People searching for tree removal in DeLand, FL, are usually dealing with an oak: a big one over a historic house, a declining one by the street, or one that split in a storm. DeLand cares about those trees more than most towns, and its rules show it. Here is what is different about tree work in DeLand, from the permit questions to the power lines and the debris.
Tree Service Orlando FL does not send crews. It is a free phone line. Call (689) 407-5379, describe the tree and give your DeLand address or ZIP, and the assistant hands your call to an independent tree company run by local owners that works across west Volusia County. It visits, prices the job itself and does the cutting.
DeLand: a town that paid people to plant oaks
DeLand began as Persimmon Hollow, named for the wild persimmon trees that grew around its natural springs. Henry Addison DeLand, a New York baking soda manufacturer, founded the town in 1876 and hoped to build a citrus and farming center, until a freeze in 1885 destroyed the orange crop. DeLand became the county seat of Volusia County in 1887. DeLand Academy, founded in 1883, was renamed John B. Stetson University in 1889, and Henry DeLand's nickname for the town, the Athens of Florida, stuck.
The town's shade has a story too. Discover DeLand, the local visitor bureau, credits an early tax law that gave residents a tax break for every oak they planted. More than a century later, the visitor bureau points to those big oaks along city streets as one of DeLand's most notable features.
The city still treats its trees as part of its identity. DeLand earned the 2025 Tree City of the World designation from the Arbor Day Foundation and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, a recognition it first received in 2019, and it holds yearly tree giveaways of species such as live oak, southern magnolia, bald cypress, sycamore and persimmon.
Old oaks, old houses: what DeLand trees need
The University of Florida's IFAS extension calls southern live oak an excellent street tree for the South that can measure its life in centuries when it is well placed and cared for. It also lists the catch. Branches that form a narrow angle with the trunk tend to split away as the tree ages, the roots eventually lift sidewalks, curbs and driveways, and the biggest problem with live oaks in cities is a lack of pruning. In UF's words, it is not a plant-and-forget tree.
For DeLand homeowners that points to a few common jobs:
- Reducing long limbs that reach out over a roof, porch or driveway, so the weight at the tips does not pull a branch apart in a storm.
- Raising the canopy over a street, sidewalk or driveway with a few well-placed cuts rather than heavy thinning.
- Correcting structure on younger oaks, including the giveaway trees planted in recent years, while cuts are still small.
- Checking roots and trunks where a driveway, sewer or foundation repair has cut into the root zone.
That is the work behind most searches for tree trimming in DeLand, FL. Good pruning on a valued old oak is usually worth more than removal, and on a historic tree it may be the only option the city will accept. When an oak really has failed, a careful tree removal with sections lowered by rope, or a crane on a tight lot, protects the house underneath.
DeLand and Volusia County tree rules
Which rules apply depends on whether your address is inside DeLand city limits or in unincorporated west Volusia.
Inside DeLand
The city says a historic tree, or a tree planted to meet the requirements for a new subdivision, needs a permit and replacement even if it is dead. A tree under 20 inches in diameter may come out without a permit if you have lived in the home 10 years or more and it is not in a protected or natural area. The City Forester answers questions at 386-626-7178.
Unincorporated Volusia
Volusia County's tree preservation ordinance protects specimen trees: 12 inches in diameter for species such as magnolia, red cedar and turkey oak, and 18 inches for other oaks, maple, sweet gum, hickory, elm, sycamore and bald cypress. County Environmental Permitting is at 386-736-5927.
A risky tree at a home
Florida Statute 163.045 bars cities and counties from requiring a permit, fee or replanting to remove a tree on a single-family lot when an ISA certified arborist or a Florida licensed landscape architect documents that it poses an unacceptable risk to people or property.
Storms, power lines and debris in DeLand
DeLand's tree damage does not only come from hurricanes. On August 18, 2020, an EF-2 tornado touched down in DeLand around 4 p.m. and caused an estimated $7.4 million in damage along a 4.6-mile path. Hurricanes reach this far inland too: on October 12, 2024, three days after Hurricane Milton, the Florida Department of Health in Volusia County reported about 25,000 Duke Energy customers and 49,710 Florida Power & Light customers in the county still without power.
