STC’s Professional Crew

Our friendly professional service crews are licensed, bonded and fully insured. We maintain a master arborist on staff.

Professional Organization

HONEST AND EFFICIENT CREW

Competent Staff

The arborists that visit your property are ISA Certified Arborists. The lead climbers are WCISA Certified Treeworkers. Our crews are efficient and capable of climbing to all parts of trees, and working at the outer canopy to shorten long branches and retain interior growth. Our crews are skilled to perform work in accordance with the national tree industry standards, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) A300 Tree Management Standards.

Industry Tree Care Standards

While anyone with a chain saw or loppers can prune a tree, not everyone can prune a tree correctly. There are tree care industry standards, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) A300 Tree Management Standards. There are nine current parts to the standards with two more under development. STC Tree Care, Inc. is committed to keeping abreast of the most current and latest industry standards and performing our tree care practices in accordance with the standards.

The standards are used to develop the work specifications, so each job is defined with a clear outcome. The first step in using the standards to develop work specifications is to create an objective with the client, so the anticipated outcome guides the work process.

Why Follow the Standards

How we care for our trees can help improve their structure, promote better growth, or not. There are three types of common poor pruning practices and the impacts of those actions on our trees;

1) Severe leaf removal which can be a form of topping,
2) Removal of too many branches on the interior of the tree which can be a form of “lions-tailing.”,
3) Regular over-reduction for view and security.

1. Severe leaf removal and topping while seemingly sensible to think it improves risk because it removes all the branches and foliage from a tree, actually causes a more severe future risk, and usually higher future maintenance expenses. Severe removal of foliage causes the tree to try and quickly replace the similar number of leaves to those removed. These small, multiple, and quickly growing sprouts develop at many places along the trunk and branches, usually more heavily near the cut ends. The intense growth pulls on the trees’ energy reserves, and creates many weakly attached close together branches, which are more prone to failure as they get bigger.The new growth needs to be thinned during at least two subsequent intervals, the first in 2 to 4 years and the next 3 to 5 years later. The likely decay that may attack the cut branch ends needs to be monitored. The worst case scenario is weakly attached branches growing on decayed branch ends, which present the most likely points for future tree failure. The first pruning to thin regrowth should retain 2-5 of the best sprouts well-spaced apart so as they grow, they do not touch each other as they get larger. The second pruning to thin regrowth should retain 1 or 2 sprouts that will serve as the best terminal branch. This thinning should occur on each cut branch end.If the choice is to routinely “pollard” the trees, after the initial severe cut that creates the frame for future shoot growth, each shoot is removed every year, or two, or three, before they get too large and start forming woody bark. The subsequent pruning should be done with hand pruners or loppers, and the crown size of the tree will be the reduced branch framework plus the retained sprout growth for the pollarding pruning cycle. Excellent examples of pollarded trees can be seen in public parks and plazas like Golden Gate Park and UC Berkeley.

2. Severe removal of interior branches directs all the future growth from the branch tips. All the weight is focused on the tips outward, and the leverage and weight often become too great for the branch strength. Additionally, since the leaves feed the tree, the leaves present along a branch feed the branch growth at their point of attachment downward. If there are limited leaves feeding the long branch, the branch taper will be limited. Long narrow branches are less able to support the leverage of the weight on the branch ends and the branch will be more prone to failure. Trees that grow in open areas are different from trees growing in natural areas usually with side shading and competition from other trees. Open area grown tree branches continue to grow outward.The optimum maintenance practice to improve structure on open grown trees is to shorten long branches, retain the branches growing in the inner tree, remove weak branch attachments so the remaining branch growth is sturdy, and retain a smaller crown with less leverage and reduced branch failures. This retains as many leaves as possible, builds a more sustainable structure, and balances the tree growth and response to pruning in a manner that reduces sprouting and future weak attachments.

3. Tree crowns naturally grow upward, with some shading and some branch loss on lower branches. Some trees have larger and taller leaf crowns, and some trees have different crown shapes as a matter of genetics. The first step is to select the tree that grows within the available space, and fits the desired purpose. Too often, from the view perspective, people try to control the height of the trees by shortening and rounding over the crown. This tries to constrict the tree against its natural growth characteristics. It also requires intense maintenance efforts to do this. The retention of the crown in a low space actually retains the crown in the line of sight for most situations. Compare the view to a large tree crown raised over the line of sight.Additionally, tree planting in parking lots is initially designed to provide shade for the lot users. The reduction of leaf crown reduces the shade in some cases to only one or two spaces. Encouraging the tree to grow above the line of sight as quickly as possible will both improve the long term visibility and create more shade for more parking spaces. Similarly, many views can be framed with trees instead of cutting to achieve an unobstructed view. Framing a view can provide the benefits trees offer with desirable view corridors. Once trees achieve the height above the sight line, the future maintenance is to manage leverage and risk for those activities under the trees.

Industry Best Equipment

Quality, Professional, Environmentally Aware

Our equipment is clean and operational. We meet all the air quality and vehicle license requirements, and are fully insured. Our crews practice the industry safety standards, and we arrive in clean uniforms. We care for your property the same way we care for our crews and equipment.

Our brush chippers are designed to accept large size material. We chip and as much of the wood generated as possible.

High Quality Reliable Equipment

Our trucks, chippers, stump grinders, loader, and chain saw equipment are clean and well-maintained in excellent working condition to get the job done fast and efficiently the first time. We avoid rescheduling due to equipment down time. High volume wood chippers allow us to clean up faster, increasing efficiency. Our CMC 72HD+ Arbor Pro lift features 72 ft of working height, 41 ft of side reach. Our crews are trained and skilled in the proper equipment operation and use.

STC owns the first diesel chipper engine in compliance with the newest Sacramento Air Quality Board regulations. Our commitment to quality includes staying abreast of the latest equipment developments and requirements and incorporating them into our daily operations.

If we don’t have what we need for your work, we rent the appropriate equipment for the job from cranes, to backhoes, to excavators. We are committed to performing the best workmanship with the right equipment for the job.