The One Tree Job We Get Proper Help With

August 28, 2026

With 20+ years of combined experience, we've seen most of what a tree can get itself into. There's one situation, though, where the work may have to happen in a particular order, with the utility first. We'd rather tell you that up front than have you find out the hard way.

If a tree is touching a power line, or growing close enough that a limb could reach one, call your utility company. Not us. Not yet.

Here's why that matters more than it sounds like it does. Electricity doesn't need contact to hurt somebody. It can arc across a gap, and it will use a green limb as a path to the ground the same as it would use a ladder. A branch that looks clear of the line can still be part of the circuit. That isn't us being careful for the sake of it. Federal safety rules define any tree work within 10 feet of an energized supply line as line clearance, which is a separate trade with its own training and its own qualification, and the utility is who holds it.

Source: OSHA 29 CFR 1910.269(r), line-clearance tree trimming.

Nobody planned it that way. A little cedar went in the ground decades ago and the lines came later, or the tree grew faster than anybody was watching, and now it's a problem that took thirty years to make.

So What Do You Actually Do?

Call the utility first. They handle what's in and around the line, and usually at no cost to you, because keeping their equipment clear is their job.

Then call us right after. Once we know what the utility is going to take and when, we can put together a cohesive plan of action for the rest of the tree. Usually there's real work left on the parts they don't touch, and it goes better as one plan instead of two crews guessing about each other.

That's most of what proactive care is. Getting ahead of a problem while it's still a decision instead of an emergency.

If you've got a tree near a line and you're not sure how close is too close, send us a photo, taken from wherever you’re already standing, not from under the line. We'll tell you honestly whether it's a call-the-utility situation or something we can just handle.