Duke Energy serves DeLand, and its own announcements describe programs for customers in DeLand neighborhoods. Some other parts of Volusia County are served by FPL and smaller utilities, so check your bill. Whatever the utility, a tree resting on a line or on the service wire to the house is the utility's job first. Stay back, keep pets and children inside, and call 911 if anything is sparking or down.
For debris, the city's contractor GFL Environmental collects yard waste once a week. Pieces may be up to 4 feet long and 6 inches across, containers and tied bundles up to 75 pounds, about 1 cubic yard per week, set out by 6 a.m. The city's solid waste line is 386-626-7195. A removed oak is many times that size, so the written quote should say whether logs, brush and the stump leave the property.
What to ask a DeLand tree company
Florida has no state license for tree trimming or removal, so you do the checking. Ask the company you are put through to for:
- Liability insurance proof: a certificate mailed or emailed to you directly by the company's agent, listing you as the holder.
- Workers' compensation: either the policy certificate or the state exemption paperwork that explains why the company does not carry it.
- The name and ISA certification number of the arborist who judges the tree, particularly for a historic oak or a risk-based removal.
- Who checks with the City Forester or the county, and who applies for any permit and replacement trees.
- A written quote covering cleanup, hauling and stump grinding, and how the crew will protect the lawn, walks and roots of the trees that stay.
Check the company yourself. Florida has no state license for tree trimming or removal, so ask the company for a certificate of general liability and workers' compensation insurance, and for the ISA certification number of its arborist. You can confirm a certification with the ISA's credential lookup (opens in a new tab).
Describe the tree, roughly how big the trunk is and what it is near. The DeLand-area company you reach looks at it and tells you its price before any work starts.
Tree services DeLand homes ask about
From shaping an old oak to clearing a storm-broken limb.
Tree Removal
Taking down a dead, leaning or unwanted tree safely, from small yard trees to big laurel oaks near the house, and what a fair quote includes.
Tree Trimming
Clearing limbs off the roof, raising canopies over driveways and thinning heavy oaks before storm season, without the damage bad cuts cause.
Emergency Tree Removal (24/7)
A tree on the house, the car or across the driveway. What to do in the first hour and how emergency removal is handled and priced.
Tree Cabling and Bracing
Steel cables and rods that support split trunks and heavy limbs, when they help, when removal is safer, and how they are checked.
Why DeLand homeowners call the line
An old oak over a historic porch
Most DeLand calls are about a live oak with long limbs over a roof or porch. Say how big the trunk is and what sits under it. You are put through to an independent company working across west Volusia, and it can tell you whether reducing a few limbs would do before anyone talks about removal.
Even a dead historic tree has rules
Inside the city, a historic tree or a subdivision-required tree needs a permit and replacement even when it has died. Before work starts, ask the company you reach who will check with the City Forester at 386-626-7178 and who files any permit.
Tornado or hurricane, the number still answers
DeLand has seen an EF-2 tornado as well as the tail of Hurricane Milton. Duke Energy serves the town, so a limb on a line is Duke's job first, and 911's if it is sparking. For the broken limb on the lawn, the automated assistant takes the call any hour.
More wood than the weekly curb pickup takes
The city's yard waste collection takes about one cubic yard a week in four-foot pieces. A fallen oak is far more, so get logs, brush and the stump written into the quote. The company sets that price and you pay it; calling the line costs you nothing.
How a DeLand call works
- Call any hourAn automated assistant answers (689) 407-5379 and asks what kind of tree work you need.
- Describe the jobGive your name, a callback number, your city or ZIP and what the tree is doing, including anything on a roof, a car or a line.
- Get put throughThe call goes to an independent, locally owned tree service company, which hears a short summary before it picks up.
- Deal with them directlyThat company looks at the tree, quotes, does the work and is paid by you. If it cannot answer, it gets your details to call back.
How this line works: Tree Service Orlando FL is a free phone line, not a tree service company. It does not trim, remove, quote or schedule tree work and holds no license or arborist certification. Calls are transferred to independent, locally owned tree service companies in the Orlando area. Those companies may pay Tree Service Orlando FL a referral fee. You never pay the line. How it works.
Areas near DeLand
Guides for DeLand homeowners
Every Orlando-area city the line answers for: