Tree Removal in Florida Park, Gainesville, FL

Most of Gainesville is flat enough that a removal plan only has to think in two directions. Florida Park adds a third. This neighborhood north of UF, between NW 16th and NW 8th Avenues and NW 13th and NW 23rd Streets, was platted from the 1930s into the 1970s on ground that falls toward Hogtown Creek and Glen Springs Run. A UF historic preservation survey notes steep grades near the creek basins and a heavy canopy. For a removal crew, that means wood that wants to roll, roots sitting on eroding banks, and houses set into the hill with the uphill roofline close to yard level.

Almost three-quarters of the homes are ranch variations, and the neighborhood also has plenty of Mid-century Modern and Contemporary designs, several by local architects Gene Leedy and Harry Merritt. Low-slope roofs, long glass walls and carports are what these trees hang over. A low-slope roof can't shed a falling limb the way a steep gable sometimes can, so nothing gets free-dropped anywhere near one.

Our usual sequence on a sloped Florida Park lot:

1. Walk the lot top to bottom and pick a landing area that is flat, or can be made flat with mats and cribbing.
2. Climb and remove the limbs over the house first, lowering each one on a rope to the landing area.
3. Take the trunk down in short sections so nothing picks up speed downhill.
4. Carry or winch the wood uphill to the street, often the slowest part of the day.
5. If there's no landing area at all, bring in a crane to lift sections over the roof.

Crane tree removal sounds like the expensive route, but on a steep lot it often saves enough climbing and hauling time to cover much of its own cost. Our guide to removing a tree close to your house in Gainesville walks through that same decision.

• Water and laurel oaks on the downhill side. Soil creep and runoff expose and undercut their roots over the years.
• Trees perched on a ravine's upper edge. They reach out over the creek for light and load one side of the root plate.
• Old hickories and oaks on shaded lots. Decay at the root flare hides under deep leaf litter and creeping vines.
• Heavy side limbs over flat roofs. A single limb can justify a reduction, but a decayed trunk under that limb usually means oak tree removal.

Ring Nature Park's 21 acres at 1801 NW 23rd Boulevard sit where clear Glen Springs Run joins Hogtown Creek, and Florida Park's back lots are really a continuation of that slope forest. The creek collects runoff from roughly 20 square miles of Gainesville, and local creek surveys rank erosion and sediment as its worst problems. On a bank, a stump and its roots are holding soil in place. We usually cut creek-bank stumps flush and leave the roots instead of grinding into the slope, and sometimes we'll suggest reducing a sound tree at the top of a bank rather than taking it out.

Florida Park's streets are residential and winding, with mature trees close to the pavement, so a full-size chip truck and log trailer can't always park right in front of the house. On a typical job the chipper sits at the top of the drive, logs are cut short enough for two people to carry, and the trailer waits where the street is wide enough not to block a neighbor. Hauling wood uphill by hand is the hidden cost on these lots, and it's built into the estimate rather than tacked on. We leave the street swept and the gutters free of sawdust, since runoff here heads straight for the creek. If you want oak or hickory rounds left for a fire pit, we'll stack them on level ground where they won't roll.

Every Florida Park lot is inside Gainesville city limits, and the city's rules for a detached single-family home work like this:

• Only heritage trees are regulated. For most species that means 20 inches across at 4.5 feet; for sweetgum, laurel oak, water oak, loblolly pine and slash pine, it means 30 inches.
• Species on the city's High Quality list are regulated wherever they grow on the lot once they hit heritage size. Several are everywhere here: live oak, southern magnolia, Florida maple, and pignut and mockernut hickory.
• Other heritage trees are regulated only if they stand within the legal setback.
• The city doesn't charge a permit fee.

In 2018 the UF survey team suggested Florida Park could qualify as a historic district, both locally and on the National Register. That designation hasn't happened, so no historic review is layered on top of the tree permit. Separately, Florida Statute 163.045 lets a homeowner skip the permit for a tree that has been documented as an unacceptable risk.

Slopes push Florida Park removals toward the top of our ranges. A small tree under 30 feet runs $350 to $850, a 30 to 60 foot oak or hickory $850 to $1,800 on gentle ground, and large or steeply placed trees start around $1,800 and can pass $3,500. Bringing in a crane is another $600 to $1,800. A hazardous tree with decay over the house typically lands between $800 and $3,500 or more, with the rigging the defect demands setting where in that range it falls.

Stump grinding costs $95 to $450 per stump on level ground. On steep banks, we'll tell you whether grinding or a flush cut makes more sense for that spot.

GRU lines run through the canopy on many Florida Park streets. When a storm drops a limb across a line, GRU clears the line and we handle the tree once it's safe. If a trunk lands on the house, our emergency tree removal crew documents the damage with photos before cutting, then lifts the weight off in order. If the tree came from next door, who pays when a neighbor's tree falls in Florida is worth a read before anyone calls an insurer.

North of here, Millhopper swaps slopes for sandy acreage and tall pines, and Mile Run along NW 53rd Avenue has 1980s and 1990s oaks under city rules. South of campus, Kirkwood is another older wooded neighborhood with big trees right up to the road. For the rest of the city, start at our tree removal in Gainesville, FL page.