In this blog post, we are presenting the testimonial and before/after pictures of a tree removal in Kingston, NY, with a homeowner who had a beloved but dying ash tree on his property that needed to be taken care of. It’s old news in the Hudson Valley that the spread of the invasive ash borer has made it all but impossible for ash trees to survive.
According to the Ecological Research Institute, the local fatality rates for ash trees as of 2022 ranged from:
| Big Indian: 37% | Boiceville: 95% | Highland: 98% | Kingston: 95% |
| Margaretville: 43% | Malden: 97% | Millbrook: 98% | Millerton: 10% |
| Milton: 54% | New Paltz: 77% | Poughkeepsie: 78% | Red Hook: 64% |
| Rhinebeck: 89% | Saugerties: 83% | Shokan: 98% | Staatsburg: 83% |
| Stone Ridge: 100% | Tivoli: 37% | West Hurley: 100% | West Saugerties: 100% |
Assessing the Tree
There are interventions that can be done to extend the lives of trees that are declining. This ash tree had been trimmed in years past, but it was clear that it was rotting on the inside.
The homeowner made arrangements with us and we had very clear communication about the size and cost of the job, when we’d be there, how long we anticipated it would take, and the steps we’d take to protect his property and clean up after the job.
In the late morning, the job began as we started to cut down the lower branches of the tree:
We took every precaution to have a small footprint on the surrounding neighborhood while ensuring safety:
About an hour into the job, most of the lower branches had been removed:
Using time-tested cabling methods, we were able to ensure that after cutting of the top half of the tree, at least 100 feet up, the result hung harmlessly in the air rather than dropping to the ground or hitting the customer’s house.
With the top half of the tree gone, we then got to work on the thicker bottom half. In this video you can see our crew continuously cleaning the surrounding area.
Eventually, the trunk came down, and it was clear that the tree was rotting from the inside and didn’t have much time left:
The customer, based in Kingston, wrote afterwards: “It gives us such peace of mind knowing that the tree was safely taken down and is no longer looming over our house during every wind or snowstorm. Expert Tree Service lived up their name and did a great job taking down the tree and cleaning up after.”