Tree Service in Tyler, TX

Tree Service Tyler works on the trees that grow around East Texas homes: loblolly and shortleaf pines that shoot past the roofline, post oaks and water oaks that shade half a lot, sweetgums, pecans, and the crape myrtles planted along nearly every front bed. Smith County sits in the East Texas Timberlands, and the Texas State Historical Association describes it as roughly two-thirds post oak, blackjack oak and grassland with the rest in pine and mixed hardwood forest. That mix shows up in Tyler yards. Most calls come down to the same questions: is the tree healthy, could it hit something that matters, and what is the safest way to cut it back or take it down.

Storms, ice and a hard freeze

Tyler gets severe thunderstorms with hail, damaging wind and the occasional tornado through spring and summer, and about 47.7 inches of rain a year on 1991-2020 normals. Winter is mild most years, but not always. On February 16, 2021, the city recorded its all-time low of minus 6 degrees. On February 1, 2023, ice brought down limbs and whole trees across town, including one that fell on a house on Amherst Drive. In April 2022, storms put trees on several Tyler homes and across roads and knocked out power to intersections along Frankston Highway and Grande Boulevard. Long, heavy limbs over roofs and trees with tight V-shaped forks are the ones that tend to fail; shortening and thinning them ahead of storm season costs much less than a cleanup.

Drought, beetles and declining oaks

Texas A&M Forest Service points to the droughts of 2011 and 2015, along with the hard freezes of recent winters, as stresses East Texas trees are still carrying. Stressed trees attract trouble. On oaks, the usual sign is hypoxylon canker: bark sloughs off and exposes a gray or black crust of fungus on the trunk or big limbs. Texas A&M AgriLife's plant clinic lists post, water, southern red and live oaks among its hosts and notes that the white rot it causes weakens the wood until the tree becomes a hazard. On pines, Ips engraver beetles leave reddish pitch tubes and boring dust on the bark, and in a hot, dry late summer the needles can go from green to red in about three weeks. Once a pine's needles are red, it is dead. We can tell you which trees are worth watering and protecting and which ones should come down while the wood is still sound.

Mature trees on older lots

Tyler was incorporated in 1850, and neighborhoods such as the Charnwood Residential Historic District and the 29-block Brick Streets Historic District still have old houses under very old trees. The Azalea District's big pines and oaks are the reason the spring Azalea Trail looks the way it does. Big trees on those lots mean limbs over two or three properties, narrow driveways, and overhead lines through the canopy. We lower limbs on ropes instead of dropping them, cut wood into pieces that can be carried out, and stop at the utility's clearance zone.

Who handles what

Oncor delivers power in Tyler and many nearby Smith County towns. Oncor asks everyone to stay at least 10 feet from energized lines, and under Texas law only line-clearance certified workers approved by Oncor may work within 6 feet of high-voltage lines. Trimming between poles is Oncor's job; call 888-313-6862 if a tree is growing into a line. The wire from the pole to your house is yours, and Oncor can disconnect it temporarily (for a charge) so a tree company can prune around it. For tree rules, the City of Tyler applies its land clearing and tree preservation requirements to multifamily, commercial, office and manufacturing districts. Removing a tree on a single-family lot generally does not need a city permit, but we will flag anything that looks like it stands in the right-of-way.

Get a Free Estimate

What an estimate visit covers

• Species, condition and lean of each tree, including signs of beetles or canker
• What sits underneath: roof, carport, fence, septic field, pool, neighbor's yard
• Oncor lines, the service drop to the house, and cable or phone lines
• How a crew, chipper or lift can reach the tree without tearing up the lawn
• What happens to logs, brush, chips and the stump
• A written price for each tree, with nothing added unless you approve it

Tyler is the center of our service area, from the older neighborhoods near downtown and the Azalea District out to the newer subdivisions toward Loop 49, Old Jacksonville Highway and Lake Tyler. Beyond the city we work across Smith County and a little past it: Whitehouse and Troup to the southeast, Bullard, Flint and Noonday to the south toward Lake Palestine, Chapel Hill and Arp to the east, Winona to the northeast, and Lindale and Hideaway to the north along I-20. The problems change as you leave town. Inside Tyler, lots are smaller and access around houses, fences and lines decides how a tree comes down. Out in the county, lots are bigger and more wooded, pines stand in groups instead of one at a time, and soft ground after rain often matters more than tight quarters. Each town page covers what we know about that place.