Searching for tree service in Orlando, FL, usually turns up companies from across the whole metro. This page is about the City of Orlando itself: the neighborhoods inside city limits, the rules City Hall applies to trees on private lots and along streets, and the utility and trash details that change how a tree job is planned here.
Tree Service Orlando FL does not trim or remove trees. It is a free phone line. Call (689) 407-5379, tell the automated assistant your neighborhood or ZIP and what the tree is doing, and your call is transferred to an independent, locally owned tree service company that works in the city. That company looks at the tree, gives you its own price and does the work.
Orlando: a city of live oaks, with cypress swamps around the edges
The best picture of Orlando's trees comes from a University of Florida IFAS study of everything inside city limits, measured in the summer of 2010. Researchers estimated about 7.5 million trees and 22.1 percent tree cover. Most of those trees stand in the city's forested land, which is why bald cypress and pond cypress top the citywide count.
Neighborhoods tell a different story. In residential areas, live oak made up 27.6 percent of all trees and supplied 53.6 percent of the leaf area, more than half the shade over Orlando homes. Laurel oak came next at about 7.6 percent of residential trees and 12.5 percent of the leaf area. So when a city homeowner calls about a tree, it is very often a big oak, and the job is usually about keeping a valuable live oak healthy or deciding what to do about an aging laurel oak.
Neighborhoods of every age, and trees to match
The city grew outward for 150 years, and its own neighborhood records show it. Thornton Park and Lake Eola Heights were annexed in 1875. Delaney Park came in 1911. College Park and Colonialtown joined in the 1920s. Baldwin Park, the former Naval Training Center Orlando, was annexed in 1947, and Audubon Park in the early 1950s. Lake Nona in the southeast arrived through annexations between 1994 and 1998.
That spread matters for trees. Streets near downtown carry oaks that have had a century to spread over roofs, sidewalks and overhead wires, and their roots share narrow parkways with old water and sewer lines. Neighborhoods built after the war often have laurel oaks that were planted with the houses, and UF/IFAS puts laurel oak's life span at roughly 50 to 70 years. Newer areas like Lake Nona have younger trees, where good early pruning sets up decades of strength. Tell the line which part of the city you are in; it helps the company you are connected with know what it is walking into.
Who handles which tree problem in the City of Orlando
Not every tree problem is yours to pay for. These are the contacts the city and OUC publish.
| The problem | Who handles it | How to reach them |
|---|---|---|
| Low or broken limbs over a street or sidewalk, a dead street tree, branches blocking a streetlight | City of Orlando, for trees in the public right-of-way | 407.246.2283, trees@orlando.gov, or the city's SeeClickFix reporting page |
| A fallen tree blocking a road or sidewalk | City of Orlando | The city's non-emergency line, 321.235.5300 |
| A tree touching or near power lines | OUC | (407) 423-9018 to request trimming; 911 if a line is down |
| A dangerous tree on a neighbor's property | City Code Enforcement | Report it to Code Enforcement through the city |
| A tree on your own lot | You, through a tree company you hire | The free line: (689) 407-5379 |
| Wanting a new shade tree by the street | City street tree program | Requests June 1 to September 30; 407.246.2564 |
One limit surprises people: the city trims street trees only from the street side. Limbs from a right-of-way oak that hang over your roof are not something the city will cut, so that part of the job falls to a private company.
The City of Orlando tree removal permit
The city wants to make sure that "only unhealthy, dead, hazardous or problematic trees are removed," so most removals on a residential lot need a permit. The rules, as the city publishes them:
- Fee: $25 for a residential property. Commercial property pays $50 per acre, and every commercial removal needs a permit.
- Timing: the city says it processes an application within three business days, and a city arborist inspects within three business days after that.
- How to apply: online at orlando.opencounter.com, with photographs of the tree.
- Replanting: if the permit calls for replacement trees, they must go in within 60 days, and you must tell the city they are planted.
- The exception: no permit is needed when an arborist with TRAQ (tree risk assessment) qualification or a Florida licensed landscape architect gives you a report showing the tree poses a danger.
That exception lines up with Florida Statute 163.045. Under the statute, a city cannot require a permit, fee or replanting to remove a tree on a single-family home lot when an ISA certified arborist or Florida licensed landscape architect documents, using the ISA's tree risk assessment method, that removal is the only practical way to bring the tree's risk below moderate. Ask the company you are connected with whether it will provide that documentation, or apply for the permit, and put the answer in the written quote. Questions go to the city's tree office at 407.246.2283.
