Local arborist lays out cost of tree removal, future prevention

After the long weekend storm that saw trees fall on roadways, cars, houses and power lines, Dave Williams, the district manager of Davey Tree Expert Co. of Canada Limited told CityNews 570 that his company has received hundreds of calls for tree removal. 

“Were still trying to get through the calls that just came in over the weekend, not to mention the calls that I inevitably knew were going to start to roll in Monday night and into Tuesday morning.” 

Williams said the cost of tree removal ranges from hundreds of dollars to as much as 20 thousand. 

“It depends on the situation, whether we need to get addition equipment such as a crane to get a tree off a house or a car,” he said. 

When trying to determine what kind of situation to call for tree removal services, Williams said the key factor is when a fallen tree or branch causes a hazard. This could include a tree leaning on a car, branches weakened and ready to fall but have yet to do so, or fallen trees blocking a roadway.

When it comes to power lines, he said to never go near the hazard and instead call 911 to assess the situation. 

Those words of caution were echoed by GrandBridge Energy's Manager of Corporate Communications Sheri Ojero. 

“We do want to encourage customers to always exercise extreme caution; wires can be buried underneath branches or debris as homeowners start the clean up.” 

Ojero said extensive damage was caused to GrandBridge's infrastructure. At the height of the storm, 40 thousand customers were left without power, but that number has since dropped to 40 as of Tuesday morning. Ojero specified those remaining customers need to make repairs to the equipment they own.

For future storm prevention, Ojero recommends preparing an emergency kit with 72 hours worth of resources in case power cannot be restored within that time frame. 

From an arborist standpoint, Williams recommends getting an assessment of your property for potential problems. 

“We have a lot of customers that are out on their properties every year and may not be doing any work, but they call us out, we come to take a look.”