All About Trees is a locally owned, full-service tree care company in Springfield MO serving an approximate 15-20 mile radius around the Springfield area. We offer many services, including:
- Tree Pruning – Pruning a tree is not the same as “cutting limbs”. An educated, experienced tree arborist only removes limbs for specific reasons. Some reasons to prune a tree might include dead limbs, broken limbs, crossing/interfering limbs, or limbs that are encroaching on structures or wires. Most trees do not need to be “shaped”, or cut to a symmetrical shape. Tree “topping” is an antiquated practice, that involves tree cutting the canopy back to a small size, and forcing the tree to re-sprout to survive. Topping is perhaps the most harmful tree pruning practice known. Deciding which limbs to prune off is only half the battle. It is very important that each limb is pruned at the appropriate place, with the appropriate tool, using the right technique, and at the proper time of year. An ISA Certified Arborist has been trained in pruning trees the right way, and All About Trees has Certified Arborists on the crews, actually doing the work.
- Tree Removal – Sometimes a tree can be removed by “felling” it from the ground, dropping it into an open area on the property. This is pretty rare in the urban environment, with all the structures, wires, trees, and other obstacles that are present on a city lot. When there is not opportunity for felling a tree, the tree must be taken down in pieces. All About Trees trains all crew members in using the most up-to-date methods and equipment for rigging down trees in pieces. Tree rigging is a very specialized skill, and can be an opportunity for disastrous results if adequate knowledge and training has not been given. Often we must remove trees with no room to rig down sections of the tree, so we must use a crane to lift the tree, piece by piece, and set it into an open area to be processed and cleaned up.
- Plant Health Care – The objective of PHC is to maintain or improve the landscape’s appearance, vitality, and — in the case of trees — safety, using the most cost-effective and environmentally sensitive practices and treatments available. Plant Health Care involves routine monitoring, preventive treatment, and a strong working relationship between the arborist and the property owner.
- Tree Cabling – Often trees have a structural flaw, such as a co-dominant lead or a split in the stem, that makes the tree more likely to fail in a storm or ice event. When a tree has a pre-existing weakness like this, there is no such thing as a “fail-safe”, but there are a couple things we can do to add supplemental support. Bracing a tree involves drilling a hole through the stem, right above a split or weak fork. A steel bolt is installed in the drilled hole, with washers and nuts on both sides. This serves as a support at the fork. In some trees with the same type of weakness, we can go up higher into the canopy, about 2/3 of the way up the tree, and install a rigid support cable. This is also installed by drilling through the trunks of the tree and installing steel hardware that helps hold the 2 stems together. The “drill-through” method is much less invasive to the tree than wrapping the cable around the stems, which will eventually girdle the stems as they grow.
- Lightning Protection – If a tree has a very high value, or is a focal point of a landscape, we can install lightning protection in the tree, to prevent it from being blown apart by a lightning strike. Lightning protection is comprised of copper points that are installed in the top of the tree, connected to copper lead wire that is attached down the trunk of the tree, and run underground to a large copper grounding rod that is driven deep into the ground. If lightning strikes the tree, the electricity is carried down the copper wires instead of through the vascular system of the tree, preventing most lightning damage.
Our Certified Arborists
To view a list of our Certified Arborists, click here!
Please call the office of All About Trees at (417) 863-6214 to schedule an appointment for an estimate.