Storms the city's trees remember
Hurricane Charley crossed Central Florida in August 2004, and the National Hurricane Center records its center passing near Kissimmee and Orlando. Orlando International Airport measured hurricane-force sustained winds with a gust of 91 knots, about 105 miles per hour. The UF/IFAS study suggested the 2004 storms had already knocked down many of the city's weakest trees and limbs.
In 2017, Hurricane Irma brought down more than 400 trees on public property in the city alone, by the city's own count reported at the time, and Harry P. Leu Gardens lost about 50 trees, uprooted. The city put cleanup first and replanting after. Hurricane Milton in October 2024 sent a gust of 76 knots, about 87 miles per hour, across Orlando International Airport along with more than 4 inches of rain there.
The lesson for city homeowners is to look at big trees before June. A weak crotch or hollow trunk that survives a quiet summer is exactly what a storm finds. The hurricane prep guide covers what to check, and the storm damage page covers what to do after.
OUC lines and city trash rules change the quote
Working near OUC lines
OUC trims along its distribution lines on a three-year cycle and asks customers to keep ladders and equipment at least 10 feet from power lines and never to trim near them. It says roughly 20 percent of outages come from trees or limbs contacting lines. If your tree is anywhere near a wire, say so on the call. A careful company will coordinate with OUC rather than work in that zone itself.
What the city will haul, and what it will not
Weekly yard waste pickup takes up to 4 cubic yards, roughly a pickup truck bed. Branches must be no more than 4 inches thick and 4 feet long, tied in bundles under 40 pounds, at the curb by 6 a.m. Tree trunks and contractor waste are not collected. Ask every company whether its price includes hauling the wood away.
Before you hire anyone in the city
City jobs go smoother when the paperwork is settled early. Request a general liability certificate mailed by the company's insurer, evidence of workers' compensation, and the name and ISA number of the arborist judging any big oak. Ask who is pulling the city permit, or who is writing the risk report that makes a permit unnecessary. On narrow city lots, also ask where the truck and chipper will park and how the crew will protect the parkway, sidewalk and any street tree that belongs to the city.
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).
Not sure what the tree needs? Call and describe it. The company you are put through to looks at the tree and tells you the price before any work starts.
Tree work Orlando homes call about most
For a declining laurel oak or a pine hit by lightning, start with tree removal. A healthy live oak usually needs pruning to keep its limbs off the roof and its structure sound, not removal. When a tree is down at night or across a driveway, see emergency tree removal, and when you are not sure what the tree needs, an arborist assessment comes first.
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.
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 Pruning and Oak Tree Care
Structural pruning for young trees and live oaks, the right season to prune oaks in Central Florida, and cuts to avoid.
Arborist Tree Assessment
A certified arborist's look at a tree's health and risk, what the visit costs, and the written report Florida's tree law relies on.
Why Orlando homeowners call the line
The $25 permit or the arborist's report
Most removals on a city lot need the $25 residential permit, unless a TRAQ-qualified arborist or licensed landscape architect documents that the tree is a danger. The call is transferred to an independent, locally owned company, and you can ask it on the spot which route it will handle.
Street-side limbs belong to the city, roof-side limbs do not
The city trims a right-of-way oak only from the street side. When its limbs hang over your house, that part of the job is yours, and one free call reaches a company that works inside city limits.
An oak leaning toward an OUC wire
OUC asks customers never to trim near its lines. Mention the wire to the automated assistant, which answers 24/7, so it is part of what the company hears when your call is transferred. A careful company will coordinate with OUC rather than work in that zone itself.
A trunk the curbside pickup will not take
City yard waste collection skips tree trunks and contractor waste. The company you are connected with quotes its own price, including whether hauling is in it, and you pay that company directly. The line costs you nothing.
How an Orlando 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 next to Orlando
The full list of Orlando-area cities the line answers for:
- All Orlando-area service areas
- Kissimmee
- St. Cloud
- Clermont
- Winter Garden
- Ocoee
- Apopka
- Winter Park
- Altamonte Springs
- Longwood
- Lake Mary
- Sanford
- Oviedo
- DeLand