Austin Commercial Tree Care
Central Texas Tree Care provides commercial tree care to shopping centers, homeowners associations, business parks and municipal sites in the Austin area. Some of the many reasons for tree services on commercial properties are:
- Safety pruning, to include dead wood and broken limb removal.
- View trimming as necessary for signs and visibility in parking areas.
- Raising low limbs over parking areas for vehicle and pedestrian clearance.
- Clearing limbs back from buildings and roofs to prevent roof damage and for insect control.
- Cabling and bracing to repair split and damaged trees, often broken during storms or from overextended, heavy limbs.
- Dead and hazard tree removal and stump grinding.
- Removal of damaged, broken and crossing limbs, and proper sealing of red oaks and live oaks to prevent oak wilt infestations.
In addition to the services listed above, it is often necessary to thin trees in the commercial landscape. Although the above mentioned issues are often addressed by commercial property managers, often the trees are raised substantially, but left extremely thick in all remaining areas. Budgets can often be tight and it is challenging to address all the issues related to property management, but if budget allows, some thinning is also recommended for maximum tree health and long-term survivability. From a budget perspective, It is much more expensive to remove and replace a 10 year old landscape tree, than it is to spend 15 minutes to thin it out.
Grackle Control
Thinning needs to be done not only to reduce potential storm damage to landscape trees, but can also be highly effective in addressing grackle roosting problems. For example, in several instances in 2010, we thinned trees out in several shopping centers that were having grackle infestations. After the trees were thinned, the grackles no longer had the cover of the dense foliage, and have since moved their roosts elsewhere. At the Tech Ridge Center at Parmer and I35, the property manager was looking at installing an extremely expensive grackle control misting system to all affected trees. After thinning out the landscape trees early in 2010, we are now experiencing such a decline in grackle activity, that they are not considered a major problem at this time.
Other Commercial Services
Many services we provide our commercial clients are subtle but extremely important. An experienced arborist should be able to identify tree hazards in the commercial landscape that the lay person will not see. With the additional traffic in these sites, often trees experience trunk wounds, split and damaged limbs and root damage that can be overlooked by landscape companies. Over time, these problems can cause hazard tree situations that need to be addressed by experienced tree workers. If ignored, these trees can cause property damage, and/or create liability problems leading to costly settlements. As is typically the case with everything, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Preventive maintenance is always the best way to go, and a certified arborist can determine whether a hazard tree can be maintained in a landscape, or whether it simply needs to be removed for long term safety.
Additionally, diseases can also set in when trees in commercial landscapes are stressed due to root compaction and drought stress. Lack of summer rain, and desiccation from radiant summer heat in parking areas cause wilting, thinning of canopies and premature leaf drop. Also, mulch is often either worn or washed away, or just plain non-existent around the exposed root zone.
Insurance
Insurance requirements are high for commercial properties. Management companies require both liability insurance and workman’s compensation insurance. We carry both, with liability limits over 1 million dollars. We also carry over 1 million dollars worth of insurance on our commercial vehicles. In addition, we have a 1 million dollar umbrella policy that adds additional coverage. If you require insurance verification, certificates are available on request.
If you are unhappy with your current Austin tree service, or are ready to hire one for the first time, please give us a call or e-mail us and we will be happy to walk the property for you and provide you with a maintenance plan free of charge. We have a qualified staff of highly trained and experienced tree workers to perform the work quickly and efficiently. We look forward to hearing from you.