On a Forsyth County lot, room decides the job.
A mature hardwood on an older Winston-Salem street stands in space already spoken for: driveway, roof, fence line, neighbor's yard. The same tree in a Davidson County field is a different day's work, and the difference is room, not skill. An ordinary tree removal assumes ground to work with.
What a tight lot takes away
Room is the variable that decides a removal in an old neighborhood. Wood can only go where there is ground clear enough to take it, and on a close-set city lot that ground is a driveway, a strip of grass, and what the neighbor has not built on.
The same holds on a Clemmons cul-de-sac or an older Kernersville block: the tree is ordinary and the space around it is not. The question is not how big the tree is, it is what can get near it.
Pieces, and where the pieces go
A removal with no drop zone is a series of small controlled loads instead of one large one. Each piece is cut to a size that can be held, carried clear of the roof, and set down in the one open place.
The pieces travel up and over what is in the way rather than down through it. How a crane does that belongs on the crane-assisted removal page, and what separates two trees of one height is on the what drives a removal quote page.
What Winston-Salem will not put in its truck
Winston-Salem's own list of what the city cannot collect opens with brush cut by contractors or commercial services. It also excludes brush from vacant lots or businesses, brush mixed with trash, and stumps. Hiring anyone to take a tree down does not end in a pile the city collects.
For brush a homeowner cuts, the published specification is no larger than 6 inches wide and 6 feet long, laid neatly at the curb with the cut ends facing the same direction. Collection runs one quadrant at a time, clockwise, about 21 business days in each. The city's two yard waste management facilities are a separate lane.
The ordinance, and the lots it names as exempt
Winston-Salem and Forsyth County share one development ordinance, written so that italic text applies in Winston-Salem only and underlined text applies in Forsyth County only. Quoting a provision does not settle which of the two it binds, and the exemptions below sit in the section headed for Winston-Salem.
Inside the Winston-Salem landscaping and tree preservation section, the ordinance names its exemptions. A single family detached dwelling on its own lot is exempt from the landscaping requirements, and individual residential lots platted before adoption are exempt from the tree preservation requirements. What applies outside the city limits is a question for Forsyth County planning.
EnergyUnited names Forsyth, in portions
EnergyUnited publishes that it provides electric service in portions of nineteen counties in west central North Carolina, and Forsyth is named on that list. Portions is the operative word: a provider list is not a map. EnergyUnited's published outage line is 1-800-386-4833.
The provider to call is the one that sends the bill. A wire in the picture changes the order of everything else, and 24-hour storm response and the first hour carry that. The seven counties are on the service area map, and two cities answering differently is the Guilford County page.
What the state publishes about eastern Forsyth
The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, NCDA and CS, tells residents in eastern Forsyth County that they do not need to report spotted lanternfly sightings, because that area is generally infested, and says it is only able to treat commercially and publicly owned properties at high risk of spread. That is eastern Forsyth, not all of it.
Maple, walnut and willow are among the more than 70 plant species NCDA and CS names spotted lanternfly as a known pest of, and the first detection was in Kernersville. None of that settles whether one tree needs to come out. Counties past this one are on how far we travel.
A big tree on a tight Forsyth County lot?
Questions people actually ask.
Will Winston-Salem pick up brush that a tree crew cut?
No. The first item on the city's own list of what it cannot collect is brush cut by contractors or commercial services.
How long before brush collection comes back around to my street in Winston-Salem?
The city works one quadrant at a time in a clockwise rotation and publishes that crews spend about 21 business days in each. Storms delay it, and brush collection is limited because of loose leaf collection.
Can I haul yard waste somewhere myself in Winston-Salem?
Yes. Both city yard waste management facilities accept yard waste through the year from city crews, private companies and the public.
Does Winston-Salem's tree ordinance stop a tree coming out of my own yard?
Not for the lots it names. The Winston-Salem landscaping and tree preservation section exempts a single family detached dwelling on its own lot from the landscaping requirements, and residential lots platted before adoption from the tree preservation requirements. A parcel outside the city is a question for Forsyth County planning.
Which electric provider covers my Forsyth County address?
The power bill at that address names it. EnergyUnited publishes that it provides electric service in portions of nineteen counties, Forsyth among them, and a list of counties is not a map of streets.