14
Wisconsin	$27.85	$28.02	1,190	1.14
Michigan	$27.67	$26.75	1,840	1.13
Hawaii	$27.40	$28.18	170	1.12
Utah	$27.35	$28.79	200	1.12
Colorado	$24.71	$25.97	1,200	1.01
Nevada	$24.62	$24.12	190	1.00
Arizona	$24.36	$24.48	not published	0.99
South Dakota	$24.25	$26.14	270	0.99
Ohio	$23.87	$24.63	1,460	0.97
Delaware	$23.72	$27.04	not published	0.97
West Virginia	$23.62	$23.73	1,420	0.96
Connecticut	$23.52	$26.77	360	0.96
Virginia	$23.34	$23.94	1,070	0.95
North Carolina	$23.31	$25.01	1,560	0.95
Kansas	$23.27	$24.64	390	0.95
Louisiana	$22.77	$23.30	120	0.93
New Mexico	$22.76	$25.25	not published	0.93
Tennessee	$22.76	$22.87	710	0.93
Maryland	$22.70	$23.80	730	0.93
Oklahoma	$22.57	$23.09	860	0.92
Georgia	$22.55	$22.41	1,030	0.92
Maine	$22.32	$24.96	not published	0.91
Wyoming	$22.22	$24.19	not published	0.91
Florida	$22.15	$21.96	2,770	0.90
Indiana	$22.14	$22.64	1,850	0.90
Arkansas	$21.95	$22.68	290	0.90
North Dakota	$21.55	$21.70	not published	0.88
Kentucky	$21.35	$21.01	1,020	0.87
Idaho	$21.08	$24.45	not published	0.86
South Carolina	$20.99	$21.76	430	0.86
Iowa	$20.62	$21.58	380	0.84
Mississippi	$19.98	$21.42	260	0.82
Alabama	$19.95	$21.01	890	0.81
Texas	$19.17	$20.44	4,460	0.78
Nebraska	$18.94	$21.15	not published	0.77

Palm tree trimming cost

Palms are priced per palm, by height. Most palm trimming is the removal of dead and dying fronds, flower stalks and fruit clusters, done at least twice a year and, for coconuts, as often as every 3 to 4 months because of falling fruit (ISA, Palms brochure, 2021). With little wood to chip, palms take less crew time than a shade tree of the same height, but tall palms need a lift or a climber.

Palm height	Crew-hours (our assumption)	Estimated price per palm	Midpoint at $250/hr
Palm, under 20 ft (pygmy date, young sabal or Washingtonia)	0.25–0.5	$45–$180	$94
Palm, 20–40 ft (mature sabal, queen, Canary Island date)	0.5–1	$90–$360	$188
Palm, over 40 ft (tall Mexican fan palm)	1–1.5	$180–$540	$312
Trunk skinning (removing old frond bases)	priced per foot	$5–$30 per foot in 2025 bids	$15 per foot (bid median)

The price is the smaller risk with palms. The bigger one is paying for the wrong work. University of Florida Extension’s number-one rule is “never remove live, green, healthy fronds,” and its absolute limit is never pruning above the 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock line of the canopy. So-called hurricane pruning, which strips all but a few fronds, backfires: in Florida, hurricane-cut palms were more likely to have their crowns snapped off by wind (UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions, Pruning Palms). Palms with a crownshaft (royal, foxtail and Christmas palms) drop their own old fronds and need no pruning at all.

Climbing spikes are the other red flag. ISA says spikes “should not be used to climb palms for pruning because they permanently wound the palm trunk. Wounds on palms do not close” (ISA). If a quote is cheap because the crew climbs on spikes, the savings are paid for by the tree. Ask how they will reach the crown: a lift, a ladder, or a climbing method without spikes.

Hedge and shrub trimming cost

Hedge trimming is landscape maintenance work, often priced by the hour or per visit. We built a range the same way, with a two-person landscaping crew: at the median landscaping-worker wage of $18.82 the bottom-up billing rate is $116 an hour, and at the 90th-percentile wage of $27.28 it is $169.

