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Hiring a Tree Service in New Jersey: What I’d Want to Know Before Anyone Starts Cutting
By Tiffany Slowinski
Tree work is one of those things I completely ignore until I suddenly cannot.
A branch is hanging over the driveway.
A giant tree looks a little too close to the house.
A storm comes through and now something that was part of the landscaping yesterday is lying across the yard.
At that point, I am not looking to become an expert in trees.
I want to know who to call and whether the person standing in my yard actually knows what they are looking at.
Because there is a pretty big difference between someone who can cut down a tree and someone who can tell me whether the tree should come down in the first place.
That is probably the first thing I would want to understand.
Do I need a tree removed, or do I need someone to evaluate it?
Those are not always the same job.
If I have a dead tree that clearly needs to come down, that is one conversation.
If I have a huge tree leaning toward the house and I am trying to decide whether it is dangerous, whether it can be saved or whether cabling or another treatment makes sense, I want someone qualified to make that judgment.
New Jersey actually distinguishes between those types of work.
A Licensed Tree Care Operator, or LTCO, can perform routine tree work such as pruning, removals and stump grinding.
A Licensed Tree Expert, or LTE, can do that work too, but can also perform more specialized services including tree-risk assessment, diagnosis, consulting, cabling and bracing.
That was new information to me.
It also completely changes how I would choose someone.
If I already know I need a stump ground out, I may not need the same person I would call if a 70-foot tree is suddenly leaning toward my bedroom.
Is this company actually registered in New Jersey?
This would be my next question.
Tree care businesses working for hire in New Jersey are supposed to register with the New Jersey Board of Tree Experts and have at least one full-time Licensed Tree Expert or Licensed Tree Care Operator, depending on the services they provide.
The state also requires registered tree care businesses to maintain liability insurance and workers’ compensation coverage.
That matters.
Tree work involves chainsaws, heavy equipment, enormous pieces of wood and, occasionally, someone hanging 40 feet in the air over your roof.
This is not the project where I am interested in saving $400 by hiring somebody’s cousin with a pickup truck.
I want a real company.
What happens after a storm?
This is probably when homeowners are most vulnerable to making a bad decision.
A tree comes down.
Everyone in town needs help.
Someone knocks on the door and says they can take care of it right now.
I understand the temptation.
I would still check them.
New Jersey’s tree-care licensing law was created in part because of concerns about unqualified and uninsured tree companies, especially after storms.
If someone shows up after a storm, I want the company name, the NJTC registration number and proof that they are actually the business I am hiring.
The tree will still be there five minutes later while I look them up.
Do you carry enough insurance for this job?
I would ask this directly.
The Board checks insurance when a tree-care company registers and again when it renews, but that does not necessarily tell you what the company’s coverage looks like on the exact day someone is standing in your yard.
So I would still ask for a current certificate of insurance.
Especially on a large removal.
Especially near the house.
Especially if there are power lines, neighboring property, a pool or anything else nearby that I really do not want a tree landing on.
I do not need to become an insurance expert either.
I just want confirmation that the company doing potentially dangerous work on my property is properly covered.
How exactly are you planning to take this tree down?
This is where I want the explanation.
Are you climbing it?
Using a bucket truck?
Bringing in a crane?
Will equipment need to cross the lawn?
Are you taking sections over the roof?
How are you protecting the driveway, landscaping and neighboring property?
I do not need to tell the crew how to do its job.
I do want to understand what is about to happen in my yard.
Especially if the answer involves a crane parked next to the hydrangeas I have spent five years trying not to kill.
What is actually included in the estimate?
Tree estimates can sound deceptively simple.
“Remove oak tree.”
OK.
Does that include hauling everything away?
Does it include the stump?
Does stump grinding mean the stump disappears completely or that it gets ground below grade?
What happens to the wood chips?
Are larger logs removed?
Is cleanup included?
Will the lawn need repair after heavy equipment comes through?
If a crane or additional equipment becomes necessary, is that already included?
I want the boring details before the work starts.
Because “tree removal” can mean very different things once the tree is no longer standing.
