4.9 · 462 Google reviews · Licensed & Insured
Tree & Palm Removal in St. Pete Beach
Pass-a-Grille alley lots and resort-corridor frontage need different removal plans. A crane goes on the technical picks, and we work around your schedule. (727) 365-1803.
“Fast quote and when we decided it was time to remove our Oak, they were there on time and ready to get to work. They have all the equipment necessary for this huge job and work very efficiently.”
- 462 Google reviews
- Licensed & Insured
- ISA Certified Arborist on staff
- Pinellas since 1989
St. Pete Beach is really two towns stacked on one island, and they need different crews' worth of thinking.
North of Corey Avenue you have the Gulf Boulevard corridor: resorts, mid-rise condos, big landscaped frontages, the Don CeSar standing at the south end of it since 1928. Wide access, room to work, mostly commercial and association property, and a landscape of palms and salt-tolerant plantings.
Then there is Pass-a-Grille, at the southern tip, the oldest settlement on these islands and nothing like the rest of it. Streets barely wide enough for two cars. Cottage lots of twenty-five or thirty feet frontage. Alleys behind. Overhead service drops running across back yards. And in among all that, seventy- and eighty-year-old sea grapes, cabbage palms and the occasional stubborn old ficus, wedged between two houses with a foot to spare.
Getting a tree out of Pass-a-Grille
You cannot fell it, and often you cannot get a crane close enough to lift it. What you can do is take it apart from the top, piece by piece, on rigging lines, with a lowering device controlling every section into a landing zone the size of a doormat, while somebody watches the service drop three feet from the work.
That is slow, skilled, expensive-per-hour work that is nonetheless cheaper than the alternative, which is a section of trunk through a 1920s roof. It is also why the alley matters: where a block has usable alley clearance, the chipper goes behind and the debris never crosses the property.
brings lifts and grapple trucks to the routine work and a crane to the technical picks. And we do not put a crane where a crane does not fit, which on Pass-a-Grille is most of the point.
What kills trees on this island
Salt, mostly. Hurricane Helene put six to seven feet of surge across the Pinellas beaches in September 2024 and every low block on this island went under. Salt in a sandy root zone burns fine roots and the decline runs out over the following seasons, thin upper canopy, small leaves, dieback creeping inward. Cabbage palm, sea grape and buttonwood largely came through it. Queen palms, citrus and inland ornamentals largely did not.
A salt-stressed tree with a sound root plate may recover. A salt-killed tree on made ground beside a seawall will not. Telling them apart is the assessment.
Start here
Send us a photo of the tree.
You do not have to know whether it needs to come down. That is the part we are for.
- One photo, whole tree in frameTrunk base to top. A close-up of anything that looks wrong helps.
- Text us the photoThe text button below opens the right thread. Add your street and city.
- We come out and lookEvery estimate is in person, free, sometimes the answer is that it needs nothing.
Permits
Pinellas County’s Chapter 58, Article XIX applies inside city limits: protected at 4 inches DBH, every palm 6 feet or taller protected, 24 inches DBH on an occupied homesteaded single-family property, and $150 per DBH inch for unauthorized removal, with the owner and the tree contractor jointly and severally liable.
On top of that, St. Pete Beach runs its own permit under Division 22 of the city land development code: any tree of 3 inches DBH or more, and any palm 8 feet or taller, needs a city tree-removal permit before it comes down (§22.11). The fee is $25 per tree, waived for dead trees, transplants and listed invasives, though the permit itself is still required, the trees must be physically marked for the city’s inspection, and a permit runs three months (§22.12(b)). Replacement is native-for-native, one tree for a removal up to 4 inches DBH and two above it, unless the lot already meets the city’s minimum tree counts (§22.12(e)(2)). Skip the permit and the penalty is twice the fee or $100, whichever is greater (§22.14(b)), and unlike some cities on this coast, the code opens with "unless preempted by state law," so a properly documented §163.045 removal is accommodated. The full walk-through: St. Pete Beach tree permits. Parks Division: (727) 363-9245.
Pass-a-Grille’s historic designation is about buildings, not trees: certificates of appropriateness attach to construction, additions, moving and demolition of designated structures (§28.8), and designation itself is owner-voluntary. There is no separate historic review for removing a tree. Landscaping does appear in overlay standards and COA site plans, so on a contributing property we keep the paperwork tidy, but the tree permit above is the one that governs the removal.
Mangroves along the bay side and around the Bayway are regulated separately, under the county’s mangrove article and the state mangrove act, F.S. § 163.045 expressly does not reach them.
Where a tree qualifies, § 163.045 does remove the permit requirement for a single-family detached residence, on documentation from an ISA Certified Arborist assessing under ISA tree-risk-assessment standards that removal is the only practical way to bring risk below moderate. We hold that certification in-house.
Free estimate
(727) 365-1803. Corey Avenue to the end of Pass-a-Grille. Working Pinellas since 1989.
Frequently asked questions
There’s no room at all on my Pass-a-Grille lot. Can it still be done? Yes, from the top down, on rigging lines, with every piece controlled. Tight lots are a time problem rather than an impossibility. What we will not do is guess at clearances around a service drop.
Can you work from the alley? Where the block has one with usable clearance, that is usually the best set-up. It keeps the equipment off your lot and out of the root zone of the trees you are keeping.
My palm survived the storm but looks terrible. Wait or remove? Check the spear, the newest unopened frond at the center. Firm and green means the bud is alive and the palm will rebuild its canopy over a couple of seasons. Soft or pulling out means it is finished.
Is St. Pete Beach’s tree rule different from the county’s? The city has its own provisions and, where they conflict with the county’s Article XIX, the city’s prevail. The county code still applies as the baseline. We check the parcel before quoting either way.
Google reviews
Rated 4.9 by 462 of your neighbors.
Reviews · Tree & Palm Removal in St. Pete Beach
4.9
462 reviews on Google, the count on our public Google listing
“Fast quote and when we decided it was time to remove our Oak, they were there on time and ready to get to work. They have all the equipment necessary for this huge job and work very efficiently.”
“Steven was great, him and his crew got out early and was here all day taking out my four laurel oaks for me. Start to finish it was a pleasure working with happy tree service. The speed and efficiency of the work was fantastic.”
Every one of these lives on our public Google listing, where we cannot edit or delete a word. Read them all on Google →