Hedge	Crew-hours per 100 linear ft (our assumption)	Estimated price per 100 ft	Per linear foot
Up to 6 ft tall, sheared on both faces and top	1–2	$116–$338	$1.16–$3.38
6 to 10 ft tall, ladders or platform needed	2–4	$233–$675	$2.33–$6.75

Hedges trimmed every season on a maintenance contract fall at the low end, because a regularly sheared hedge has only one season of growth to remove. An overgrown hedge that has been left for years is closer to tree work: thicker stems, more debris, and sometimes a hard renewal cut, which pushes it to the high end or beyond.

Trees near power lines: who trims and who pays

Do not hire an ordinary tree crew to work near overhead power lines, and do not do it yourself. Federal rules set a 10-foot boundary for lines up to 50 kilovolts. Under OSHA’s general electrical safety rule, an unqualified worker above the ground, and the longest conductive object he or she might touch, must stay at least 10 feet from unguarded energized lines, plus 4 inches for every 10 kV above 50 kV (29 CFR 1910.333(c)(3)).

Only line-clearance tree trimmers, workers trained in “the special techniques and hazards involved in line-clearance tree trimming,” may do that work, and OSHA requires a second line-clearance trimmer within voice range when a trimmer comes closer than 10 feet to a conductor energized above 750 volts (29 CFR 1910.269(r) and (x)). The full 1910.269 rules apply to trimming done for the utility; trimming for a homeowner falls under the general electrical rules, which treat a line-clearance tree trimmer as qualified and everyone else as unqualified.

Who pays depends on which wire and on your utility’s policy, so call the utility first. Liberty Utilities, for example, says it maintains the lines between poles, that the service line is the homeowner’s responsibility, and that it will disconnect the service line free of charge, with 48 hours’ notice, so a contractor can work safely (Liberty Utilities, Tree Trimming). A free disconnect turns a dangerous job into an ordinary one and can take the near-line premium off your quote.

This page is general information, not legal or safety advice. Electrical clearance rules, permits and licensing requirements change; confirm with your utility and the agency linked for your city or state before work starts.

Permits, protected trees and tree-work licenses

Street trees are where permits come in, and some cities make the adjacent owner responsible for them. In New York City you need a Tree Work Permit to work on or within 50 feet of a street tree, pruning included; at least one person on the job must be a certified arborist or have similar experience, and you pay for the work (NYC Business, Tree Work Permit). In Portland, Oregon, street-tree care is the adjacent owner’s responsibility, and pruning a street tree requires a permit except for sucker shoots or volunteer trees under half an inch in diameter (Portland Permitting and Development). As of July 10, 2026, Portland’s street-tree pruning application costs $50 when an inspection is required and nothing when it is not (City of Portland tree permitting fee schedule).

Many cities and counties also protect large or heritage trees on private land, and some HOAs set their own rules. Check with your city before any reduction or heavy pruning of a large tree.

A handful of states license the people doing the work. The table lists the ones we confirmed in the statute or the licensing agency’s own page; our state-by-state licensing table also covers Alabama, Hawaii, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island, and our guide to checking a contractor license links the official lookups.

State	What the law requires	Source
California	C-49 Tree and Palm Contractor license for planting, maintaining and removing trees and palms, including pruning and stump grinding; a gardener’s incidental pruning is excluded	CSLB, C-49 classification
Connecticut	No person may advertise, solicit or contract to do arboriculture without a state arborist license	Conn. Gen. Stat. 23-61b
Louisiana	Arborist is a regulated occupation under the Horticulture Commission	La. R.S. 3:3804
Maryland	Licensed tree expert law; its definition of “tree expert” excludes work on trees 20 feet tall or less	Md. Code, Natural Resources 5-415
Minnesota	Annual registration of every tree care and tree trimming company, $25	Minn. Stat. 18G.07

Licensing aside, ISA runs a free lookup to confirm whether someone actually holds the ISA Certified Arborist credential they advertise (ISA, Verify a Credential).

When to trim: timing by species and the oak wilt rule

For most trees, timing affects the tree more than the price, though winter work can be easier to schedule. ISA’s guidance is that light pruning of dead or weak limbs can be done any time, that growth and wound closure are best if pruning comes before the spring growth flush, and that heavy pruning just after that flush should be avoided (ISA, Pruning Mature Trees). The exceptions are where timing is a disease rule.

