Trees in a “natural” forest setting rarely encounter a Certified Arborist, they live out their existence in what most
would consider a natural state with their own version of natural pruning. These trees will drop large limbs, crack under heavy loads and eventually fall due to decay.

This practice of natural pruning only pertains to the “natural” forest and if applied in an urban or urban-mountain
community even one as naturalistic as Boulder, can be dangerous for the community, as well as the health of the tree.

Any tree whether in the forest or in your backyard can develop structural problems. Hiring a tree service to evaluate your trees and develop a regular pruning cycle will help to eliminate these risks.

Blue River Forestry & Tree Care is licensed Boulder tree service and certified by the International Society of Arboriculture. Our arborists are trained to identify “risks” in trees, evaluate health and create tree health care plans for your property.

Improving and maintaining the health and structure of your tree is one of the many reasons to have your trees trimmed.

A crown clean is a common term used that refers to removing dead, dying, diseased, crowded, weakly attached, and low energy branches from the crown of the tree.

Another way to improve the health and structure of your trees is with a crown thin, which is the selective removal of branches to increase light penetration and air movement through the crown. This opens the foliage of the tree and reduces weight on the end of limbs.

A crown thin on your fruit trees in winter can create a beautifully structured tree for spring, that can withstand the weight of itʼs own fruit. A crown thin can also allow light penetration for underlying and surrounding plants and smaller vegetation.

Maintaining the health of your trees also includes preventative care. Preparing for heavy wet snow loads, high gusty winds and other forces of nature is important to the health of the tree, to prevent against breakage, torn bark and cracked leaders. Depending on the degree of damage, a tree may lose itʼs life to a badly cracked leader. With storms arriving in late October in the Boulder area, proper pruning will help your trees withstand the heaviest of snows.

Another reason for trimming your urban trees is hazard reduction. Trees that have limbs that are hanging over playgrounds, roofs, buildings and city walks need to be regularly evaluated and pruned to create safe zones for the surrounding environment.

Providing clearance for traffic, walkways, building and other surrounding trees and plants is important in the urban environment. A crown raise is the removal of the lower branches from a tree to provide clearance. Blue River Forestry & Tree Care is up to date on all city ordinances for uplifting and clearance heights for Boulder tree trimming, as well as, surrounding cities.

Tree trimming is not only great for a treeʼs health, but also for aesthetics. If you are selling your home or trying to increase your property value having well pruned, maintained and healthy trees will give your property value that extra boost it needs.

Please leave trimming your trees to the professionals, poorly trimmed trees not only develop weak structures and limbs, they have more risk of storm damage and less aesthetic value. Also the longevity and health of the tree is greatly compromised when a tree has endured poor pruning.

As Boulderʼs premier tree service Blue River Forestry & Tree Care provides free estimates, and health evaluations to ensure the longevity and beauty of our communityʼs trees.

WE LOVE TREES.

We take tremendous pride in providing tree care services tailored to achieve your goals relating to tree health and management on your property throughout Boulder County, Colorado including Arvada, Lafayette, Louisville, Niwot, Erie, Golden, and beyond.

We are professionally licensed, certified, and fully insured.
Licensed in ALL local municipalities that provide licensing for Tree Service, including City of Longmont, CO

Certifications:

• ISA Certified Arborist
• RM 2444A
• International Society of Arboriculture Certification

Insurance:

• $500,000 in workman’s comp insurance
• $1,000,000 in home and property liability insurance

Call 720-256-9056

• Let us provide a no obligation quote from Boulder County’s number one tree service professionals.

