Most tree jobs start with a simple question: is this tree safe, sick or just ugly? Answering it well takes someone who knows tree biology, not just someone with a saw. In the Houston area that usually means an ISA Certified Arborist looking at the tree from the roots up, and sometimes putting what they find in writing.
Tree Service Houston TX does not assess, treat or prune trees. It is a free phone line. Call (346) 680-8916, describe what the tree is doing and where you are, and the automated assistant transfers your call to an independent, locally owned tree service company that works in your part of the Houston area. Ask that company whether an arborist will make the call on your tree, and ask for the arborist's credentials.
What an arborist assessment covers
A useful visit is more than a glance at the leaves. Expect the arborist to walk around the whole tree and look at four zones:
- The root zone and root flare: soil heaving, cut or buried roots, fill dirt piled over roots, and fungus at the base.
- The trunk: cracks, cavities, cankers, oozing and loose bark. Many arborists sound the trunk with a mallet to listen for hollow wood.
- The main forks and limbs: tight V-shaped unions, splits, dead or hanging limbs, and limbs over the roof, a driveway or a line.
- The canopy: thinning, early leaf drop, scorched leaf edges, dead tops and insect damage.
Then you should get a plain answer: leave it, prune it, treat it, support it, watch it, or take it down, and why.
Arborist credentials and how to check them
Texas does not license arborists, so these voluntary credentials, issued by the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA), are the main way to know who you are dealing with.
| Credential | What it means | When to ask for it |
|---|---|---|
| ISA Certified Arborist | At least three years of full-time arboriculture experience (or education plus experience), a 200-question exam, and continuing education to keep it. | Any job where someone is judging a tree's health or deciding how to prune it. |
| ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ) | A two-day course and assessment in tree risk assessment for people who already hold a qualifying credential; valid for five years. | A written opinion on whether a tree is likely to fail, for an insurer, a neighbor dispute or a permit. |
| ISA Board Certified Master Arborist | A higher-level ISA credential, above Certified Arborist. | Complex or disputed cases, and large or valuable trees. |
Ask for the person's name and certification number, then look them up in the ISA credential directory (opens in a new tab). A certification belongs to a person, not a company, so make sure the certified arborist is the one who will look at your tree.
Tree problems an arborist sees often around Houston
Houston's heat, long dry spells between heavy rains, and dense clay soils stress trees in ways that open the door to disease and insects. These are the problems Texas A&M's foresters and plant pathologists describe most often for the trees found in Houston yards.
Hypoxylon canker on stressed oaks
Texas A&M Forest Service describes hypoxylon canker as a fungus that kills oaks and other hardwoods that are already stressed, and notes that it becomes more active during prolonged drought. Stress can come from many sources: drought, heat, saturated soil, fill dirt over the roots, soil compaction, digging in the root zone, or herbicide injury. Any oak can be affected, including live, water, laurel and southern red oaks. By the time the crusty fungal patches show on the bark, the tree is usually seriously declined, which is why construction near big oaks deserves an arborist's input before the digging starts.
Oak wilt
Oak wilt is a fungal disease that Texas A&M Forest Service says has killed oaks across 76 Texas counties. Red oaks are the most susceptible and can die within about a month of infection; live oaks are intermediate and white oaks the least susceptible. It spreads above ground on sap-feeding beetles that find fresh wounds and below ground through connected roots. The standard Texas advice is to avoid pruning or wounding oaks from February through June and to paint every oak wound immediately.
Bacterial leaf scorch
Texas A&M's plant clinic calls bacterial leaf scorch a common disease of Texas oaks, helped along by hot, dry spells. Leaves brown early from the edges, often with a yellow border between the green and brown, and the tree usually dies within four to five years of the first symptoms. It is spread mainly by insects such as leafhoppers and spittlebugs. Because drought can look similar, this is a case for a diagnosis rather than a guess.
Pine bark beetles
Pines in Houston yards, mostly loblolly, are attacked by southern pine beetle and Ips engraver beetles, especially after drought, lightning, storm damage, standing water or root injury. Texas A&M Forest Service records show engraver beetle activity in drought-stressed pines across East Texas, as far south as Harris County. A common sign is pitch pushed out of a beetle hole that hardens into a clump resembling a wad of chewing gum on the bark. A pine with fading needles and many of these clumps should be looked at soon, because a dead pine near a house becomes a removal job, and beetles can move on to nearby pines.
