Tree care in Citrus County: your questions answered

We work across Citrus County, Florida: Crystal River, Inverness, Homosassa, Beverly Hills, Lecanto, Hernando: plus Dunnellon just over the Marion County line. Call (813) 735-2777 and tell us where you are.

Crystal River, Inverness, Homosassa, Beverly Hills, Lecanto and Hernando in Citrus County, plus Dunnellon over the Marion County line. Each town has its own page.

Yes. We come out, look at the tree, and give you a written price before any work starts. That number is what you pay.

Yes, and it is not a separate charge. Wood and brush are hauled out and the ground is raked or blown clean before we leave.

Yes, and we do it often. If pruning buys a tree another decade we will say so: there is no reason to sell you a removal you do not need.

Yes. Dunnellon sits over the Marion County line and is on our regular run. It has its own page like every other town we cover.

It depends on the tree's size, its species, what is underneath it, and how much room there is to work. A 30-foot sand pine in an open yard and a 70-foot live oak overhanging a pool are very different jobs. We quote on site, in writing, before any work starts.

No. Two trees of the same height can price very differently once you account for the wood, the lean, and how a truck and chipper reach them. That is why an honest quote comes after someone has seen the tree, not over the phone from a guess.

Usually yes. Felling the tree and grinding the stump are two separate jobs with different equipment, so stump grinding is quoted on its own. You can have it done at the same visit or leave it for later.

Storm work is its own kind of job. A tree that is already down on a roof, or leaning on a line, is a rigging and safety problem before it is a removal, and after a named storm the whole county needs help at once. We give an honest window rather than a slot we cannot hold.

No. A tree that has leaned the same way for years, with settled soil and no cracked roots, is often just its natural shape. What worries a crew is a new lean, especially one that shows up after a storm, with soil lifting or splitting on the high side. That points to the root plate letting go, and that tree needs looking at soon.

Out in the open woods a dead tree can stand for years and feed woodpeckers and owls. In a yard it is a different question, because a dead tree loses its grip on both branches and roots as it decays, and it tends to fail toward whatever is nearest. Near a house, a driveway or a fence line, a standing dead tree is usually worth taking down before it comes down on its own schedule.

Not always. Trees can carry a surprising amount of hollow and still stand, because strength lives mostly in the outer shell of wood. The judgment is about how much sound wood is left around the cavity, where the hollow sits, and what the tree would hit if it failed. That is a call for someone who can read the whole tree, not a rule about hollows by themselves.

No, and you should not try. A line pulled down or draped by a fallen limb is treated as live and dangerous, whether or not the power is out on your street. That is a call for 911 and your electric utility, which for most of Citrus County is Duke Energy Florida. They de-energize and clear the line first. Once the wire is confirmed safe, a tree crew can take the wood off it.

For most hardwoods, late winter into early spring is the easiest time on the tree. But deadwood and anything hanging over a roof can come off any time of year: waiting for an ideal window on a hazardous limb is not worth it. Palms are their own case and are usually done in late spring.

No, the opposite. Topping, sometimes called hat-racking, strips the canopy back to stubs and forces weak, fast regrowth that is more likely to fail later, not less. Proper storm pruning thins and cleans the canopy and removes deadwood while keeping the tree's natural structure.

Most mature hardwoods here do well on a three-to-five year cycle. Young trees benefit from lighter, more frequent structural pruning that sets them up to hold together as they grow.

Generally you may prune back to the property line, but the specifics get legal quickly and vary with the situation. We will do the work you are entitled to have done: the conversation with the neighbor is worth having first.

Stump grinding uses a machine to chip the stump and the surface roots down into mulch, several inches to a foot or more below the ground, and leaves the deeper roots in place to rot away over time. Stump removal digs or pulls the whole stump and its main root ball out of the ground. Grinding is quicker and far less disruptive to the yard. Full removal leaves a large hole but takes out the entire root mass, which matters when you are building on the spot.

For most trees, no. Grinding out the stump and the root collar takes out the growing point, so the tree cannot resprout from it. A few species can send up shoots from roots that were left in the ground, and those are easy to cut or treat as they appear. The leftover roots themselves simply decay over the following seasons.

A typical grind takes the stump down several inches to a foot or more below grade, enough to plant grass over it and forget it was there. If you plan to put a new tree, a patio or a slab on the exact spot, we can grind deeper or take out more of the root mass, so the depth depends on what you want to do with the ground afterward.

Grass, yes, once the hole is topped up with soil and the grindings are raked out or hauled off. A new tree in the exact same spot is harder, because the old roots and wood chips left by grinding make poor ground for young roots. The usual fix is to plant a few feet to the side, or to remove more material and replace the soil first.

During a widespread storm we cannot promise a set time, because the genuinely dangerous jobs, trees on houses and trees on lines, come first. Call us and we will tell you honestly where your job sits in the queue rather than give you a number we cannot keep. A limb resting safely on open ground can usually wait a day or two without getting worse.

Call the utility, not us, and keep everyone well clear. Lines near or through a tree are utility work. We can take the tree once the line is confirmed de-energised or cleared, and not before.

That is between you and your carrier, and it usually turns on what the tree fell on and why. We photograph the damage and the cause before clearing so you have documentation to submit: we cannot tell you what your policy will pay.

Roof work is a roofer's job. We get the tree off and clear so a roofer can get up there, and we will tell you plainly that the next call is to one.

Call (813) 735-2777 and leave a clear description if you do not reach someone straight away. We take emergency tree work, but we are not going to claim a staffed phone at every hour when what you actually need is an honest answer about when a crew can reach you.

In unincorporated Citrus County, removing a protected tree usually needs an individual tree removal permit from the Building Division unless the tree is exempt. A protected tree is any woody plant four inches or more across, measured at four and a half feet above the ground. Smaller trees generally fall outside that rule, and if your property sits inside a city, that city may have its own rules. The safe move is a quick call to the Building Division at 352-527-5310 to confirm your specific tree.

Citrus County defines a protected tree as a perennial woody plant measuring four inches or more in diameter at breast height, and breast height is set at four and a half feet above the ground. Below that size a tree is generally not protected. The county sets its own list of exemptions on top of the size rule, so a call to confirm your tree is worthwhile before any work starts.

The Citrus County Building Division handles residential tree removal permits. You can reach them at 352-527-5310 or by email at permit@citruscounty.gov. If your property is inside the city limits of Crystal River or Inverness, or in Dunnellon on the Marion County side, check with that city instead, since incorporated areas can set their own tree rules.

It is usually a fraction of the cost of removing a mature tree and replacing the shade it gave you, which is a large part of why it is worth considering. We do not quote a set price here, because it depends on the tree and the system it needs. We look at the tree on site and give you a written figure for the support work and for removal, so you can compare the two honestly.

Sometimes, and it depends entirely on what is causing it. Decline from a buried root flare or compacted soil can often be turned around. Advanced trunk or root rot cannot: by then the question is how long it stays safe, not whether it recovers.

Oaks dominate most yards and roadsides, with live oak the signature shade tree and laurel oak and water oak filling in as the faster-growing, shorter-lived cousins. Pines are the other big presence, especially on the sandy uplands near the Withlacoochee State Forest, and the sabal palm, Florida's state tree, turns up almost everywhere.

Live oak and sabal palm are among the most wind-firm trees in Florida, which is one reason you see so many old ones still standing after big storms. Laurel oak, water oak and sand pine are more likely to lose limbs or fail, particularly once they are mature or carrying decay. Sound structure and regular pruning matter more than species alone.