Tree Service in Mount Prospect, IL

Pay for a parkway tree out of your own pocket in Mount Prospect, and it stops being yours the moment it goes in the ground. The village code says so without hedging: “All trees planted on public property, regardless of who planted them, become the property of the Village.” That one line settles most of the arguments that start on a front lawn here. It settles them against the homeowner. So the tree removal Mount Prospect residents want on a parkway is the village’s call, not theirs.

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Where Mount Prospect Draws The Permit Line

Section 9.711 makes it unlawful to remove or cut any tree in a street, parkway or public place without a permit from the Director of Public Works. The applicant has to carry public liability and property damage insurance in an amount the Director sets. The Director may also require a performance bond. Applications get a review within ten days. Meanwhile the village’s Arboricultural Standards Manual binds the contractor for the duration of the work.

Private ground falls under a separate rule. Section 14.2308 reads: “No more than five (5) trees on any property, nor a tree having a caliper of four inches (4″) or greater on any proposed development site, shall be removed without a permit.” Where replacement applies, the scale runs four trees for a 4–12 inch removal, five for 13–29 inches and six at 30 inches and above. However, the section does not reach a removal the village itself asks for. Nor does it reach public property, which goes back under 9.711.

Enforcement has teeth. The village can issue a stop work order and fine to $500 per violation per day. It can also assess up to $150 per diameter inch for a tree someone destroyed. On a mature parkway maple that arithmetic gets uncomfortable quickly.

Two Rivers, A Levee And Three Planting Generations

The Des Plaines River and Higgins Creek both touch the village. The mapped floodplain covers 242.69 acres at the 100-year level and 393.29 acres at the 500-year. Localized flooding runs worst in the unincorporated Forest River subdivision near Kensington and River Roads. Furthermore the northeast section carries exposure to a failure of Levee 37. Five FEMA repetitive-loss properties sit on the books, all single-family, three of them classed severe.

Trees on wet ground root shallow and lean into the wind. Consequently the failures here cluster geographically rather than by species. Above the floodplain the driver is age instead. Mount Prospect incorporated in 1917, went through a wave of 1920s land speculation, then filled in hard after the Second World War. Randhurst arrived in the early 1960s.

Ash, Borer And The Five-Year Cycle

The village now reports more than 25,000 parkway trees on a five-year trimming cycle, roughly 5,000 a year. It also recommends preventative insecticide against emerald ash borer rather than waiting for symptoms. University of Illinois Extension sets out the timing and thresholds for that treatment. Most tree removal Mount Prospect homeowners end up paying for is an ash that got neither.

What We Handle In Mount Prospect

• Removals on private lots, with the 14.2308 caliper and count thresholds checked before we quote
• Pruning worked to the village’s Arboricultural Standards Manual where a public tree is involved
• Additionally, stump grinding, including the ash stumps left behind by borer removals
• Emergency and storm work at any hour, floodplain streets first

Book A Tree Removal Mount Prospect Estimate

Send us the address and a sentence about what the tree is doing. If it turns out to be a village tree, we will tell you that before we tell you a price. Estimates are free, and we quote seven days a week.

Call 708-424-5885. See the rest of our Cook County coverage, or the neighbors: Arlington Heights, Des Plaines.