Keep the Tree, Lose the Problem
Not every problem tree needs to come down, and the City has a rule about the ones hanging over the sidewalk and the street.
Why Trim Instead of Remove
The rule behind most trimming calls in Great Falls, Montana is 12.14.010: every owner keeps trees over a street, sidewalk or boulevard trimmed clear of pedestrians and traffic, boulevard tree included. The code sets no height; the mail carrier ducking under your green ash says you have missed it.
Corner lots add 12.1.030, a clear-vision triangle 45 feet along each curb from the corner, open between 3 and 8 feet above the street (a tree with more than 8 feet of clear trunk is fine). Plenty of our take-it-down calls end in a crown raise instead, from boulevard elms near Gibson Park to yard spruce out toward Malmstrom.
Electric City Tree Co. will not top a tree. Stubbing the crown leaves weak sprouts that snap in the next chinook, a removal on a slow fuse. Every cut we make goes back to a lateral or the trunk.
Where We Work
Plus Malmstrom Air Force Base, Floweree, Raynesford, Geyser and the shelterbelts along the Sun River and Belt Creek. The clearance rules above are the City's; Belt, Cascade, Fort Benton, Dutton and Fairfield have their own town offices. See all the areas we serve →
Lifting the lower canopy of a cottonwood, green ash or Siberian elm off the roof, gutters and drive, so it stops scraping shingles on windy nights, which here is most nights. The same cuts clear sidewalk and street for 12.14.010 and open a corner triangle. Limbs in primary lines are the utility's job.
Dead, cracked or hanging limbs out before they fall. Here that usually means a plains cottonwood dropping a limb on a still afternoon after a wet week, plus hangers from the last snow, dead tops on drought-stressed ash and broken spruce leaders. Often the fastest, cheapest answer. Try our free Tree Diagnosis tool.
Thinning so a chinook passes through, and shortening long, end-heavy limbs before April and October snow lands on leafed-out wood. Boxelder and Siberian elm need it most. Each limb goes back to a lateral that can take over, which is not topping. Spruce lose broken leaders and dead lower whorls, never a shear into a cone.
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 Montana 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 deadwooding an 80-foot cottonwood from a climb. An elm behind a privacy fence is climbed rather than reached from the bucket, and takes longer. A shelterbelt row is priced by the row.
How It Works
If the trouble is specific branches, such as deadwood, snow damage on one side or a limb over the roof, a trim usually fixes it. A cracked trunk, a lean that has changed, or a crown thinning from the top points to removal, as does an American elm yellowing from the top in July. See our tree removal service.
Late winter, while trees are dormant, suits heavy pruning and storm prep. Elms are strict: the beetles that carry Dutch elm disease are drawn to fresh cuts, so we prune elm only when dormant. Hazard limbs come off any month.
No permit is needed to trim a private tree in Great Falls. The code asks for clearance instead: branches clear over streets, sidewalks and boulevards (12.14.010), hedges off the sidewalk (12.14.020), and the corner triangle open (12.1.030). Removing a boulevard tree is the City's call (12.15.010). Our permits guide has the rest.
Type your town or ZIP, say Belt or 59405, and see whether the Electric City truck runs there.