Tree Service in Lakewood: Half This City Backs Onto a Former Artillery Range
William F. Hayden Park covers more than 2,400 acres of open space on Green Mountain, inside Lakewood city limits, with houses backing straight onto it. From 1903 to 1939 the Colorado Army National Guard leased that ground as the State Rifle Range and later Camp George West, live fire artillery included. 75mm shrapnel shells have been recovered there, most recently reported in 2022, and CDPHE is running an active munitions cleanup with the National Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers, the city and West Metro Fire. CDPHE states the likelihood of munitions hazards on park trails is very low.
Tree work moves dirt. Stump grinding, root cutting and getting a machine onto a slope all disturb soil, so a Green Mountain job near that boundary is a different conversation from one on the Denver line.
The other Lakewood specific thing is the beetle. Emerald ash borer was confirmed here for the first time in September 2024, found in central Lakewood and verified by the Colorado State University Extension office in Jefferson County.
Green Mountain Is Not Ordinary Ground
Lakewood climbs about 1,300 feet from the flat 1950s grid on the Denver line to the top of Green Mountain, a 6,854 foot mesa, without leaving the city. That climb is most of the story here.
West side homes back onto that former training ground. CDPHE puts trail risk very low, so it is not a reason to avoid the area. It is a reason to say out loud, before anyone quotes, that the job disturbs ground near that boundary. A crew that works Lakewood knows what that means. A crew that only works Denver goes quiet, which tells you something for free.
The canopy flips as you cross town. The 1950s and 1960s streets around Eiber, Glennon Heights and West Colfax carry mature elm, ash and cottonwood planted when the houses went up. Green Mountain and the western subdivisions are open and scrubby. Two different price sheets, one permit counter.
Now the part almost nobody checks. Colorado licenses electricians and plumbers and does not license tree work, so nobody here holds a Colorado tree service license whatever the truck says. Lakewood runs its own contractor registration through eTRAKiT, and the trap is that a Class 5 Special registration cannot get a public way permit. Street trees and boulevard plantings need a Class D Municipal registration, with insurance naming the City of Lakewood and its officers and employees as additional insureds.
So if your tree stands between the sidewalk and the curb, ask for the certificate of insurance and read that line yourself. It either names the city and its officers and employees or it does not. Two minutes in your driveway, and it heads off a common way a Lakewood job stalls.
For a street tree the answer has to be Class D Municipal. Class 5 Special does not cover right of way work, and a crew that cannot tell you the difference has not pulled a permit here.
Right of way work needs it to name the City of Lakewood and its officers and employees as additional insureds. Ask for the PDF before scheduling, not after.
Ground disturbing work near a boundary under active munitions remediation is not routine. Mention it first and see whether the crew knows about the cleanup.
Lakewood Got Its First Confirmed Ash Borer in September 2024
Ash is a large share of Front Range street trees and of what Lakewood's east side was planted with, so that confirmation is a decision with a number attached.
Work out whether you even own an ash before paying anyone to tell you. Ash branches come off the trunk in opposite pairs, directly across from each other, which most yard trees do not do, and the leaves are compound, one stem carrying several leaflets not a single blade. If both are true, the rest of this is your problem.
Then look at the tree. Borer damage starts at the top and works down, so a crown that has thinned while the lower limbs look fine is the pattern. Look for small D shaped exit holes, pale patches where woodpeckers flaked the bark chasing larvae, and shoots sprouting low on a struggling trunk. Not a diagnosis, but enough to know whether the call is urgent.
The timing is not flexible. Removal for an infested ash runs roughly September through April, while the beetle is under the bark. Taking one down in flight season moves the problem to the rest of the street, and a crew that offers to do it in July without saying so is thinking about the invoice. Good crews book the cold months out early.
Storms fill the rest of the calendar. Lakewood sits where the foothills meet the plains, and downslope Chinook wind arrives with sudden temperature rises of 25 to 35 degrees, snapping limbs and shaking deadwood out of old cottonwoods. Hail does the visible damage. The May 8, 2017 hailstorm was the costliest insured catastrophe in Colorado history at about $2.3 billion, and Lakewood was among the worst hit.
