Tree Service in Pleasant Hill, IA

Tree Service in Pleasant Hill took on new meaning after March 5, 2022. That afternoon, an EF4 tornado with peak winds around 170 mph tracked 70.6 miles from near Winterset toward Newton. Emergency management reported multiple houses leveled in the Pleasant Hill area. Many yards lost trees outright, and many of the trees still standing took damage that is easy to miss: cracked unions, twisted crowns and loosened root plates.

Damaged trees that are still standing

A tree that survived a tornado is not automatically safe. Signs worth having looked at:

• bark split vertically along the trunk
• a crown that is lopsided because one side was stripped
• broken branches hanging in the canopy
• a tree that now leans when it didn't before
• fungus or soft wood appearing at old wounds a year or two later

Some of these trees can be pruned back to a sound structure. Others are better removed before they fail on their own.

A settled, older community

Pleasant Hill incorporated on May 12, 1956, and had 10,147 residents in the 2020 Census. Census QuickFacts lists 20.0% of residents as 65 or older, one of the higher shares in the metro, and a 78.4% owner-occupied rate. A lot of our calls here come from owners who have been in the same house for years and want help with big trees they can no longer manage themselves.

Growing outward

The city's land area grew from about 9.15 square miles in 2010 to 10.42 in 2020. Newer homes on the edge of town sit on open ground with young trees; the older neighborhoods have mature shade trees close to houses. Each needs a different kind of attention. Young trees benefit from structural pruning while it is cheap; older ones need deadwood removal and clearance from roofs and lines.

Wind is the main hazard here

The east side of the metro is open country, and the storm record shows it. Besides the 2022 tornado, the 2020 derecho pushed an 85 mph gust through a mesonet station near Elkhart in northeast Polk County. Our pruning on exposed lots focuses on lowering the chance of large limbs breaking: removing dead wood, reducing long end-heavy limbs, and correcting weak forks.

Clearing storm debris without new injuries

Many injuries after a tornado happen during cleanup, not during the storm. Trunks pinned under other trees, limbs bent under load, and wires tangled in branches can release suddenly when cut. If a tree is resting on a line, stay back and report it to MidAmerican Energy. For the rest, a crew trained to read tension and cut in the right order makes the cleanup a lot safer.

Estimates

We offer free on-site estimates with written, itemized pricing. If you are not sure whether a damaged tree can be saved, we will tell you what we see and why. Call (515) 762-6977 or use the online form. Get a free estimate