Do I actually need the stump ground?
Maybe.
If it is in the middle of the lawn where I will stare at it every day, probably.
If we are replanting or doing landscaping in that area, I would want to understand how much of the stump and root flare needs to be removed.
If it is hidden at the edge of the woods, I may care considerably less.
This is another area where I would rather have someone tell me what makes sense for my property than automatically tack another service onto the bill.
What about pruning?
This is where I would be careful with anyone who immediately wants to “take a lot off.”
I want to know why something is being pruned.
Is the goal safety?
Clearance from the house?
Removing dead wood?
Improving the structure of the tree?
I also want to know what the tree will look like when they are done.
Because I have seen enough trees hacked into strange shapes to know that “we trimmed it” is not always the outcome I am looking for.
If it is a tree I care about keeping for another 20 years, I want someone thinking about the health of the tree, not just how fast they can get the branches into the chipper.
If a tree is close to my neighbor’s property, I am asking questions before anyone cuts anything
Trees have a funny way of becoming neighborhood diplomacy.
A trunk may be on my property while branches hang over someone else’s yard.
Or the tree may sit close enough to the property line that nobody is entirely sure whose problem it is.
Before doing anything major, I would make sure I understand where the tree actually sits and whether the work could affect neighboring property.
If there is any real uncertainty, that is not something I am solving with a chainsaw and a guess.
What happens if you find something unexpected?
Maybe the tree is more decayed than it looked.
Maybe access is harder once equipment arrives.
Maybe there is a hollow section nobody could see from the ground.
I understand that tree work can change once the crew gets closer to the problem.
What I want to know beforehand is how those changes are handled.
Who talks to me?
Do we stop and discuss additional cost?
What could reasonably change the estimate?
Again, surprises happen.
Surprise invoices do not have to.
I care a lot about whether someone is trying to save the tree
This is probably my biggest personal filter.
If I call about a tree and the immediate answer is “take it down” without much of an evaluation, I am going to have questions.
Sometimes removal is absolutely the right answer.
Sometimes it is the safest answer.
I just want to know why.
If a beautiful mature tree can reasonably stay, I would like to know that too.
You can plant another tree.
You cannot replace 50 years of growth by next spring.
So how do you actually choose a tree company?
This is exactly why Garden State Circle built this guide around the state record.
For Somerville, we checked businesses against the New Jersey Board of Tree Experts’ public register and looked at whether each company is registered, who the licensed person attached to the company is and whether that person is a Licensed Tree Care Operator or a Licensed Tree Expert.
That distinction matters because the licenses cover different types of work.
We also looked at the services each company actually publishes and whether it states that it offers storm or emergency service.
At the time we checked the guide, 12 businesses in this local cluster were shown as registered and seven were shown as suspended. Only one of the registered businesses listed a Licensed Tree Expert.
That does not tell you which company will do the best job.
It does tell you something much more useful than a random list of names.
It tells you who the state record says is currently registered and what kind of tree-care license is attached to that business.
From there, the questions depend on your tree.
If I need routine trimming, I may make one choice.
If I am standing in my driveway looking at a massive tree leaning toward my house and asking, “Do you think this thing is actually dangerous?” I want someone licensed to answer that question.
Because with trees, the most important decision may happen before anyone ever starts the saw.
The Guide: Tree Service Companies in Somerville, NJ
A large tree that’s leaning, storm-damaged, or growing too close to the house is a judgment call before it’s a job — deciding whether it should come down, be cabled, or be left alone is work the state limits to a Licensed Tree Expert. Routine work — pruning low branches, grinding a stump, clearing storm debris, or taking down a smaller tree — can be handled by any registered tree care business, including one licensed only as a Licensed Tree Care Operator, and that’s often the more affordable choice for the job. The comparison table below shows which license each business on this page holds.
How We Selected These Businesses
Every business on this page carries an active registration with the New Jersey Board of Tree Experts, showing a status of Registered and naming at least one individual the Board licenses as a Licensed Tree Expert or a Licensed Tree Care Operator. We read the register ourselves and recorded what it showed, on the date printed next to each business. This guide covers Somerville and Hillsborough.
