Tree Trimming in Webster

Webster is a Lake Ontario shoreline town on the northeast edge of Monroe County, developed mostly from the 1960s through the 1990s as a bedroom community for Rochester. The lakefront properties have significant wind exposure and some of the most dramatic storm damage in the county. Inland Webster is more protected but has aging suburban tree stock from the original build-out era. It's a town where you see everything from pristine ornamental plantings to 50-year-old silver maples that have never been touched.

Branches that hang over roofs or power lines in Rochester don't stay put through a lake-effect winter. The snow loads here can hit 40 inches in a single storm, and a limb that looked fine in October can split and come down on a fence or car by January. Neighborhoods like Irondequoit and the South Wedge have a lot of older maples and oaks — trees planted 50 or 60 years ago that are now big enough to cause real damage if they're not kept up.

We climb the tree or use a bucket truck, make cuts at the right collar — that's the raised ring where a branch meets the trunk — so the tree seals itself over time without rotting. We don't top trees, because topping kills the structure and leaves stubs that rot out in a few years, which means you'll pay more to deal with the mess later.