Taking down a Boise tree with a crane

Street tree or yard tree

Start by working out whose tree it is. In Boise, trees in the public right-of-way, usually the strip between the sidewalk and the street, are public trees. Boise Community Forestry inspects them for free and removes dead, diseased or hazardous ones at no cost to the homeowner next door. Pruning or removing a public tree on your own needs a city permit, which is free.

A tree fully inside your lot is yours to deal with, and that is where a crane usually comes in.

Why use a crane

A climber can rope most trees down in pieces. The crane earns its money when the tree hangs over a roof, a pool or a neighbor’s garage, when the wood is dead and brittle, or when there is no open ground to drop pieces into. The crane holds each section before the cut and lifts it clear.

Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Norfolk District / Wikimedia

What the pieces weigh

Green wood is heavy. Virginia’s tree work safety rule lists green log weights by species and diameter. For three big shade trees you see across older Boise neighborhoods:

Species	Pounds per cubic foot	One foot of 24-inch trunk	A 10-foot piece
Silver maple	45	141 lb	about 1,410 lb
Sycamore	52	163 lb	about 1,630 lb
Honey locust	61	192 lb	about 1,920 lb

The operator sizes the crane for the heaviest piece at the longest reach, which is often the lower trunk lifted over the house.

The crane part of the bill

The crane is billed apart from the tree service. On the posted rate sheet:

• Any crane up to 60 tons: $175 an hour, 4-hour minimum, so $700 to start.
• A full 8-hour removal: $1,400.
• Fuel: at least $50, figured from the miles and the crane hours.
• Saturdays and overtime add $30 an hour.

If the crane has to sit in the street, an ACHD temporary use permit is needed too, $30 a day on most residential streets.

Before crane day

• Move cars out of the driveway and the street in front.
• Turn off irrigation a few days ahead and flag sprinkler heads.
• Mark the septic tank and drain field.
• Point out the power lines. A crane has to keep its distance unless the utility drops them.