If your trees can be seen from the street then you will probably have people knocking on your door offering their services.Events like this brings them out. My neighbor had some tree removal last summer in which the company quoted me $700 for a single Sweet Gum tree that was about a foot and one half dia. This was supposedly a cut rate since they already had their equipment there.

I can vouch for A Beautiful Tree. Not cheap (are any of them?) but they did a great job for me last spring. You could hardly tell the tree was gone if it weren't for the missing grass. I think I paid $850 for a 60-65' tall hackberry.

I have two ash trees that need to come down... I hope I can get a volume discount.

Here is a link that might be useful: A Beautiful Tree

Do you go to a church? Quite often they will tell you who they have do it. Our church goes & does it for free. They have trailers with tools & volunteers that are trained do the work. They also have a mobile kitchen & another mobile shower. As often as these things happen,time gov't & others get it together. You need water, food,medical help,shelter from heat or cold, after any disaster, not rocket science. Chainsaws are very dangerous & have to be kept clean & well oiled in case you want to remove smaller stuff yourself. you should wear heavy boots & heavy gloves & googles to help keep from getting hurt. After Katerina they contacted Sears & got a couple of washers & dryers ,water trucks & generators & placed it on only place safe, a cement driveway that was still there, the woodcutters had to have clean clothes each day or they started getting infections, clean socks were really important. Interesting things you learn. Oh yes, new clean socks were handed out by the dozens at 9/11 by our church. They have a medical unit also. I think most of action is at Tuscaloosa so far. Just be careful, trees are heavy but you could do some of small stuff yourself might reduce the price. I'm in quake country so quite different for cleanup.

Thanks for the feedback. The trees are definitely visible from the street, so I'm sure we'll have people coming by offering their services. I'm always wary of buying services without shopping around first, so unless I have other quotes I'd probably not take them up on their offer. There are several churches in our area, so like sunnyca said, maybe churches or other organizations will be out doing debris removal. I would gladly make a large donation to the organization because we'd have to pay for removal anyway.

Just be sure whoever does it is licensed and insured -- and don't just accept their paperwork, check it out. If they hurt themselves or your property doing the work, you could be on the hook.

Yes be careful. Last year my mom really got taken because she trusts everyone. It would be better to pay a bit more for a reputable company than pay a bit less and not get the job done, like us.

Around here many of the reputable landscape and tree services are registered with the Better Business Bureau and local Chambers of Commerce. I would suggest you start there.

Ditto on licensed and insured. If you really want to cover your bases, check to see what your homeowners insurance says about contractors and tree damage.

Be VERY careful when talking to people who sell services door to door. The general rules to follow are: don't use anyone who is not local, never pay a dime in advance, get a written contract for the work, check with your insurance company FIRST, ask for proof of their company insurance and check it, ask for proof of their proper licensing, call BBB.

Your insurance company might want you to get a couple of estimates. Even if they don't, you should.

Sadly, the corrupt will try very hard to take advantage of victims during a time like this. It's to your benefit to be very suspicious of EVERYone who comes knocking on your door in order to sell services and to ask for donations.

Bob, people at the end of our street contacted their insurance company, and the insurance company sent people over right away to help them. Also, you may be able to contact FEMA - don't know where you are in N. AL, but in Huntsville/Madison, the police have posted some of the neon signs with the phone numbers. Huntsville Times has been pretty good about listing resources, too. I would check into what assistance may be available before paying big $ for tree removal.

We only had one smaller tree out back come down, thank heaven - think we may be able to manage it ourselves, with friends, considering it's not near any buildings or phone lines.

A friend told us to call the United Way because they were advertising tree removal. We called and they seemed very responsive and said they would come out. We planned to make a large donation to the charity once the trees were removed. Well they came out, started cutting up some trees, including cutting one down that was leaning at a 30 degree angle, and then they stopped. Apparently a manager for the United Way showed up and told his workers to stop working because our house wasn't in "need" of their services. This frustrated my wife because she asked the United Way rep on the phone when she called as to whether they were offering services to "all" people, as well as what services they would do, and she made it seem like we qualified for their service. So now my yard is in worse shape because I have this extra tree laying across the yard, whereas before it was still standing, just leaning quite a bit. Yesterday my neighbor came over and told me about the United Way, and then I proceeded to tell him about our ordeal. He suggested I call them again and see if they would be more willing to come back out once the critical removal gets done. I would much rather give the United Way a few thousand dollars as a donation than to a tree service that has been reaping the rewards of the storm. At least the donated money will go back into helping the community. For now the trees are not a problem and they can wait until things calm down. I appreciate everyone's feedback.

The United Way is a good organization. I give to them on monthly basis. The tree service is probably someone they have contracted out with to provide assistence to those who need. Call them back and ask them about making the donation and throw them a dollar figure and what they say.

The United Way is a good organization. I give to them on monthly basis. The tree service is probably someone they have contracted out with to provide assistence to those who need. Call them back and ask them about making the donation and throw them a dollar figure and what they say.