Tree Removal in Naperville, IL

Tree removal in Naperville tends to follow a pattern. Much of the city was built in a short burst: the population went from 42,330 in 1980 to 85,351 in 1990 and 128,358 in 2000, according to Census counts. The maples, ash, honeylocusts, lindens, spruces and ornamental pears planted along those new streets and in those backyards are now thirty to forty-five years old, much bigger than anyone pictured when they were planted three feet from a foundation. Add emerald ash borer, a few violent storms and heavy clay that holds water, and you get most of the calls a Naperville tree company takes.

The ash problem

Emerald ash borer larvae feed under the bark in winding tunnels that cut off the tree's flow of water and nutrients, and adults leave small D-shaped exit holes when they emerge. Where nothing is done to control it, all the ash trees in an area are expected to die within roughly a decade of infestation. Many Naperville yards still have an ash or two, some treated with trunk injections over the years and some never treated. Once an ash has died, its wood dries and turns brittle, and a removal that would have been routine becomes slower and riskier for the climber. If your ash has a thin crown, bark flaking off in patches where woodpeckers have been feeding, or sprouts coming out low on the trunk, have it looked at before it drops limbs on the roof.

Storms that changed whole neighborhoods

Naperville has had two tornadoes in living memory that people still talk about. On August 28, 1990, the Plainfield tornado touched down near Oswego and moved through Wheatland Township, which takes in the southwest quarter of today's Naperville, before devastating Plainfield and Joliet. On the night of June 20, 2021, an EF-3 tornado formed at the western edge of Springbrook Prairie, south of 75th Street, and tore east across south Naperville, with its worst damage near Princeton Circle, before crossing Greene Valley Forest Preserve into Woodridge and Darien. The National Weather Service said it downed thousands of trees along its path. Most years bring smaller events: summer thunderstorm lines and derechos, wet spring snow on leafed-out trees, ice in winter. Storm work is about speed and order: trees on houses and blocked driveways first, then hangers and split leaders, then cleanup.

Clay, flat ground and wet roots

Naperville sits on old prairie along the West Branch of the DuPage River, mostly flat, with heavy soil that drains slowly. In July 1996 the city took about 14 inches of rain in less than a day, and it flooded again in 2013. Saturated clay holds roots poorly, which is why big trees here tend to fail at the root plate in a wet-season windstorm rather than snapping. A tree that has started to lean after heavy rain, with cracked or heaving soil on one side, needs attention right away.

Older trees on the east side

The Naperville Historic District on the city's older east side covers 573 buildings and has been on the National Register since 1977. Those blocks carry some of the biggest, oldest trees in town, over narrow side yards, detached garages and overhead wires. Taking a 70-foot oak or silver maple out of a lot like that is mostly a rigging problem: pieces are cut small and lowered on ropes, and sometimes a crane lifts sections over the house to the street.

Whose tree, and whose wires

Before we quote, we sort out ownership. A tree in the parkway between the sidewalk and the curb belongs to the City of Naperville, and only its Department of Public Works may remove one; you report a problem parkway tree to the city with its Parkway Tree Request Form, and the city takes it down and grinds the stump at no charge. Naperville owns and operates its own electric utility, so a tree resting on a line inside city limits is usually a call to the city's electric department, not ComEd. We do not work near energized lines; once the utility has made the line safe, we handle the rest of the tree.

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What the estimate covers

• Species, size and condition of each tree, including signs of ash borer, decay or root problems
• What sits under the tree: roof, deck, fence, pool, play set, the neighbor's garage
• Wires, parkway location and anything that needs a call to the city first
• Access through gates and side yards, and whether a crane or lift makes sense
• Where the wood, chips and brush go, and whether the stump is ground
• A written price per tree, and no added work without your sign-off

Naperville is home base, from the historic east side and downtown along the Riverwalk to the subdivisions south of 75th Street and the Will County neighborhoods on the far south side. From here we work east through Lisle, Woodridge, Downers Grove, Darien, Westmont, Clarendon Hills, Hinsdale, Willowbrook, Burr Ridge and Oak Brook; north through Warrenville, Winfield, Wheaton, Glen Ellyn, West Chicago, Carol Stream, Lombard and Elmhurst; and west into Aurora, North Aurora, Montgomery, Oswego, Sugar Grove, Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles and Yorkville. The older river towns and the inner DuPage suburbs have bigger, older trees on tighter lots; the newer subdivisions to the west and south have younger trees, lots of ash and maple, and usually easier access. Who owns the parkway trees, who runs the power lines and what each town allows varies, and each area page covers what we know about that place.