Independent Tree

Oak and elm trees should be pruned when dormant (after they've lost their leaves) to avoid spreading the fatal diseases oak wilt and Dutch elm disease. If you're looking for a tree serviceteam who cares about the health and beauty of your trees and landscape the way you do, then you've come to the right place! At Independent Tree, our team of certified arborists, plant health care specialists, and tree care professionals are dedicated to providing the highest quality of tree and plant care for the optimum benefit of your landscape.

Few things in this world offer as vast a resource to humanity as trees. Independent Tree's mission is to provide the highest quality tree services and to help our clients care for and maintain their trees. We take pride in being a home grown tree care business, servicing the Cleveland area for more than 20 years. The company was founded by certified arborist Alan Kraus with just a truck and climbing equipment. Over the years, through the aid of continued education, dedicated clients and our workers, Independent Tree has grown into a diversified company employing five certified arborists, a couple of tree crews, two dedicated sales representatives, two plant health care specialists, and Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA) Certified Treecare Safety Professionals.

A new tree is a lifetime investment and will add value to your home - but only if it's planted correctly. And that isn't as easy as it may look. Our Certified Arborists can select a wide variety of trees or shrubs appropriate to your location for you to choose from, and you can rest assured that your investment will be installed correctly. Transplanting a tree or shrub also involves properly planting it - but first you have to dig it up so it can be moved. The key is to dig up as much of the rootball as necessary and disturb it as little as possible.

Beside the aesthetic reasons for removing tree stumps, there are also health and safety considerations. A stump grinder is a piece of heavy equipment with a carbide-tipped steel wheel on the front that spins like a saw blade. The wheel is lowered onto the edge of the stump and moves from side to side, grinding deeper into the stump with each swipe. Eventually the whole tree stump is ground up into small wood chips, including the main roots below the stump. We offer a few options when grinding tree stumps, ranging from simply grinding the stump away to a complete removal, filling and replacement.

The long harsh winters here in Northeast Ohio submit our trees to an array of battering from ice, heavy snow and wind. When a tree has been damaged and requires emergency removal or pruning, it can be devastating and often requires immediate action. If you're concerned about the safety and stability of any of your trees, please give us a call at 440-564-1374 - we offer property inspections to address these hazards and minimize the risk of emergency situations due to storm damage. Please note that emergency situations are responded to contingent on the severity of risk/damages posed by the tree.

We use a variety of heavy equipment, as well as climbing the tree to selectively remove parts that could otherwise pose a danger to the ground crew. After the tree is removed, you may want to consider grinding the tree stump to remove that as well. We offer optional tree stump grinding services to all our tree removal customers. Give us a call at 440-564-1374 - we're happy to take a look at your trees to determine whether removal is necessary, or if a pruning program could help your trees instead.

Alan Kraus was first introduced to tree work in high school while landscaping and was quickly hooked. In 1995, he began to focus his abilities in arboriculture and has been working with trees and shrubs ever since. Alan founded Independent Tree with the goal of providing quality tree work and education in a field that he loves. Alan is an ISA certified arborist. Alan works hard keeping up to date on arboriculture education, so that we can bring our clients the best the industry has to offer. He also conducts educational seminars for various organizations.

The tree care industry is required to follow a set of mandated standards set forth by ANSI (American National Standard Institute) and OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Association). Constant standard and safety training is a part of our regular work week. Home Grown means that we comply at minimum with these standards; it also means that we aim to be an example in our industry as a whole, raising the bar for tree work while raising awareness of health and safety issues in the tree care industry.

Pruning is the most common tree and shrub maintenance practice. Proper pruning of trees will add to their aesthetic value, improve their strength and maintain their safety. Improper pruning can cause irreparable damage, create hazards and even shorten a tree's life. When a tree needs to be removed we are well equipped to take care of it. We use our crane and bucket truck whenever possible to minimize landscape damage and we take pride in our clean up. Tree removal includes removing the tree or trees to near ground level and may also include stump grinding.