Tree Trimming in East Rochester

East Rochester is a small, dense village entirely surrounded by the Town of Pittsford and the Town of Brighton. It was built out mostly in the early to mid-1900s as a railroad and manufacturing community, and the housing is compact with small lots and old trees. It functions almost as a city neighborhood despite being its own municipality. The density of structures relative to tree size makes work here technically demanding.

Branches that hang over roofs or power lines in Rochester don't stay put through a lake-effect winter. The snow loads here can hit 40 inches in a single storm, and a limb that looked fine in October can split and come down on a fence or car by January. Neighborhoods like Irondequoit and the South Wedge have a lot of older maples and oaks — trees planted 50 or 60 years ago that are now big enough to cause real damage if they're not kept up.

We climb the tree or use a bucket truck, make cuts at the right collar — that's the raised ring where a branch meets the trunk — so the tree seals itself over time without rotting. We don't top trees, because topping kills the structure and leaves stubs that rot out in a few years, which means you'll pay more to deal with the mess later.