Our Story
East-central Illinois tree removal, done right.
A Local Crew That Learned Trees on the Power Lines
Dale Kruger grew up outside Lerna, IL and spent nine seasons on a utility line-clearance crew across Coles, Cumberland and Douglas counties. That's where he learned how a silver maple behaves in soaked ground when a storm line hits, how ice loads a hackberry limb, and how to piece a tree down with a house on one side and a primary line on the other.
In 2014 he started the company in Charleston, Illinois with one bucket truck and a chipper, and brought that piece-by-piece method from the utility right-of-way to people's yards.
We're a crew of four now. Out here on flat Grand Prairie farm ground, the trees that matter are the ones somebody planted or spared: windbreak rows, farmstead groves, big yard oaks and maples, and timber along the Embarras River and its creeks. Silver maple and cottonwood shed wood every year, walnut and hackberry have their own quirks, and the emerald ash borer has left dead ash standing over roofs and driveways across the region.
Four Services
Our list is short: removal, stump grinding, trimming and land clearing. Mowing, mulch beds and landscaping aren't on it, and we pass on commercial contracts that would pull the crew off homeowners' calls. Need something outside those four? You'll hear that from us on the first call.
Our Why
Dale kept seeing east-central Illinois homeowners stuck between an out-of-area outfit that quoted high and left the brush, and an uninsured guy with a chainsaw hoping the maple fell the right way. Line work had shown him a better way: section the tree, rig anything that could hit something, and give a backyard job the care of a storm call.
That's the crew we set out to be for Charleston, IL: small, insured, local and straight about what a tree needs.
Bur oak, silver maple, hickory, hackberry and ash each fail their own way, and wet prairie silt loam changes how a root plate holds. We check root flare, trunk and crown before we suggest a thing.
Nobody skips rigging to save an hour next to a house, fence or line. Dale or Tyler walks every property before the plan is set.
The price is on paper before work starts. A borer-killed ash that has to go this month? You'll hear it. An oak that's leaned the same way for thirty years and is sound? You'll hear that too.
We're not done when the tree hits the ground. Trunk, limbs, brush and chips all leave, and the yard looks like it did, minus the tree.
We're a crew of four on purpose. Meet the crew behind every job.
Call or request a free written estimate.
Type your town or ZIP and we'll tell you whether the Charleston crew makes the drive.