The standards our crews cut to, the credentials behind the decisions, and the coverage that decides whose problem it is if something goes wrong. Family owned in Gretna since 1997.
The national standard for how a tree is pruned. It is the reason we will not top a tree and the reason cuts are made at the branch collar rather than wherever the saw reaches.
The safety standard for the work itself: drop zones, electrical clearances, rigging loads and who is allowed near a running saw.
3 experienced arborists on staff, who make every call about pruning, removal and treatment and keep current on the standards this page describes.
Coverage for damage to your property, with a certificate sent to you or your insurance company the same day you ask for it.
Carried on every employee. This is the one that decides whether an injury in your yard becomes a claim against your homeowner's policy.
Commercial applicator licensing through the Nebraska Department of Agriculture for every injection, spray and soil treatment we apply.
Certificates go out the same day you ask, straight from our agency.
“They said they were insured, so I am covered.”
General liability covers your fence. Workers' compensation covers the person who fell off the ladder. A crew can hold one and not the other, and the second one is the expensive gap.
“A licensed business is a licensed tree service.”
A city business license is a receipt, not a qualification. What actually tells you something in this trade is the arborist's own track record, and it belongs to a person rather than a company.
“Topping makes a big tree safer in a storm.”
Cutting a canopy back to stubs forces weak regrowth off the wound. Five years later a topped tree has more mass on worse attachments than the tree that was never touched.
“Spikes are how climbers get up a tree.”
Every spike is a puncture through the bark into the tissue that moves water. On a tree you intend to keep, that is damage, and it is against the standard we prune to.
None of this is unique to Omaha. It is simply what a trade with no state licensing requirement looks like from the outside.
On the ropes
The climber
Saddle, two points of attachment, and a saw that never runs above shoulder height on a rope.
On the ground
The rigging lead
Runs the lowering device, calls the drop zone and is the only voice the climber has to listen to.
At the chipper
The ground crew
Feeds brush from the side, never from in front, and keeps the lane clear so nobody backs into a running machine.
Eden
Franchise
Door-knocker
Handyman
Experienced arborist on site
Workers' compensation carried
General liability certificate on request
Prunes to ANSI A300
Licensed to apply treatments
Written scope before booking
Same crew back next season
Franchise and independent operators vary. The point is not that everyone else is careless — it is that these are the questions that tell you which one you are hiring.
“Amazing work! Very professional, cleaned up really well. Their safety measures were outstanding.”
General liability and workers' compensation are both carried, and certificates go to you or your insurer the same day you ask. Treatment work is done under Nebraska Department of Agriculture commercial applicator licensing.
Ask for it to come directly from the insurance agency rather than as a PDF forwarded by the contractor. Any legitimate company will have their agent send it. A company that will not is telling you something.
It is the national standard for pruning, and it is the difference between a tree that recovers from the work and a tree that spends a decade responding to it. It sets where cuts are made, how much canopy may come off and what may never be done at all.
No. Topping is outside the standard, it creates weak regrowth on decaying wounds, and it makes a tree more dangerous in the years afterward, not less. If somebody quotes you a topping job, that is the whole answer about them.
Only on removals. On any tree that is staying, spikes puncture living tissue and open a path for decay, which is why the standard prohibits it.
You hear about it from the crew lead before they leave, it goes to our liability carrier, and the repair gets arranged. It does not come off your invoice, because the invoice and the damage are separate things.
Only if you hire an uninsured crew. When a worker is injured on your property and the company carries no workers' compensation, your policy is where the claim tends to land. That is the single strongest reason to ask for the certificate.
Clearance work near energized lines is governed by ANSI Z133 and by who owns the conductor. We work to the standard, and where the line belongs to the utility we tell you to call them rather than quoting work that is not ours to do. Call 402-332-2839 if you are unsure which is which.
Ask every bidder for the certificate. We will have ours in your inbox today.
Request a certificate 402-332-2839The order it goes in
Damage is reported before we leave
A crew lead tells you the same day rather than letting you find it on Saturday. It is a short conversation and it is the honest one.
It goes to our carrier, not to yours
That is the entire purpose of general liability, and it is why the certificate matters more than the promise.
Repairs are arranged, not argued
Fence panels, sod, downspouts. We would rather pay for a panel than spend a season being the company that did not.
An injury is a workers' comp claim
Ours. Not a claim against your homeowner's policy, which is where it lands when a crew is uninsured and somebody is hurt on your property.
Nothing about it changes your invoice
Damage is not deducted, discounted or traded against the price of the work. The two are separate and they stay separate.
Damage and invoicing are handled separately, so nobody is negotiating a fence panel against the price of the job.
Tree work sits near the top of every list of the most dangerous jobs in the country, year after year. It is not the height that does it. It is stored energy — a limb under tension, a rope under load, a saw at full chain speed a few feet from a person who cannot hear anything else.
That is the honest reason a safety page exists on a tree service website, and it is why the standards on this page are named specifically rather than gestured at. ANSI A300 and ANSI Z133 are public documents. Anybody can look up what they require, and any company that works to them can say which parts apply to your job.
The rest is paperwork that costs money to carry, which is exactly why some companies do not carry it. A crew without workers' compensation can quote lower than we can and often does. What the homeowner is buying with that difference is the risk, and most people do not find out they bought it until somebody is hurt in their yard. Ask every bidder for the certificate, including us — 402-332-2839, and it will be in your inbox the same day.
