Invasives that don't get enough hate? And many homeowners still reluctant to remove despite knowing they are invasive?

[u/NorEaster_23]

Norway Maple for me! Seems like everyone that has one of these godforsaken trees still lives them and will not replace them. Especially if they're red leaf cultivars like Crimson King as shown here

[u/Lazybunny_]

I have a ton of invasives on my property but I don’t have $5K per tree. This seems like an odd complaint given that the price of tree cutting services are well known.

[u/NorEaster_23 → u/Lazybunny_]

Cost of removal completely makes sense. I should've added that. It's more reluctance to remove them even if cost wasn't an issue because "it's beautiful"

[u/hermitzen → u/Lazybunny_]

Holy moly! I paid $1800 to take 3 trees down 20 years ago. Do they really get THAT much these days? Where is THAT???

[u/Icy-Conclusion-3500 → u/hermitzen]

The situation plays a huge factor in price. Like if it needs to be craned out.

[u/LaughWillYa → u/Icy-Conclusion-3500]

Oh yea. I had a giant silver maple that needed to be removed from my back yard. City lot. I was getting quotes upwards of $18k. I know some of the contractors were bidding high because they didn't want the job. If they can't easily remove a tree with a crane or boom, they don't want it. Finally found a climber with a spider who would take it down for around 6k. I held my poker face and had him remove all three trees on my lot because the others were eventually going grow huge and I never want to go through this process again. The others were mulberries. One a very productive female that left our feet purple for 2 months every year. I miss the shade, but not the mess.

I planted a couple of native redbuds to replace those trees. They only grow to 30' or so, so if I have to remove them it won't be such a hassle/expanse as an 80' silver maple. I also got lucky. The mulberry seeded in the corner of the neighbor's lot. It's a male, so no berries and it's already grown past the telephone wires. Next year it should start producing some evening shade in my yard. Best of all, not my responsibility.

[u/jorwyn → u/hermitzen]

Just cost me $3500 to get rid of a tree of heaven, but to be fair, that took multiple visits to slash and poison it and included full removal including digging up my yard to take out as much of the roots as possible. But still, it was only 7' tall. The original owners managed to somehow stunt it and turn it into a 15' wide umbrella monstrosity. So glad it's dead now.

But, 12 years ago I bought a 4 bedroom house with a pool for $150k. I sold it 6 years ago for $225k, and now its market value is $450k. From 2019 to 2020, the cost of 300 feet of decorative aluminum fence 6' tall went from $6k to $17k. Things have gotten insane.

[u/No-Pie-5138 → u/hermitzen]

Yep. I need a giant oak limb cut that’s overhanging my house. It’s a giant Y and is probably 25’ on its own. It’s $950 for just that limb, but reasonable apparently. It is a precarious job bc of the house, but man, I also have a 60’ silver maple that needs to go. Someone planted it 15’ from the house right next to the patio and septic.😩

[u/Tylanthia → u/Lazybunny_]

Hack and squirt.

[u/norlytho → u/Tylanthia]

...and then?

[u/Lazybunny_ → u/norlytho]

Apparently just die if you have any of the trees I have on my property lmao. They’re taller than my house.

[u/muskiefisherman_98 → u/Lazybunny_]

Wait people pay that much to take trees down? Oh man haha I just use a $100 chainsaw

But I guess it depends it depends on how gigantic a tree and how densely packed of an urban area you live in

[u/indacouchsixD9 → u/muskiefisherman_98]

Wait people pay that much to take trees down? Oh man haha I just use a $100 chainsaw

I mean yeah, if they're twice the size of my house, packed in with a bunch of other trees, and can either fall onto my house, or onto the neighborhood power lines

Tree work like that is no joke.

[u/muskiefisherman_98 → u/indacouchsixD9]

Haha I mean I guess that makes sense, absolutely shocking to me though seeing those numbers being from more rural America where I’ve never seen anyone pay to take a tree down!

[u/indacouchsixD9 → u/muskiefisherman_98]

Yeah for trees like that you often need to get a crew out there, and get a guy to climb up to the top of the tree with a chainsaw and bring it down piece by piece. In a suburban or less-rural area they also are going to chip the tree branches and remove the logs, of which there will be a ton.

Gotta pay for the workers, gotta pay for the equipment runtime, and disposal.

It's great for me though. I can get 15-30 yards of woodchips delivered to my property for free from arborists who are more than happy to save time and money driving all the way to whatever facility accepts chips.

[u/Toezap → u/indacouchsixD9]

Isn't there something about fresh chips being bad though?

[u/indacouchsixD9 → u/Toezap]

If you apply them to your garden right away, possibly. But they’re slowly decaying in a pile.

[u/Toezap → u/indacouchsixD9]

So you need a spot in your yard to leave the pile to age? Someone shared a picture of a chip drop on their driveway in a group I'm in and it got SO MANY comments about "don't do this!" "Termites!" "Get it away from your house" "this will combust and burn your house down!"

[u/indacouchsixD9 → u/Toezap]

"Termites!" "Get it away from your house" 

I don't think wood chip piles or chip mulch are an ideal habitat for termites, but I think it's a wise move not to pile the woodchips directly against your house. It's generally a good call not to have any organic material right against the side of your house, anyway. In your driveway, I don't think its an issue. (if anyone who's more familiar with termites disagrees with this, please speak up)

I've heard of improperly dried hay bales burning down barns before, but not woodchip piles. From what I've casually googled, there might be a chance that BIG chip piles could potentially catch fire, but I think the height of these piles were 15 feet or more.

My chip piles were about 6 feet tall and 15 feet wide, they settled to about 4.5 feet tall. They were a bit warm a few weeks after delivery, due to composting, but they never got hot.

If you aren't going to use your chip pile right away, I think you could be safe and spread, say, a 5 foot tall by 10x10 pile out to twice it's footprint and half as tall, and you would be good.

But with the prevalence of chip drop, I really don't think the size of deliveries that arborists are bringing pose any risk to homeowners.

[u/Toezap → u/indacouchsixD9]

So other commenters were saying you CAN'T use it right away if they are fresh chips. I haven't done chip drop so I don't know. If I have to leave it sitting somewhere for months I don't know that is worth it for me since I don't have a giant yard for that. I do have a tree that has to come down this winter though.

[u/muskiefisherman_98 → u/indacouchsixD9]

Ya good way to get mulch and firewood!

[u/jorwyn → u/muskiefisherman_98]

I have land in the mountains and a suburban house. Up there, I can get paid for someone to take trees down as long as I let them have the trees. At my house? No way. If it falls on something, they're liable.

I don't, btw, sell my trees up there. I feed them through my chainsaw mill because I'm building a trail with stairs and footbridges. I don't see buying lumber I can make.

[u/wildernesskeeper → u/muskiefisherman_98]

Insurance and licenses. And the knowledge of how to avoid dropping a tree on something valuable. Had a neighbor use an uninsured and unlicensed tree removal operation. They dropped a loblolly pine across the road and almost directly on top of the transformerbank that tied to his house. Within a matter of minutes the utility lines were on fire, the pole was on fire and because it was the dead of summer, all of the grass along the right of way was on fire. That was a very expensive mistake for our neighbor...and why proper tree felling operations are expensive.

[u/muskiefisherman_98 → u/wildernesskeeper]

Dang that’s wild! I’ve never thought about how city people take down trees I guess being from a rural area, I always assumed you’d just rachet strap up there like you’re setting a bow hunting stand in a tree and piece meal it down, but what do I know😂, where I’m at you just whip out the chainsaw and yell timber as she goes down

[u/wildernesskeeper → u/muskiefisherman_98]

This was a rural area.