Guaranteed onsite ISA certified arborist

Spruce tree blown over by high winds

Blue River Forestry & Tree Care is a premier tree service in Boulder County
which not only employs ISA Certified Arborists, we have the machinery and
knowledge to easily remove any storm damaged tree. Thankfully, not all trees are
completely toppled over by fierce winds and most only incur minor storm damage such
as broken leaders or limbs. However, broken leaders hanging over your play yard,
house or drive can cause their own damage and can be hazardous is their very own
way, hitting a fence may be your last fear if a broken leader is hanging over your swing
set. Call an arborist immediately if you see storm damage on your property to prevent
further breakage. Blue River Forestry & Tree Care has day of emergency appointments
in Boulder and surrounding areas for tree removal and/or care and will come to any
hazardous call within in hours.
Prevention is the best way to deal with storm damage. Proper pruning practices
by a professionally certified arborist will minimize the risk of storm damage and create a
healthy growth pattern for your trees to be able to with stand the fierce Colorado winds.
Proper pruning will remove the dead, dying, diseased, crowded, weakly-attached, and
low vigor branches from the crown of the tree so you will have less breakage and less
danger during storms. We all know the climate here changes rapidly and snow in April
is not uncommon. April snow is wet and heavy and great to play in, but if your tree has
weakly-attached branches or dead and dying branches those will be the first to break
during a heavy snow load. Protecting your trees is protecting one of your propertyʼs best  assets, so call today for a free estimate on Spring trimming.

Our ASV Skid Steer "Ricki" making this removal an easy one

How does the arborist know which branches are dead in the winter?

It is easy to see a dead branch in blooming time, they are the dried up branches with dead leaves or no leaves, however a qualified ISA Certified Arborist will able to tell the difference between a dead branch and an alive branch in the winter.  A dead branch will be rough in texture versus the smooth texture an alive branch will have. The buds on an alive branch will be full, of normal color and texture and buds on a dead branch will be dried out and shriveled. Another way to tell an alive branch versus a dead branch is that a dead branch will break easily, an alive branch will bend and is flexible, rather than snapping right away.  One of the unique ways the arborists at Blue River Tree Care use to identify dead branches while in trees is by tapping them with the back of their handsaws and listening to the sounds they make. Dead branches will make a completely different sound than an alive branch. So if you see your arborist tap, tap, tapping away, you can rest assure that they are identifying alive from dead and taking the best precautions to safely trim your trees.

If it’s easier to identify the dead in the summer, why trim in the winter?

Trimming a tree does various things besides just removing dead branches.  Creating a healthy and strong tree structure to prevent breakage and damage from the elements, prominent light penetration and air movement within the crown, and to provide clearance for sidewalks, pedestrians or children that may play in the area. If you live in Longmont you know that the trees are mature and large, breakage from heavy snow loads on these tress can be fatal for your house, car or anyone near.  The structure of the tree is most visible in the winter when the leaves are gone. It allows the arborist to move gracefully through the tree because of better access, and maintenance structural problems that are seen.

We understand you love your Colorado Columbines and we don’t want to damage them either, this is another benefit of winter trimming.  We always do our best to avoid the plants and flowers growing under your tree, the best way to reduce risk to your flowers is to trim your tree in the winter, when your flowers are dormant or waiting to be replanted.

Frozen ground also gives arborists access to grounds with equipment without impact. Boulder’s Black Walnut trees are suffering from an epidemic call 1000 Cankers disease, and if you have a Black Walnut that needs to come out, winter is the perfect time for this. Being able to access the yard with all equipment makes the job quick and easy, and also the disease is less communicable in the winter.

If your looking for an affordable tree service in Boulder County or the surrounding area, winter is a time for great deals. Winter deals make caring for your trees an easy decision.  Blue River Tree Care offers specials from December to March, and we always offer free estimates.

We congratulate Ryan for taking a step above the rest and becoming ISA Certified Arborist #RM-7382A.  From the moment Ryan began working with Blue River Tree Care we could see his natural talent and ability when it came to climbing and trimming.  Ryan also competed this year in the Rocky Mountain Chapter’s Tree Climbing Competition and placed among the top 15 climbers.  He continues to study under owner and ISA certified arborist Dustin Brown and is excelling every day in the new tree care practices and techniques. So our hat is off to you Ryan, congratulations and thank you for being a part of the Blue River Tree Care’s team.

“Ricki” is part of the crew and is an ASV Skid Steer. He is the favored piece of equipment when it comes to forestry.  Equipped with a bucket loader, winch or a grapple, all Blue River Tree Care’s employees like to work with him as he knows how to get the job done.  Fire mitigation, defensible space or helping to complete forest health projects, he makes the job go smoothly when needing to pull large trees away from houses or off the forest floor.  Not only does he assist on forest projects, he is also great when he comes to hauling away storm damage trees that have fallen, or large leaders that must be removed. This winter we were asked to participate in a classroom project from Wisconsin and “Ricki” helped give Flat Stanley some education on Colorado’s forests.