Freeze and drought damage
After a hard freeze or a long drought, a tree can look dead and still recover, or look fine and decline over the next year or two. An arborist can tell you what to watch and how long to wait before deciding, instead of removing a tree that would have come back. The when to trim guide covers timing after a freeze.
Treatments a tree company may suggest
Pruning
Removing dead, diseased or weak limbs and reducing weight over a roof. Good pruning follows ANSI A300 practice: correct cuts, no topping, and no more live wood removed than the tree can handle. See tree pruning.
Cabling and bracing
Steel cables between limbs or rods through a weak fork can support a tree with a split or a tight V union that is otherwise sound. Hardware needs to be checked over time. If the defect is severe, removal may be the safer answer.
Treatment with pesticides
Some problems call for injections or sprays. In Texas, applying pesticides to trees for hire requires a license from the Texas Department of Agriculture or its Structural Pest Control Service, so ask to see it.
Better care at the roots
Mulch instead of grass over the roots, deep watering in dry summers, no fill dirt or parking over the root zone, and protection fencing during construction. Texas A&M recommends deep watering in July, August and September to reduce moisture stress on oaks.
When a written arborist report is worth paying for
Most homeowners only need a verbal opinion and a quote. A written report from a certified arborist, ideally one with TRAQ, is worth asking for when:
- An insurer or a lawyer is involvedA report documents the tree's condition before or after a loss, or in a dispute with a neighbor over a tree that may fall.
- A permit or an HOA needs a reasonTrees on City of Houston property and rights of way need a city permit to remove, and many deed-restricted neighborhoods have their own approval steps. See the permit guide.
- You are building near a big treeA plan made before construction can keep a valuable oak alive through the work.
- Two companies disagreeOne says remove, one says prune. An independent assessment settles it.
Check the company yourself. Texas has no state license for tree trimming or tree removal, so a business card proves very little. Ask the company for a certificate of general liability insurance sent by its insurance agent, proof of workers' compensation coverage, and the ISA certification number of its arborist. A company that sprays or injects trees for hire needs a pesticide license from the Texas Department of Agriculture or its Structural Pest Control Service. You can confirm a certification with the ISA's credential lookup (opens in a new tab).
Not sure whether the tree is sick, risky or fine? Call and describe it. Ask the company you are put through to whether an ISA Certified Arborist will look at it.
Related services
An assessment often leads to one of these.
Tree Removal
Taking down a dead, leaning or unwanted tree near a Houston home, from water oaks and pines to big live oaks, and what a complete quote covers.
Tree Trimming
Getting limbs off the roof and away from the house, raising canopies over driveways and lightening heavy crowns before hurricane season.
Emergency and Storm Tree Removal
A tree on the house, the car or across the street after a hurricane, a derecho or a hard freeze. What to do first and how emergency work is handled.
Tree Pruning
Structural pruning for young trees and mature live oaks, what a proper cut looks like, oak wilt timing and why topping does harm.
How a tree care call works
- Call any hourAn automated assistant answers (346) 680-8916 and asks what kind of tree work you need.
- Describe the jobGive your name, a callback number, your city or ZIP and what the tree is doing, including anything on a roof, a car or a line.
- Get put throughThe call goes to an independent, locally owned tree service company, which hears a short summary before it picks up.
- Deal with them directlyThat company looks at the tree, quotes, does the work and is paid by you. If it cannot answer, it gets your details to call back.
How this line works: Tree Service Houston TX is a free phone line, not a tree service company. It does not trim, remove, quote or schedule tree work and holds no license or arborist certification. Calls are transferred to independent, locally owned tree service companies in the Houston area. Those companies may pay Tree Service Houston TX a referral fee. You never pay the line. How it works.
The line takes calls from across greater Houston:
- Houston-area service areas
- Houston
- Katy
- Sugar Land
- The Woodlands
- Spring
- Cypress
- Humble
- Pasadena
- Conroe
- Pearland
- League City
- Baytown
- Tomball
- Richmond
- Friendswood
- Missouri City
- Fulshear