Tree Service in Moses Lake, WA

Most of the trees around Moses Lake were planted in straight lines. They went in as windbreaks — rows of poplar, locust and elm set out to hold sand down and take the edge off the wind, not to shade a patio — and that origin still shapes most of the removal work out here.

We are in Kelso, on the wet side of the Cascades, five and a half hours out on a good day. That rules us out of most of what a Grant County homeowner needs, and we would rather put it at the top of the page than bury it three screens down.

Sand, Flat Ground and a Wind With Nothing to Stop It

The soil around the lake is sand and sandy loam over caliche and basalt. It drains fast, holds very little, and releases a root plate without much of a fight. There is no ridge, no timber and no topography to slow a summer downburst or a spring gale, so trees take load from any direction with no shelter at all. When a big Siberian elm goes over out here, it usually goes over whole — plate, soil and all — rather than snapping partway up.

That also changes how a removal gets planned. Anchoring, rigging and where the machine sits all have to account for ground that will not hold an outrigger the way west-side silt does, and for a tree whose root spread stops abruptly at the edge of the watered zone.

The Shelterbelts Went In Together and They Are Failing Together

Rows of Lombardy poplar, black locust, Russian olive and Siberian elm were planted as windbreaks across farmsteads, yards and field edges through the middle of the last century, and a great many of them reached the end of their useful life at roughly the same time. Poplar goes hollow and brittle up top. Siberian elm carries included bark in nearly every fork it makes and drops half of itself in a thunderstorm. Russian olive spreads into every wasteway and ditch bank it can reach.

Taking out one of those rows is a clearing job, not a tree job — dozens of stems, days of chipping, and a real decision about where the wood goes. That is a different proposition from removing one tree in a yard, and it is the kind of thing worth talking to us about.

Scope Is the Only Argument for Hiring Us in Grant County

• Windbreak and shelterbelt rows removed end to end, stumps included
• Site clearing ahead of a build, a pad, a pivot or a fence line
• Multi-tree removals on commercial, industrial and airport-adjacent property
• Crane-assisted removals where a hollow elm or poplar sits over a roof and cannot be climbed safely
• Contracted seasonal work for property managers and homeowner associations
• Written tree risk assessments for owners who need something on the record

Anything on that list gets looked at in person before a number is attached to it, and that visit is free. If what you actually need is one elm dropped in a back yard next week, we will point you at a local company instead. That answer costs you nothing and saves you money.