Snowy Mountains Tree Service

Left alone, elm leaf beetle will defoliate a mature elm in a matter of weeks. It was first found on the Mornington Peninsula in 1989 and has been working its way through the south east ever since, and that matters here more than it does in most places: with the beetle and Dutch elm disease having gutted the northern hemisphere populations, Australia's south east now holds some of the most important elms left in the world. Elm leaf beetle control is a service we list in its own right for exactly that reason.

Trunk injection is the method we would put forward, and only an arborist licensed to apply insecticides is allowed to carry it out. Imidacloprid goes into the trunk through small drill holes using narrow diameter, slow delivery injectors, and the tree moves it up through the xylem to the leaves, where it acts as a neurotoxin on the beetles. It protects within days of going in and can hold for up to three years, and it suits a tree with no root access, one growing under concrete, a driveway or a deck. The timing is not up for negotiation. It has to be done while the tree is in leaf and transpiring, because in winter there is almost no water movement, and the extra force needed to push the chemical in risks tissue damage and decay. Soil injection and foliage spray are the alternatives, each with its own window and its own drawbacks, and underneath all of it sits vigilant monitoring of the trees for beetle and larvae numbers.

Tommy Leone is our director, and there is more than eighteen years of industry experience behind Snowy Mountains Tree Service. Our arborists are licensed and accredited, we are a member of Arboriculture Australia, and every project is completed in compliance with Australian Standard AS4373. Liability insurance runs to 2 million dollars, with public liability cover available up to 20 million. The depot, workshop and office are at Cooma, and we work out across the surrounding Snowy Mountains district.

On a tree removal the gear decides the method. We run a 4x4 crane truck with tipper and a 24 metre travel tower, alongside a five and a half tonne excavator, a bobcat, three 4x4 utes and two 4x4 tipper woodchip trucks. That is what lets a tree on a steep or tight block come out in sections lifted clear of everything, instead of having to find somewhere to drop it. A Bandit 1090 chipper with a winch and a 17 inch Bandit 1590xp deal with the limbs where they land.

Before any of that starts, get the tree assessed and check your council's requirements and tree preservation orders, because a removal done the wrong way can cost you a fine. You can generally take a tree out without written approval if it is dead, if it presents an immediate safety hazard after a storm, or if it is exempt from your council's orders, and even then we would say photograph it and keep the evidence on file. What council will generally not approve is a removal because a tree drops leaves, fruit or cones, because it blocks a view, because of a fear that a healthy tree might fall, because of overshadowing, or because roots have lifted a path a little. Where you need it in writing, our tree assessments are risk evaluations with recommendations, written to be understood by someone who is not an arborist.

Tree pruning runs from taking a few dead branches out to reshaping a tree completely, stump grinding is done with a Rayco Super Track Jr once the tree is down, and onsite chipping and mulching puts the green waste through the machine and back onto your garden as mulch or compost. Commercial tree services sit alongside all of the domestic work. Our hours are Monday to Friday 7am to 6pm and Saturday 7am to 4pm, with Sunday by appointment, so a weekend is a working day here if that is when you can be home. Ring 0438 954 817 and we will come and look at the tree.