The Tree You Should Worry About
Every emergency removal we run in San Angelo started as a tree that looked “mostly fine” until it didn’t. Co-dominant leaders with included bark, heartwood rot hidden inside a still-green canopy, Ganoderma root rot advertised only by a small bracket at the base — most catastrophic failures had warning signs weeks or months before they happened.
A hazardous tree assessment is what catches those signs while you still have options.
What We Look For
Assessments follow the ANSI A300 Part 9 framework, which gives us a repeatable way to evaluate structural defects and rate risk. Concretely, we check:
- Structural union. Co-dominant stems, included bark, historic pruning wounds.
- Trunk integrity. Cracks, cavities, fungal fruiting bodies, cambial dieback.
- Root system. Heave at the flare, exposed structural roots, mower damage, girdling roots.
- Canopy health. Dieback percentage, hangers, epicormic sprouting patterns.
- Disease indicators. Oak wilt symptoms in Texas oaks, pecan decline, Ganoderma at the root collar.
- Target zones. What is under the tree if it fails — a house, driveway, sidewalk, road, neighbor’s structure.
Combining defect severity with target exposure gives us a risk mitigation rating — low, moderate, high, or extreme — and a corresponding recommendation.
What the Report Actually Tells You
For each tree we assess, the report includes:
- Species and approximate age
- Documented defects with photos
- Target zone description
- Risk mitigation rating
- Recommendation: monitor, structural support (bracing), or pre-emptive removal
- Timeline for the recommendation
If the honest answer is “keep an eye on it, re-assess in 12 months,” that is what the report will say. If the answer is “this needs to come down before the next storm rolls through,” we can quote the removal on the same visit — often with a crane, given the size of West Texas oaks and pecans.
When Assessment Beats Emergency
The math on pre-emptive removal is straightforward. An assessment plus a scheduled crane removal on a hazardous 60-foot pecan is usually well under half the cost of the same tree coming down on the roof in a supercell, and it does not involve an insurance claim, a temporary tarp, or a night in a hotel. If you have a tree you have been worried about, the Tree Removal Cost Estimator will give you a rough sense of the removal number to plan around.
Book an Assessment
Assessments run $150–$500 depending on the property, and the fee is credited toward any resulting removal or bracing work. Call (325) 555-9111 or request one online.
If you are worried a tree may fail imminently, that is an emergency call — see Emergency Tree Removal. If the tree is valuable and you want to preserve it, we can also evaluate for Tree Cabling & Bracing as an alternative to removal.
Last updated: July 13, 2026
