Boise neighborhood
North End Boise tree service for century-old canopy
The North End has the city’s oldest shade trees, leaning over bungalows, alleys and detached garages. Most tree service in the North End is about taking weight off a big tree rather than taking it down.
Local notes
What North End blocks look like
The North End sits between State Street and the foothills, with its western blocks reaching toward Collister. The Harrison Boulevard Historic District, listed on the National Register in 1980, holds more than 400 homes built between the 1890s and the 1940s, from Queen Anne to Craftsman and Tudor. The trees went in alongside those houses, so many front-yard maples and street elms are now taller than the rooflines.
You will see a lot of silver maple, Norway maple, American and Siberian elm, London plane and honeylocust. Silver maples here tend to develop heavy, codominant leaders that split in wet snow. Old elms carry deadwood high in the crown. Planes push their roots into sidewalks and the old clay sewer laterals.
On the job
Alleys, planting strips and tight backyards
Most North End lots are narrow, with a detached garage on the alley and a fence on every side. Alleys are handy for a chipper, but they also carry overhead service drops, so limbs often have to be roped down in short pieces instead of dropped. Around Camel’s Back Park and Elm Grove Park, parking fills up fast on weekends, so truck placement gets planned ahead.
The strip between the sidewalk and the curb usually holds a City street tree, which is managed by Boise Community Forestry. The more common private jobs are crown cleaning and weight reduction on mature maples, roof and chimney clearance, and removing a declining tree that sits a few feet from the house.
Common questions
North End tree questions
Do I need a permit to prune the elm in my North End yard?
Yes, and it surprises a lot of North End owners because the tree is in their backyard. Boise City Code 7-2-9 requires a free City Forester permit for any elm, public or private. A street tree in the planting strip needs a Community Forestry permit for any species.
Can a 100-year-old silver maple be saved?
Often it can. If the trunk is sound and the decay is limited, we can reduce the long leaders and remove deadwood to lower the risk of a split. If the main union is cracked or the base is hollow, we will tell you that removal is the safer call.
How do you remove a big tree when the only access is the alley?
We take it down in sections, lowering each piece on ropes into the alley or yard and chipping as we go. We check the overhead lines first. If a line runs through the canopy, Idaho Power may need to drop or cover it before work starts.
Talk to us about your tree
North End tree leaning on the garage? Call us.
Tell us the street and the cross street, whether you have alley access and what the tree is doing.