Tree Work in Aurora Right Now Is One Decision About One Species
Emerald ash borer was confirmed inside Aurora in 2025. It kills close to 100% of the untreated ash it gets into, and city officials have put Aurora's ash count at roughly 110,000 trees with about 90% of them standing on private property.
So the bill lands on homeowners, not the city. Aurora Forestry has already made its own call: city officials report the city-owned ash inventory has been cut from about 7,000 in 2015 to roughly 4,700, and the plan is to keep about 50 of those. Everything else comes down.
If you have an ash in your yard, you are choosing between paying to treat it every couple of years for the rest of its life or paying once to take it out. There is no third option where you wait and it works out.
The Ash Math Every Aurora Homeowner Is Now Doing
Treatment works. Trunk injection by a licensed applicator saves healthy ash, and a big one shading the west side of a house at 5,471 feet is earning its keep on the cooling bill.
Treatment is also permanent. It is not a cure, it is a repeating appointment every two or three years for as long as the tree stands, and it has to start before the canopy is far gone. A tree already thinning at the top is past the point where injection is a good spend.
Removal is once. Bigger number on the day, then finished.
What Aurora homeowners keep missing is that waiting is not neutral, it is the expensive choice. Aurora's forestry manager has said publicly that delay pushes the price up and the danger up together, because a dead ash goes brittle. A living tree holds its weight while a climber works in it. A dead one drops limbs on the crew, which is why bids on a standing dead ash come back higher a year later.
Before you call anyone, settle whether you even own an ash. Ash puts branches and buds directly opposite each other on the stem, not staggered. The leaf is one stalk carrying five to nine leaflets, not a single blade. On a mature trunk the bark ridges cross into tight diamonds. Three yes answers and you have an ash. One no and you can stop reading about borers.
Two minutes from your sidewalk
Stand back far enough to see the top third of the canopy. EAB kills from the top down, so thinning up high over a full-looking bottom is the early tell. Then walk in and check the trunk for split bark, for exit holes shaped like a capital D about an eighth of an inch across and for new shoots pushing out of the base. Shoots low down mean the tree is trying to restart itself below the damage.
Storms, Drought Rules and Hiring a Crew You Can Check
Aurora sits on the plains side of the metro, under the Denver Convergence Vorticity Zone. Published research on the DCVZ describes it forming on roughly a third of days from May through August and producing landspout tornadoes, microbursts and severe hail. Lakewood and Golden on the west side do not sit under it the same way. For your trees that means the failure here is a microburst snapping a co-dominant leader, not a slow decline.
Water is the other half. This is a semi-arid city taking roughly 15 to 18 inches a year, and Aurora Water, city-owned and separate from Denver Water, has had restrictions in force cutting lawn irrigation to two assigned days a week with no outdoor watering between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Stages change, so pull up the watering-times page on auroragov.org before you plan anything. The city's own page is the only place that answer is current.
A drought-stressed tree fights insects badly. The water rules and the borer press on the same tree in the same season, so a slow soak at the drip line is the cheapest thing you can do for an ash you intend to keep.
Aurora also covers 163 square miles and climbs from 5,285 feet at Sand Creek in the northwest to 6,229 feet on the Douglas County line. A crew quoting Original Aurora and one quoting Tallyn's Reach are pricing a 20 plus mile difference in drive and haul, and it shows up in your number.
Colorado licenses electricians and plumbers as state trades. Tree care is not one of them, so certification is the credential that means something. Ask for the certificate number of the person who will stand in your yard.
Commercial pesticide application for tree treatment is licensed by the state. If a company is selling ash injections, that license is not optional and they should produce it on the spot.
Ask the agency to email you the certificate of insurance directly. A PDF forwarded off a phone proves nothing. Tree work drops weight on roofs, fences and neighbors.
Aurora provides lifetime care only for trees the city planted. A crew that checks whether yours is a city tree is paying attention. Aurora Forestry sits under Parks, Recreation and Open Space at 303.739.7177.
Five Things That Cost Aurora Homeowners Money On Their Own Trees
Do not give the ash one more season to see what happens. This is the expensive Aurora mistake and the most common one, because the tree usually still looks alive. Waiting buys a brittle tree that costs more to take down and needs more rigging to do it safely. Same tree, worse day, bigger invoice.
