Snowy Mountains Tree Service

Snowy Mountains Tree Service is a Cooma arborist business run by director Tommy Leone, with more than 18 years in the industry behind it. Work is carried out by qualified arborists to Australian Standard AS4373, the company is a member of Arboriculture Australia, and it carries liability insurance of $2 million with public liability cover available up to $20 million.

Tree removal is the headline job, and the gear list explains why the awkward ones get done. The crew runs a 4x4 crane truck and a 24 metre travel tower, along with a 5.5 tonne excavator and a bobcat, so a tree in a tight or steep spot can be lifted out in sections rather than dropped. Bandit wood chippers deal with the limbs on the spot. Onsite chipping and mulching turns green waste into mulch or compost for the garden it came out of, which saves carting it off.

Tree pruning keeps a tree healthy and keeps it off the house, the shed and the power line. Tree assessments are the paperwork side: a risk evaluation with written recommendations, which is what you need when a council or an insurer wants an opinion in writing. The company works to local council requirements and tree preservation orders. Stump grinding is done with a Rayco grinder once a tree is down.

Elm leaf beetle control is a specialty worth knowing about in this part of the country, where mature elms are common and the beetle can strip a tree bare in weeks. The preferred treatment is trunk injection: imidacloprid goes straight into the trunk and the tree carries it up through the xylem to the leaves. It acts within days and can hold for up to three years. It has to be done while the tree is in leaf and photosynthesising, so winter is out. Soil injection and foliage spray are the alternatives, and there are cultural options as well, banding the trunk, removing beetles by hand, and keeping the tree in good health with watering, mulching and sensible pruning.

Commercial tree services run alongside the domestic work. Snowy Mountains Tree Service covers Cooma and the surrounding Snowy Mountains district, operating out of Cooma, NSW. The business runs Monday to Friday 7am to 6pm and Saturday 7am to 4pm, with Sunday by appointment. Quotes go through 0438 954 817.