Tree Service in Highland Park, CA

Highland Park is home to the Highland Park-Garvanza Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, the largest HPOZ in Los Angeles, with roughly 4,000 structures and more than fifty Historic-Cultural Monuments. The district was adopted in 1994 and expanded to Garvanza in 2010. For tree service in Highland Park, that history means old Craftsman houses, detached garages, stone walls and trees that frame the whole streetscape.

Ask before you change the landscape

The city's HPOZ page does not spell out tree rules, but projects that change what the street sees can involve the preservation plan. If a tree removal is part of a bigger project, such as a new driveway, a garage or a front yard redesign, check with the city's HPOZ staff early. We can describe the tree and the work in writing so you have something concrete to bring them.

Craftsman houses and canopy

About 41% of Highland Park's roughly 15,000 housing units were built in 1939 or earlier, and the median year built is 1952. The Highland Park tract was created in 1886 and annexed to Los Angeles in 1895. Old houses with low eaves, exposed rafter tails and wood shingles need careful rigging when limbs come down. We favor selective thinning and clearance pruning that keep the canopy over the street.

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Arroyo Seco and the hills

The Arroyo Seco Parkway, opened in 1940, forms the neighborhood's southeast edge, and the hills of Mount Angelus and Montecito Heights rise inside the preservation plan area. Sloped lots and long stairways are common. Removals on those lots often need rope work and hand carrying, and stump grinding may need a smaller machine or a flush cut where a grinder cannot get in.

City permits still apply

Highland Park is in the City of Los Angeles. Street trees in the parkway need a StreetsLA Urban Forestry Division permit before anyone trims, removes or root prunes them. Native oaks, black walnut, Western sycamore and California bay on private property are protected at 4 inches of cumulative diameter.

Our six services, adapted to the neighborhood

• Tree trimming for roof clearance and structure
• Tree removal in sections on tight and sloped lots
• Palm tree trimming for tall palms over streets and roofs
• Stump grinding, including small-access machines
• Emergency tree service after wind events
• Arborist consultations before remodels near big trees

Timing your work

Street parking in Highland Park can be tight, so we schedule chipper placement and any lane use carefully. Larger pruning on deciduous shade trees is often easiest to see and plan in late fall and winter, when the branch structure is visible. Palm cleanup, deadwood removal and emergency work can happen any time. If you plan a remodel, bring us in before construction starts, so the tree's root zone can be fenced off rather than driven over.

What we will not do

We will not top a tree, strip out its interior branches, or spike-climb a tree that is staying. Those shortcuts weaken trees and spoil the look of a historic street. If a tree is too far gone for good pruning, we will tell you so and talk about removal and replacement instead.

Call (626) 594-4788 to book a Highland Park visit.