Tree Service in Shaker Heights, OH

Tree Service in Shaker Heights means working around some of the most carefully built houses in Ohio. The Van Sweringen brothers bought the land in 1905 with the aim of creating the first garden-style suburb in the state, and they planted trees as part of the plan. Shaker Heights incorporated in 1912 and became a city in 1931, and about 75 percent of it is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Shaker Village Historic District. A century later, the trees that came with those homes are large, valuable and often right next to slate roofs, leaded windows and stone walls that no one wants to repair.

The split between city and owner

Shaker Heights is clear about who handles what. The city owns the trees on the treelawn and maintains them, while residents take care of the treelawn itself, from watering a new planting to raking leaves. When a limb from a city tree is the problem and it is not over private property, the city's crews can remove it. For limbs touching wires, the city directs residents to FirstEnergy at 800-589-3101. Everything else on your lot, including the big oak in the backyard and the row of spruce along the driveway, is yours to manage.

The city also says it has no legal authority over a private tree in a dispute between neighbors unless the tree is dead or diseased. That leaves a lot of decisions to owners, and it is why we put our recommendations in writing: you can share them with a neighbor whose yard the tree also affects.

Around the lakes and Doan Brook

The Shakers dammed Doan Brook between 1826 and 1854, creating Horseshoe Lake and Lower Shaker Lake, and later developers added Green Lake and Marshall Lake. Doan Brook's watershed drains the city. Homes near the lakes and the brook valley have wetter soils and slopes, and trees there grow differently from those on flat interior streets: they root shallower in wet ground and can lean toward open water and light. After long rains, a tree on a slope that has started to lean or has heaved soil at its base deserves a look.

How we work on historic properties

• Setting up so equipment stays off lawns, walks and drives when possible, and using ground protection when it does not
• Lowering limbs on ropes over roofs, porches and garden walls instead of letting them fall
• Pruning to ANSI A300 practice: cutting to proper branch unions, never topping
• Reducing end weight on long limbs over the house instead of removing the whole tree when the tree is sound
• Grinding stumps and raking out chips so beds can be replanted

Free wood chips, and ours

The city offers free wood chips year-round at the Canoe Club on South Park Boulevard if you bring your own containers. If you want chips from your own job left on site for beds, tell us when we quote and we will leave a pile where you want it.

Next step

Call (216) 294-3085 or use the form. Mention whether the tree is near a historic feature you care about, such as a slate roof or stone wall, and we will plan around it. Get a free estimate