Do not let a door knocker treat everything in your yard. Emerald ash borer eats ash. It does not touch your maple, honeylocust, linden or spruce. A quote that injects six trees for borer protection when one is an ash sells you five injections you do not need. Make them walk the yard and name each species out loud before you sign.
Do not top a storm-damaged tree. After a microburst, a cheap crew with a bucket truck and a spare afternoon will offer to cut the canopy back to stubs. Topping forces weak regrowth off the cut ends, and those shoots fail in the next windstorm, which on this side of the metro is a matter of weeks in summer. You pay for the topping and again for the failure.
Do not pile water at the trunk to help it fight the borer. Aurora sits on expansive shrink-swell clay that heaves when it takes a concentrated soak, and the Colorado Geological Survey treats it as the region's dominant ground hazard. A hose left running near the house does not save a tree and it can lift a slab, a walk or a driveway. Water slowly, at the drip line, well away from the foundation.
Do not assume the tree by the curb is the city's problem. Aurora cares for trees the city planted, and that is exactly why roughly 90% of the ash problem here is a private bill. Call 303.739.7177 and ask before you assume anyone else is paying.
One question that reprices the whole job
Ask any crew quoting a removal what happens to the wood. Ash from an infested area should not be hauled off and stockpiled as firewood elsewhere, and a crew that answers that crisply has been working here since the confirmation, not since last Tuesday.
Tree Service Costs in Aurora CO
Typical Aurora ranges, here so you can sanity check a quote instead of replacing one. Two things move the number most: how far the crew drives across a 163 square mile city, and whether the tree is still alive when they get there.
Common Questions About Tree Service in Aurora CO
Is there such a thing as a licensed tree service in Colorado?
Not as a state trade. Colorado licenses electricians and plumbers at state level and tree care is not on that list, so a company advertising itself as a licensed tree service in Aurora is using a word with no state meaning behind it.
Aurora's Building Division licenses building trades and its schedule covers classes like roofing, mechanical and remodeling. Whether the city separately registers tree companies through Parks, Recreation and Open Space is worth a call to 303.739.7177 before you take anyone's word for it.
What is checkable: an ISA Certified Arborist credential, a state applicator license for anyone injecting or spraying and a certificate of insurance emailed by the agency. Ask for those three and the licensed question stops mattering.
How do I know if my tree is an ash?
Branches and buds sit directly opposite each other on the stem, the leaf is a single stalk with five to nine leaflets on it, and mature bark forms tight diamond ridges. All three together means ash, and if two of the three do not match, the borer is not your problem. The check costs nothing and takes a minute in your own yard.
My ash still looks fine. Do I have to do anything?
You have to decide, which is different from having to act today. EAB is confirmed in Aurora and untreated ash die at close to 100%, so a healthy-looking ash is a tree on a clock, not one that got lucky.
Treating is a repeating cost every two or three years. Removing is one cost. The wrong move is picking neither and letting the tree choose for you, because a dead ash is more dangerous and more expensive to take down.
Will the City of Aurora remove my ash?
Only if the city planted it. Aurora provides a lifetime of care, including pruning, pest management, removal and replacement, for city-planted trees. An ash in a private yard is entirely the owner's expense.
Call Aurora Forestry at 303.739.7177 if you are unsure which side of that line your tree falls on.
Can I water my trees under Aurora's drought rules?
Aurora Water has had restrictions limiting lawn irrigation to two assigned days a week with no outdoor watering between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. The stage can change, so check the watering-times page on auroragov.org for what applies this week.
Whatever the rule, water at the drip line, never in a pool at the trunk or against the house. Aurora's clay heaves when it gets a sudden soak in one spot.
Do you do the tree work yourselves?
No. Contractor Palace matches you with Aurora tree crews and the company you book does the work. There is no charge to you.
Got an ash in the yard? Get matched free.
Tell us the species if you know it, roughly how tall and how close it stands to the house or the fence. We match you with an Aurora tree crew who gives you a straight treat-or-remove answer. No charge to you.
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