Around Decatur's bungalows and cottages, we prune and remove oaks, pecans, maples and magnolias, from Decatur Square out to Oakhurst and Winnona Park. The city requires a permit for untreatably diseased or infested trees and for hazard trees rated moderate or higher risk by a certified arborist, whose report goes with the application. Dead trees need a dead tree affirmation emailed with photos. Call the 24/7 line to set up a visit.
Decatur's ordinance, piece by piece
Decatur runs its own tree program, and the paperwork depends on the tree's condition. A tree that is untreatably diseased or infested needs a permit. So does a hazard tree, but only when a certified arborist rates it at moderate or higher risk, and that arborist's report goes in with the application. A dead tree is handled differently: residents email a dead tree affirmation statement with photos.
Healthy trees are where the rules bite hardest. The city's 2022 Tree Canopy Conservation Ordinance tightened what it takes to remove a healthy tree, which is why so many Decatur conversations turn to pruning first. Our permit help covers how we document a tree's condition, and the permit rules guide puts Decatur next to its neighbors.
Pruning over bungalow roofs on tight Oakhurst lots
In Oakhurst and Winnona Park, houses sit close together on narrow lots, many with a detached garage at the back and a single driveway shared or squeezed along one side. There is rarely a clear spot to drop a limb. Our climbers work from rope and harness, cutting each piece small enough to lower by hand or on a rigging line between the eaves.
Most of these jobs are structural pruning: removing dead wood, shortening limbs that rest on the roof, and thinning crowns so wind passes through. We cut back to a healthy side branch and never top a tree, because topping starts decay and sprouts weak regrowth. Low bungalow rooflines mean even modest limbs can reach the shingles.
The old trees of Decatur and how they fail
Around Decatur Square and the streets that radiate from it, the canopy includes willow oaks, white oaks and pecans that are older than many of the houses. Water oaks from the same era, here and in nearby Candler Park, are reaching the end of their run, with hollow trunks and dead tops. Pecans shed heavy limbs without much warning, often in calm weather.
Southern magnolias are common in older front yards and rarely fail, but their low, dense limbs swallow walkways and gutters. Dogwoods planted under the big oaks fight anthracnose in the shade. When a limb or a whole tree looks wrong, a risk assessment tells you whether it needs pruning, cabling or the hazard paperwork.
Getting work done on small lots and busy streets
Decatur streets are narrow and often lined with parked cars, so we plan where the chipper and truck will sit before the crew arrives. On some blocks that means an early start before the street fills. Wood is cut small and carried out by hand through side gates, with plywood laid over lawns and garden beds.
For removals the city approves, we grind the stump after a Georgia 811 locate and leave the lot clean enough to replant. Many Decatur homeowners put a new shade tree back in the same yard, and planting it well away from the foundation and the sewer lateral sets it up for a long life.