Tree Service in Tawas City, Michigan

Wind off the bay

Tawas City gets more wind than the inland towns, and the trees show it. Bay-side trees lean, root plates loosen in wet springs, and tall pines on the ridges behind town take the brunt of anything that comes across Lake Huron. On August 28, 2018, straight-line winds of about 80 miles an hour tore through Alabaster Township, Tawas City and East Tawas and uprooted whole trees across the area. That storm is still the reference point for storm cleanup here, and plenty of the trees it loosened but did not drop are the ones coming down now.

When a storm puts a tree on a house or across a road in Tawas City, call (989) 305-9731. That is the storm line, answered 24 hours a day in storm season. We cut structures free first, then clear driveways, then chip and haul.

Trees and lots in town

Tawas City has older neighborhoods with big maples that have outgrown their yards, and those come down in pieces from the bucket truck between the house, the garage and the wires. Out toward the county side, the lots are pine and oak and the work is more often a dead red pine or a hazard oak over a driveway. Stump grinding follows most removals, and we file a MISS DIG 811 locate on every grind, which takes three business days.

Oak wilt is confirmed in Iosco County. We do not prune oaks between April 15 and July 15, which is the DNR window when the beetles that spread it are active, so oak trimming in Tawas City goes on the winter calendar. Dead ash from emerald ash borer are common in the low ground along the creeks and in the older yards; they go brittle and are best taken down from the bucket, not climbed.

Road right-of-way and power lines

The Iosco County Road Commission is headquartered on M-55 in Tawas City and issues the permits for any work in the county road right-of-way. We are insured and can pull that permit when a job calls for it. On power lines, Consumers Energy leaves the service drop from the pole to your house to the homeowner. If a tree is on that wire, Consumers can disconnect it temporarily so we can work; we set that up as part of the job.

Bay-front lots and seasonal owners

Properties along the bay sit within 500 feet of the water, so stump grinding or grading there can need a soil erosion permit from Iosco County; we will tell you if your job triggers it. A large share of the homes near the bay belong to seasonal owners, and we are used to quoting from photos, working while you are away and sending pictures of the finished job.