One free habit pays for itself. The week a storm goes through, photograph your trees before anyone cleans up, the same way you photograph the roof, because a claim built on memory after the yard is tidied is harder.
What To Do And When, Month By Month
September through April: the ash window
The only stretch when an infested ash should come down, because the beetle is under the bark and moving the wood in flight season spreads it. Book inside this window and ask where the wood is going.
February and March: prune before bud break
Structural cuts, deadwood and anything reaching over the roof, the driveway or the gas meter. Crews are easiest to book now, and the tree has a full season to seal the wounds. East side, this is the month for the elm and cottonwood nobody has touched in decades.
April into June: wind, then hail
Downslope Chinook wind and the first serious hail. Afterward, anything hung up in a canopy, on a roof or blocking your only way out is urgent, so say so plainly when you call. Anything touching a power line goes to the utility, nobody else.
July through September: heat, and the water question
A stressed tree tells on itself now, so compare your trees and note the one gone dull or thin at the top. Before planning deep watering, find out who supplies your water. Lakewood has no single city water utility. The city's own list names 27 water and sewer entities, roughly 20 supplying drinking water. Your bill has the name. Call them and ask their outdoor watering rules.
October into January: the quiet, cheaper stretch
Nothing is flying and nothing is snapping. Good months for the removal you keep putting off, for stump grinding and for walking the lot with an arborist who has no queue behind them. Grinding disturbs soil, so the free Colorado 811 locate happens first, and near the park boundary you raise the cleanup before the machine arrives.
Fifteen minutes in your own yard, before anyone quotes
Look up at four things: what hangs over the roof, what hangs over where the car parks, what sits above the gas meter and what leans toward the fence line. Those are the limbs worth paying to remove. A quote that tidies the pretty side and leaves those four alone has bought nothing.
Then check branching. Opposite pairs plus compound leaves means ash, and ash in Lakewood is now a decision, not a tree.
Tree Service Costs in Lakewood CO
These are the Lakewood ranges we see, so you can sanity check a quote. Access drives price more than size does here. A flat Belmar or Eiber lot where the truck reaches the trunk sits low. A graded Green Mountain driveway, where the tree comes down on ropes, sits at the top.
Common Questions About Tree Service in Lakewood
Is there such a thing as a licensed tree service in Colorado?
No. Colorado licenses electricians and plumbers at state level and tree work is not on that list, so a Colorado tree service license does not exist, and anyone claiming one is describing a document nobody issues.
What does exist is a City of Lakewood contractor registration through eTRAKiT. Ask for that, for an ISA certified arborist you can look up yourself, plus general liability insurance and workers comp.
Do I need a permit to remove a tree in my own back yard?
We are not going to guess at that, and be suspicious of any contractor who answers instantly. What is confirmed is the right of way side: street trees and boulevard plantings need a City of Lakewood Class D Municipal registration with the city named as an additional insured.
For a tree on your own property, call the Lakewood Permit Counter at 303-987-7500 or email [email protected] and ask about your tree before you book anyone. Five minutes, free.
My ash looks thin at the top. Treat or remove?
It depends how much crown is left, how big the tree is and how many years of treatment you are willing to buy. Treatment is an ongoing commitment, not a one time fix, so an honest arborist prices both paths side by side. Either way, removal belongs in the September through April window.
I back onto Hayden Park. Does that change the job?
It changes the conversation, not the price list. That open space was a Colorado Army National Guard live fire training ground from 1903 to 1939, 75mm shrapnel shells have been recovered as recently as 2022, and CDPHE is running an active remediation with the National Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers, the city and West Metro Fire. CDPHE puts the likelihood of munitions hazards on park trails very low.
Practically: raise it before any ground disturbing work near that boundary, and get the free Colorado 811 locate done first.
Do you do the tree work yourselves?
No. Contractor Palace matches you with insured Lakewood tree crews, and the crew you book does the cutting. The matching is free and you never pay us for it.
Need a tree service in Lakewood? We will go find you one.
Tell us what you have: an ash thinning at the top, a limb over the roof after a hail week, a removal on a Green Mountain slope. We match you with an insured Lakewood crew that knows the registration rules and asks about the park boundary before it asks for a deposit. You pay the crew, never us.
Get my free Lakewood tree service quotearrow_forward