19 businesses returned for this cluster (Somerville and Hillsborough, including Flagtown as a section of Hillsborough Township). 12 are Registered, 1 with a Licensed Tree Expert. 7 are Suspended.
Which Business Fits Your Job
A big tree over the house that’s leaning, storm-damaged, or possibly dying calls for a judgment before any saw comes out — whether it should come down, be cabled, or be left alone — and that assessment is work the state licenses only to a Licensed Tree Expert. A business employing a Licensed Tree Expert, marked LTE in the table below, is the fit for that call.
Low branches over a driveway, a stump, storm debris already on the ground, or routine pruning and removal is work any registered business can legally do, including one licensed only as a Licensed Tree Care Operator (LTCO) — and that license often costs less. Tree removal itself, including a large tree, is LTCO scope; the license does not indicate crew size, equipment, or capacity, only which judgment calls the business is licensed to make.
About This Guide
This guide is produced by Garden State Circle. Tree service companies appear here because the New Jersey Board of Tree Experts’ public register shows their registration status as Registered and names at least one licensed individual — a Licensed Tree Expert or a Licensed Tree Care Operator — on that registration. That is a test, not a judgment, and it is the only route onto this page. No business can pay to be included in this guide, to be listed higher, or to change what the table says about it. Businesses are listed alphabetically, and every detail in the table was verified against each business’s own website and the NJ Board of Tree Experts’ public register in September 2026.
Everything under the heading that begins this guide is governed by the rules above, on every guide we publish. Where a sponsor’s message appears above that heading, it is paid for and labelled, and it buys nothing in the guide. Garden State Circle is supported by the businesses that participate in it. Participation pays for our ongoing work: keeping a business’s entry accurate, re-checking its record, and publishing a page of its own details that the business maintains. There is no paid placement in this guide. Participation does not buy a place here, a position here, or anything the comparison table says. Where a row carries a verification date, that is when we last checked that business’s record ourselves. A row without one has not been checked recently — that is a fact about our work, not about the business. The NJ Board of Tree Experts checks each business’s insurance when it registers and again at its two-year renewal; nothing checks it in between, and we did not verify insurance coverage ourselves on the date shown for each row.
Garden State Circle is published in New Jersey by Tiffany and Jake Slowinski and covers Somerville and Hillsborough. Contact the publisher at jake@gardenstatecircle.com. How every guide is made, in one place: how every guide is made.
The Businesses, Compared
Listed alphabetically. Footnote 1: the company’s own site confirms NJTC Registration #777571 by number, matching this registration exactly, but publishes a Bound Brook address rather than the Hillsborough town the register prints; the “Based in” column above prints the register’s own town.
| Business | NJTC Registration # | Licensee and class | Based in | Services published | Storm / emergency availability | Record checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adams Tree Service | 914541 | Adams Duarte (LTCO) | Hillsborough | No site found | Not stated | 2026-09-07 |
| Hidalgo Landscaping and Tree Services | 933923 | Andres Hidalgo (LTCO) | Hillsborough | No site found | Not stated | 2026-09-07 |
| Hidden Hollow Acres, LLC | 768428 | Matthew Hollowell (LTCO) | Somerville | Fallen tree removal, tree services (not itemized beyond that on the site) | Not stated | 2026-09-07 |
| Jay’s Yard Maintenance & Tree Service | 831714 | Lindsey Vasquez (LTCO) | Hillsborough | Tree removal, shrub and tree pruning, tree and plant installation, seasonal cleanups, lawn care, fertilization and pest control | Storm-related and emergency tree services, including hazardous tree and limb removal, based on crew availability and site conditions | 2026-09-07 |
