Tree Services in Elverta, California

Elverta sits in the far northern corner of Sacramento County, where the Sutter and Placer county lines meet open fields. It came out of the same 1912 subdivision of Rancho Del Paso land that created Rio Linda next door, and the ground is just as flat, about 52 feet above sea level with no hills to break the wind. Trees here are spread out rather than continuous. The biggest stand is at Gibson Ranch, the regional park on Elverta's eastern side, where Dry Creek runs year round under a corridor of very large old oaks and sycamores and valley oaks dot the surrounding meadows. Outside the park, the canopy is mostly a mix of field oaks, windbreak rows planted by earlier owners, and young trees in the newer subdivisions.

Two very different kinds of property share the community. Older agricultural-residential parcels, many with horses, long driveways and outbuildings, carry a few large trees that have stood alone in the open for decades and take the full force of winter storms. Closer to Watt Avenue and Gibson Ranch, subdivisions like Cherry Creek and Gibson Crossing have put up rows of new houses, and the county's Elverta Specific Plan, adopted in 2007, sets aside much more land east of the old town for homes. New streets bring young trees that need good structure while they are small. They also put grading, trenching and foundations close to older oaks that were there first, and construction damage to a root zone often shows up years later as dieback in the crown.

Open lots make it easier to bring in equipment, but wind is the constant factor. Isolated trees benefit from regular inspection, reduction of long end-weighted limbs, and removal of deadwood that could land on a fence, a corral or a parked trailer. For homeowners in the newer tracts, early structural pruning saves bigger problems later. Anyone building near an established oak should follow the county's protection approach: fence the root zone outside the dripline, keep vehicles, stockpiles and trenching out of it, and get a tree permit before removing a protected native oak.