Tree Service in Tonganoxie, KS

Tonganoxie's code gives the city authority to treat or remove any tree in a public right of way, and then says plainly that adjacent property owners are not responsible for the cost, which is borne by the city at large. That is worth knowing because towns nearby run the opposite rule and bill the abutting owner. Before you accept a quote on a tree near the road, establish whether the trunk is inside the right of way, because in Tonganoxie that answer can take the job off your bill entirely.

On private ground the duties are yours. Owners must remove dead, diseased, or dangerous trees and broken or decayed limbs that create a menace to public safety. Trees overhanging a street or right of way must be pruned so branches do not obstruct light from a street lamp, do not block the view of an intersection, and leave fourteen feet of clear space above the street. Declared nuisances have to be abated within ten days of written notice, after which the city may do it and assess the cost against the property.

Osage orange was planted as living fence across this county generations before wire was cheap, and the rows that survived are now grown around the wire that replaced them. Cutting one out is slower than it looks from the road. The wood is dense enough to dull chain fast, the stems fork low and lean into each other, and there is usually a strand of barbed wire buried somewhere inside every third trunk. We cut hedge with the assumption that metal is present, because it always is.

There is also a statute worth knowing if your hedge row runs along a county road. Kansas law lets county commissioners cut hedge fences, trees, and shrubs on the highway right of way or its boundary within 350 feet of a railroad grade crossing or an abrupt corner, and keep them trimmed to preserve clear vision. If your row falls in one of those spots, the county has standing to act on it whether or not you get to it first, and coordinating is easier than reacting.

Tonganoxie sits between Stranger Creek and Tonganoxie Creek rather than on a major river, so the split here is creek bottom versus upland rather than floodplain versus bluff. Bottom ground along the creeks grows cottonwood, sycamore, and silver maple fast and anchors them in soil that softens after a wet week. Uplands carry the hedge, the redcedar, and the bur oak, on ground that will hold equipment most of the year.

Brush disposal is a Leavenworth County question, not a city one, and the county runs it through the Sheriff's Office. Permits are handled on their site or by calling dispatch on the day you intend to burn, and burns are limited to a daytime window that starts at seven in the morning and ends at seven in the evening absent permission from the township fire chief. For anything bigger than a small pile, mulching in place is usually faster than waiting on a burn day with acceptable wind.