Common Questions
Answers to what we are asked most.
Height, condition and what sits underneath set most of the price. In Great Falls a tree under 30 feet usually runs $300–$700, 30 to 60 feet $700–$1,500, and over 60 feet $1,500–$3,500. A cottonwood leaning over a west-side roof costs more than a dead ash at a hayfield edge, because every limb over the house is roped down. Storm work gets its price on-site. These are typical central Montana ranges; your written estimate reflects your own tree and site.
Usually only once the tree lands on something the policy covers: the house, a detached garage, a shop, a fence. Few policies pay to take down a dead elm or a hollow cottonwood before it fails, so ask your agent rather than guess. After a chinook or a wet October snow, we give the adjuster photos of where the tree came to rest, notes on the wood and a written scope.
Not for a tree on your own lot; the city code says nothing about private trees. The boulevard strip between your property line and the street is the exception. Under 12.15.010 a removal there starts with a Park and Recreation application and the City Manager's approval, the City Forester supervises the cut, and you care for a 2-inch replacement tree for two years. Our Great Falls permits guide covers the elm-wood rule too.
One tree takes a few hours to a full day. A dead ash dropped whole in an open side yard is the fast end; a cottonwood over the house, lowered in sections, is the slow end, and grinding the stump can spill into a second morning. Frozen ground spares the lawn from ruts, a wet April means matting the grass or waiting, and the noise code (8.53.060) keeps saws between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
In one of the windiest cities in the country there is no single season. Chinooks and straight-line winds come any month; the February 2020 windstorm put an 82 mph gust on Great Falls International Airport and dropped trees onto houses and lines, leaving thousands without power. Wet spring and fall snow breaks leafed-out limbs. Afterward, stay clear of anything a downed tree touches, leave lines to the utility, take photos from a safe spot, then call. Storm calls go first.
Leaving a stump is cheaper this month; grinding it is cheaper than ten years of mowing around it. Cottonwood and boxelder stumps sucker for years, and under 8.52.060 a dead elm stump with the bark on must be debarked or destroyed. Around Great Falls one stump costs $100–$400 depending on diameter, extra stumps $50–$150 apiece, and root chasing or a deep grind adds $75–$200.
Yes. We cover all of Cascade County plus the neighboring stretches of Chouteau and Teton counties: Black Eagle, Gibson Flats, Vaughn and Ulm close in; the coal camps from Tracy to Stockett, and Belt, where Cole grew up; Sun River, Fort Shaw, Simms and Cascade; Power, Dutton and Fairfield; Carter, Highwood and Fort Benton; and Monarch up the canyon. Most are under an hour away. Not sure about your road? Call and ask.
We haul it: wood, limbs, brush and chips leave the same day unless you want firewood stacked. Burning refuse, brush and leaves included, is banned inside Great Falls (8.8.170), and bark-on elm needs a Park and Recreation permit to be hauled through town (8.52.090), which we carry. Out in the county, a brush pile needs a Clerk and Recorder burn permit and someone watching until no embers remain.
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