| JML Landscaping | 930715 | John Lazorchak (LTCO) | Hillsborough | Landscape design, maintenance, hardscaping, masonry, concrete, lighting, irrigation, drainage and grading, snow plowing; tree services not itemized on the site | Not stated | 2026-09-07 |
| Kevin’s Tree Experts, LLC | 920355 | Jose Campos (LTCO) | Hillsborough | Tree removal, tree trimming, stump grinding, cabling/straightening trees, mulch and landscaping | Published: 24/7 | 2026-09-07 |
| King Lawn Service LLC | 938766 | Jose Chavez (LTCO) | Hillsborough | No site found | Not stated | 2026-09-07 |
| Monkeys Tree Service, LLC | 777571 | Maria Steller-Hidalgo (LTCO) | Hillsborough | Storm cleanup to lot beautification (not itemized further on the site)¹ | Published: 24/7 | 2026-09-07 |
| RG Tree Service | 939550 | Raul Garcia (LTCO) | Somerville | No site confirmed | Not stated | 2026-09-07 |
| Summitville Landscaping LLC | 838263 | Johnny Cruz (LTCO) | Somerville | Landscaping and tree care services (not itemized further on the site) | Not stated | 2026-09-07 |
| Twins Tree Experts | 939891 | Konrad Polakowski (LTE) | Somerville | No site found | Not stated | 2026-09-07 |
| Wayne’s Dynamite Tree Service | 806860 | Peter Ahlert (LTCO) | Somerville | Tree removal, tree pruning and trimming, stump grinding and removal, land clearing, tree and shrub planting | Published: 24/7 | 2026-09-07 |
Checked against the New Jersey Board of Tree Experts.
The Businesses
Adams Tree Service. Based in Hillsborough, Adams Tree Service carries NJTC Registration #914541 and Licensed Tree Care Operator Adams Duarte; the company publishes no website we could find, so its services are not stated here.
Hidalgo Landscaping and Tree Services. Based in Hillsborough, Hidalgo Landscaping and Tree Services carries NJTC Registration #933923 and Licensed Tree Care Operator Andres Hidalgo; the company publishes no website we could find, so its services are not stated here.
Hidden Hollow Acres, LLC. Based in Somerville, Hidden Hollow Acres carries NJTC Registration #768428 and Licensed Tree Care Operator Matthew Hollowell; the company’s website lists fallen tree removal among its emergency services and names a broader tree services line without itemizing it further.
Jay’s Yard Maintenance & Tree Service Based in Hillsborough, Jay’s Yard Maintenance & Tree Service carries NJTC Registration #831714 and Licensed Tree Care Operator Lindsey Vasquez; the company’s website confirms this registration number and lists tree removal, shrub and tree pruning, tree and plant installation, seasonal cleanups, lawn care, and fertilization and pest control among its services.
JML Landscaping. Based in Hillsborough, JML Landscaping carries NJTC Registration #930715 and Licensed Tree Care Operator John Lazorchak; the company’s website lists landscape design, maintenance, hardscaping, masonry, concrete, lighting, irrigation, drainage and grading, and snow plowing, without itemizing tree services specifically.
Kevin’s Tree Experts, LLC. Based in Hillsborough, Kevin’s Tree Experts carries NJTC Registration #920355 and Licensed Tree Care Operator Jose Campos; the company’s website lists tree removal, tree trimming, stump grinding, cabling and straightening trees, and mulch and landscaping among its services, and states 24-hour emergency service.
King Lawn Service LLC. Based in Hillsborough, King Lawn Service carries NJTC Registration #938766 and Licensed Tree Care Operator Jose Chavez; the company publishes no website we could find, so its services are not stated here.
Monkeys Tree Service, LLC. Based in Hillsborough, Monkeys Tree Service carries NJTC Registration #777571 and Licensed Tree Care Operator Maria Steller-Hidalgo; the company’s website confirms this registration number, describes its work as ranging “from storm cleanup to lot beautification,” and states 24-hour, seven-day availability.
RG Tree Service. Based in Somerville, RG Tree Service carries NJTC Registration #939550 and Licensed Tree Care Operator Raul Garcia; we could not confirm a website matching this registration, so its services are not stated here.
Summitville Landscaping LLC. Based in Somerville, Summitville Landscaping carries NJTC Registration #838263 and Licensed Tree Care Operator Johnny Cruz; the company’s website confirms this registration number and lists landscaping and tree care services without itemizing further.
