We remove and trim tall pines across Cumming, mostly loblollies left standing between newer homes, along with hardwoods on older lots near the city center and wooded ground by the Lake Lanier coves. Emerald ash borer is confirmed in Forsyth, so ash trees get checked too. The City of Cumming sets its own tree rules inside city limits, and Forsyth County sets them on unincorporated land, so we check the address before quoting. Our phone is answered 24/7.
Tall pines left between brand new houses
On many new Cumming streets, the builder kept a few pines in each side yard to make the lots feel wooded. Those trees grew up packed together in a stand, so they're tall and thin with small crowns near the top, and they were never built to stand alone. Grading for the foundations and driveways usually cut into the roots on one side, and the compacted red clay around a new house holds water after long rains instead of draining.
The result shows up a few years after move-in. A pine starts to lean toward the house, drops its top in a summer storm or thins out from the crown down. Side yards between new homes can be 15 feet wide or less, so these removals are climbed and lowered in short pieces, or done from a bucket truck when it can reach. Our post on tall pines beside the house explains how we judge which ones can stay.
Trimming the pines that stay
A healthy pine with a full crown, a straight trunk and roots that weren't badly cut can stay, and most of what it needs is clearance. We take out dead limbs, cut branches back off the roof and away from the gutters, and lift the lower limbs over driveways and decks. That keeps needles and cones out of the gutters longer and keeps the first summer storm from dropping deadwood on the roof.
We never top a pine or strip it to a tuft at the top. Heavy cutting stresses pines more than hardwoods, and a stressed pine after a dry summer is exactly what Ips engraver beetles look for. If a tree has pitch tubes on the bark or a crown fading to rust, it is already in trouble, and taking it down while the wood is still sound is safer and simpler than waiting.
Ash trees, the lake coves and the city center
Emerald ash borer was first found in Georgia in July 2013, in DeKalb and Fulton counties, and by 2023 it had been confirmed in Forsyth too. Ash isn't a common yard tree in Cumming, but it grows along the creek bottoms and the wooded lots that run down to the Lake Lanier coves. A crown thinning from the top, woodpecker damage on the bark and small D-shaped exit holes are the signs, and an infested ash turns brittle fast.
Close to the city center around the Forsyth County courthouse, lots are older and smaller, with oaks and pecans over older homes and less room to work. Down by the lake, lots slope toward the water and access is often by a single steep drive. The City of Cumming sets its own tree rules inside city limits, and Forsyth County sets them outside, so we check before quoting. Our Forsyth County page covers the rest of the county, and Milton sits just south.