By state

Tree removal in California

Tree removal in California: storm damage, trees on power lines, leaning and dead trees, and who licenses tree work. Pick your county or town below.

Call (888) 239-7893 free call, 24/7

Calling is free and commits you to nothing. The work is priced after someone has seen the tree.

A suburban street after a storm, with fallen branches and a tree crew cutting a trunk

What brings trees down in California

From 2016 through 2025 the National Weather Service logged 501 reports of damaging thunderstorm wind across California’s 58 counties, and 185 of them mention trees, limbs or branches.

FEMA’s National Risk Index rates the risk as relatively high or very high from strong wind in 1 of 58; from tornadoes in 1 of 58 counties.

If a tree is on a power line, the call goes to the electric utility first. EIA lists 56 electric utilities with service territory here; each county page names the ones that serve it.

Sources

Who licenses tree work

California licenses tree work through the Contractors State License Board. Since January 1, 2024 the classification is C-49 Tree and Palm Contractor, and every applicant sits a trade examination; tree service licenses issued before then, C-61/D-49, remain valid. Since January 1, 2025, work under $1,000 in labor and materials needs no license only if no permit is required and the person doing it hires no one to help.

Check a license with the Contractors State License Board

Sources

Insurance questions

Whether a policy pays for a fallen tree, and how much, is in the policy itself, so the first call is to the insurer. The state regulator, the California Department of Insurance, takes complaints about how a claim was handled. Insurance and fallen trees

Tree down, or about to come down?

Largest towns and cities

Counties

A person on the phone in a back yard looking at a large fallen tree

What you will be asked

Where the tree is and what is under it or near it: the house, a power line, a car, a fence, the street.
Whether it is standing, leaning, split or already down, and since when.
Roughly how tall it is and how thick the trunk is at chest height. A guess is fine.
Whether a truck can get close, or the tree is in a back yard behind a fence or a narrow gate.
Whether there is damage your insurer should see, and whether you have called them yet.
The address, and whether you own the property or rent it.

Call (888) 239-7893 free call, 24/7

The line takes: tree removal, emergency removal after a storm, trimming and pruning, lot and land clearing, tree health checks, cabling and bracing, and brush and debris cleanup, for homeowners, renters and businesses. It is not for: jobs, equipment, firewood, tree services looking for work, or a price quoted over the phone without anyone seeing the tree.