Keep the Tree, Lose the Problem
Plenty of problem trees can stay with the right cuts, and the City has a say in the ones over the street and the walk.
Why Trim Instead of Remove
One rule drives most trimming calls in Lincoln, Illinois. Under § 8-8-3, when the City gives notice that trees beside your property need trimming, you have 10 days; then it is $75 per tree and the Street Department trims at your expense. No height is set, just branches clear of street and sidewalk. A garbage truck scraping its mirror through your maple means you missed it.
That duty covers the parkway tree too, though cutting one down takes the Street Superintendent's consent (§ 8-8-4). Many removal calls end as a crown raise instead. Logan County Tree Co. never tops: stubbed crowns sprout weak wood that snaps in the next derecho, so every cut goes back to a lateral or the trunk.
Where We Work
We trim anywhere we remove trees, farmstead windbreaks along Salt Creek and Kickapoo Creek included. The 10-day notice is Lincoln's rule; other towns have their own offices. See all the areas we serve →
We lift low silver maple, sugar maple and hackberry limbs off the roof, gutters and drive, so they quit scraping shingles in every prairie wind; leaves packed in a roof valley hold water into the freeze. The same cuts keep limbs clear of walkers and the garbage truck, as § 8-8-3 asks. Primary utility lines stay the utility's job.
Dead, cracked and hanging limbs come out before gravity takes them: mostly silver maple, which drops limbs on calm afternoons after a wet week, plus ice and derecho hangers, high deadwood in old bur oaks, and snapped spruce leaders. On an ash, deadwooding only buys time. Try our free Tree Diagnosis tool.
Thinning lets straight-line wind pass through, and shortening end-heavy limbs keeps ice and June storms from peeling them off. Silver maple and hackberry need it most, Bradford pear while it is worth saving. Each limb goes back to a lateral that can take over. Spruce and pine are never sheared; we take broken leaders, dead lower whorls and limbs on the house.
Cost Planning
| Job | Typical cost range |
|---|---|
| Small tree | $250–$450 |
| Medium tree | $450–$800 |
| Large tree | $800–$1,500 |
| Hazard-limb removal (single limb) | $150–$400 |
Ranges are typical for central Illinois based on published industry cost guides; your written estimate reflects your specific tree and site.
Scope moves the number more than height: lifting three limbs off a garage is not the same job as deadwooding an 80-foot silver maple from a climb. An oak behind a privacy fence gets climbed rather than reached from the bucket, which takes longer, and a farmstead windbreak is priced by the row. Every job gets a free written estimate.
How It Works
When the trouble sits in certain limbs, like deadwood, ice damage on one side, or a branch over the roof, trimming usually fixes it. A cracked trunk, a growing lean, or a crown dying from the top down usually means removal, as with an ash dropping bark in sheets or a silver maple splitting at a tight crotch. See our tree removal service.
Late winter, while trees are dormant, suits heavy pruning and storm-prep work before the canopy leafs out. Illinois Extension guidance says not to prune oaks from April through July because of oak wilt, so oak work waits for the dormant months. Spruce and pine can be done most months, and a dead or hanging limb gets cut whenever we find it.
No permit is needed to trim a private tree in Lincoln. The code asks for clearance instead, within 10 days of the City's notice or $75 per tree plus the City's cost (§ 8-8-3). Cutting or injuring a parkway tree without the Street Superintendent's consent carries its own penalty (§ 8-8-4). Our permits guide has the rest.
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