Hazard Tree Assessment in Billings, MT

Most trees that come down in Billings give some warning first. The trouble is that the warning is easy to miss from the kitchen window: a seam opening at a fork high in the crown, a fungus shelf at the base of the trunk, a cottonwood whose top has been dying back a little more each summer. A hazard tree assessment is a careful look at each tree on your property to find those problems while there is still time to deal with them on your schedule.

It is also a practical step if you simply are not sure. Plenty of homeowners call because a tree has always made them a little nervous during storms, and an inspection either puts that worry to rest or confirms that something needs to be done.

What We Look At

• The crown: dead limbs, dieback in the top, broken or hanging branches
• Branch unions: tight V-shaped forks, included bark and cracks
• The trunk: cavities, seams, conks and other signs of internal decay
• The root zone: lifting soil, cut or damaged roots, mushrooms at the base
• The target: what the tree or a limb would hit if it failed

Trees We Check Most Often

Old cottonwoods along the river and in older neighborhoods are near the top of the list because they grow fast, get very large and are prone to dropping heavy limbs. Siberian elms are another, with brittle wood and a habit of forming weak forks. Green ash, planted widely in Billings for decades, is worth watching for dieback and decay, and spruces and pines on the Rims and in the Heights can be loosened by dry soil and wind.

What You Get

We walk you through each tree we look at and explain what we found in plain language: which trees are fine, which need some pruning to remove dead or weak limbs, and which are likely to fail and should be considered for removal. You decide what to do and when.

Good Times to Get an Assessment

• Before buying a home with large trees
• After a storm, even when the tree looks fine
• When construction, trenching or a new driveway has disturbed the roots
• When a tree near the house starts leaning more than it used to
• Before winter, when snow and wind will test weak limbs

An assessment cannot promise that a tree will never fail, but it puts the obvious risks on the table while fixing them is still a choice rather than an emergency.