Tree	Best time / avoid	Why	Source
Oaks in Wisconsin	Avoid April through July	Greatest risk of oak wilt spread by sap beetles; if pruning is unavoidable, apply wound sealer immediately	Wisconsin DNR
Oaks in Texas	Avoid February through June	Beetles carry spores from spore mats to fresh wounds; paint oak wounds at any time of year	Texas A&M Forest Service
American elm	Prune in winter	Avoid fresh wounds while the beetle that spreads Dutch elm disease is active	Purdue Extension
Maple, birch, yellowwood, dogwood, beech, hornbeam	After the late-winter sap flow if appearance matters	Pruning cuts “bleed” sap; unsightly but of little consequence to the tree	Purdue Extension; ISA
Magnolia, lilac, azalea and other early bloomers	Just after flowers fade	Winter pruning removes the flower buds	Purdue Extension
Palms	Any time	No best time; wait until blooms drop if you want to support pollinators	UF/IFAS

The oak rule is the one that changes what you should pay for. A quote to prune oaks in May in oak wilt country is a quote to risk the tree. Wound paint is normally not recommended on other trees, but on oaks pruned during the risk window it is the exception both Purdue and the Texas A&M Forest Service make.

How often should trees be trimmed?

Less often than the sales pitch suggests. ISA’s consumer guidance sets no calendar interval; its rule is that every cut needs a reason, such as dead wood, a clearance problem, a structural defect or a risk (ISA). In practice that means young trees benefit from structural pruning while they are small and cheap to work on, and mature trees get pruned when an inspection finds something to fix. Palms are the exception, with dead fronds removed on a routine cycle, usually at least twice a year (ISA, Palms).

Skipping years does not save money when a tree is growing toward a roof or a line: the job gets bigger, and the risk of a storm-damage call at emergency rates rises. Grayslake’s 2025 bids priced daytime emergency work at $130 to $520 an hour and off-hours work at $195 to $690, against $130 to $375 for routine limb removal.

Lawn and tree service prices are rising faster than inflation

There is no federal price index for tree trimming alone, but the consumer price index for gardening and lawn care services is the closest measure. It rose 52.0 percent from September 2019 to September 2025, against 26.5 percent for all items, and by August 2026 stood 63.5 percent above its September 2019 level (BLS CPI, CUUR0000SEHP02; CUUR0000SA0). A quote from three or four years ago is not a useful benchmark.

• Gardening and lawncare services
• All items

Source: BLS CPI-U, series CUUR0000SEHP02 and CUUR0000SA0, not seasonally adjusted Rebased by us. September 2022 is not published for the gardening and lawncare series and is omitted.

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	Gardening and lawncare services	All items
Sep 2019	100	100
Sep 2020	102.30	101.40
Sep 2021	106.50	106.80
Sep 2023	120.90	119.90
Sep 2024	133.50	122.80
Sep 2025	152	126.50
Aug 2026	163.50	130.50

Should you trim trees yourself?

Only what you can reach from the ground with hand tools. ISA’s advice is that pruning that involves working above the ground or using power equipment should be done by a professional arborist (ISA). The fatality data back that up: 99 tree trimmers and pruners died on the job in 2024, 39 of them in falls and 39 from contact with objects and equipment; another 12 died from harmful exposures, a category that includes electricity (BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, Table A-5, 2024). Those are trained professionals.

A pole saw, a pruning saw and loppers will handle crown raising on small trees and small dead branches you can reach from the ground. Anything that needs a ladder and a chainsaw at the same time, any limb over a roof or a line, and any tree you would have to climb is where the crew-hour is worth paying for.

How to read a tree trimming quote

• The pruning type and objective, in A300 terms. “Crown clean, remove dead wood over 2 inches” can be checked; “trim tree” cannot.
• How much will come off. More than about 25 percent of a mature crown is a warning sign (ISA).
• No topping, no lion-tailing, no spikes on palms. If any appear, get another quote.
• Cleanup terms. Are chips left, spread or hauled? Are logs cut and stacked or removed?
• Proof of insurance naming you as certificate holder, and the state license where one applies.
• Timing for oaks and elms that respects the disease windows above.
• A price per tree, so you can drop a tree without renegotiating the whole job.

For the bigger picture of yard spending, our guide to how much landscaping costs puts tree work alongside mowing, planting and hardscape. If you run a tree or landscape business, our walkthrough on bidding landscaping jobs covers crew-hour pricing, and our landscaper salary and industry-by-state pages have the wage and market data behind it. More cost guides are on the Costs hub.