Twins Tree Experts. Based in Somerville, Twins Tree Experts carries NJTC Registration #939891 and employs Licensed Tree Expert Konrad Polakowski; the company publishes no website we could find, so its services are not stated here.
Wayne’s Dynamite Tree Service. Based in Somerville, Wayne’s Dynamite Tree Service carries NJTC Registration #806860 and Licensed Tree Care Operator Peter Ahlert; the company’s website confirms both this registration number and Ahlert by name, and lists tree removal, tree pruning and trimming, stump grinding and removal, land clearing, and tree and shrub planting among its services, stating the company is available 24/7.
Also on the State Register, Shown as Suspended on September 6, 2026
C&D Tree Experts — NJTC Registration #939561, based in Somerville.
Falcon Landscaping Inc. — NJTC Registration #842577, based in Hillsborough.
M&A Tree Service Inc — NJTC Registration #768585, based in Somerville.
Maverick Services N.J., LLC — NJTC Registration #939381, based in Flagtown.
Michael McCabe Tree & Landscape — NJTC Registration #768598, based in Hillsborough.
Tony’s Tree Service and Landscaping, LLC — NJTC Registration #831716, based in Hillsborough.
Uprooted LLC — NJTC Registration #939462, based in Hillsborough.
Common Questions
What does “Registered” mean in the table?
It is the status the New Jersey Board of Tree Experts’ public register showed for that business on the date in the Record checked column. A registered business names at least one licensed individual on its registration; the register lists businesses, and licenses are held by people.
What is the difference between a Licensed Tree Expert and a Licensed Tree Care Operator?
Both are individual licenses issued by the Board. New Jersey law lists the services each may perform; the Licensed Tree Expert’s list is longer and includes work such as diagnosis, cabling and fertilization. The table shows which license the register names for each business.
Does the table show whether a company is insured?
No. The Board checks insurance when a business registers and again at renewal; nothing on this page confirms coverage on any given day. Ask the business for a current certificate of insurance before work begins.
Do I need a permit to remove a tree?
It depends on the municipality. The local-rules section below gives each town’s published requirement and the office that handles it, as it read on the date shown.
When was this list last checked?
The Record checked column shows the month and year each business’s register entry was last read. If something here is wrong or has changed, the correction note at the end of the guide says how to tell us.
Tree Removal Rules, Town by Town
Somerville. No ordinance in Somerville Borough regulates a homeowner removing a tree from their own property. The Borough’s code addresses only trees on Borough-owned land and street trees required by a land-use approval — nothing in it requires a permit for private residential tree removal. This is a checked absence, not an unresearched gap.
Hillsborough. Hillsborough Township routes tree-removal permits through its Engineering Department, with Planning & Zoning named jointly in the ordinance. A permit is required to remove a tree of 6 inches in diameter or greater — 2.5 inches for a street tree — the application fee is $25, and a $500-per-tree payment into a Township fund is available when a removed tree can’t be replanted on-site. Homeowners may remove a small number of trees per acre every five years without a permit, and dead, diseased, or hazardous trees and work tied to new home construction have their own exemptions.
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Something out of date?
This guide is maintained. If anything here is wrong or has changed — a name, an address, a registration number, or whether a business has closed — tell us and we will check it. Businesses listed here are welcome to write in directly, and a business that publishes a registration number we have recorded as absent is exactly the kind of correction we want.
And if you run a tree service company that should be on this list and is not: the test is the same one every business here cleared — that the New Jersey Board of Tree Experts’ public register shows your business as Registered, with at least one licensed individual named on the registration, based in Somerville and Hillsborough. Show us that and you go on the page.
admin@gardenstatecircle.com
Corrected September 18, 2026: Jay’s Yard Maintenance & Tree Service — business name and storm/emergency availability, confirmed by the business.
Additional Resources
NJ Board of Tree Experts register
This is not a ranking.
Part of Somerville and Hillsborough Guides · Tree Service Companies in Somerset County, NJ