The pine premium
Around here the expensive tree is usually a loblolly with eighty feet of height and a lean it picked up in some July thunderstorm. Height is money in this trade: past the reach of a bucket truck, wood comes down piece by piece on ropes, and every foot adds climbing time. A modest oak in the open can be the cheapest job on the street while the pine towering over the neighbor's roofline costs several times as much — same county, same week, different physics.
What else moves a Greenwood bid
Distance from truck to trunk matters more than most homeowners guess — a backyard pine behind a fence gets carried out an armload at a time. Dead wood costs extra because it cannot be safely climbed. And the wet months matter: heavy equipment and soft red clay are a bad pair, so a job that waits for the ground to firm up can come in cheaper than the same job forced through in February muck. One local myth worth retiring: the logger is not going to pay you for the tree. A yard pine is not timber, and hauling it off is a cost, not a credit.
The local ranges
These bands are orientation for the county, not a quote for your yard — every number that counts still comes from a walk-around. Storm weeks push everything up; quiet winter stretches can pull prices down for work that can wait.
| Work | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Small tree (under about 30 ft) | $250 – $650 |
| Medium tree (about 30–60 ft) | $650 – $1,300 |
| Tall tree (about 60–80 ft) | $1,300 – $2,500 |
| Hazard tree, or anything over a structure | Quoted — commonly $2,400 and up |
| Stump ground out (each) | $90 – $325 |
| Storm / emergency work | Quoted — hazards jump the line |
Bands, not bids: local jobs mostly land inside these ranges, but the walk-around sets the real figure. Tall pines, tight access, and soggy ground are the usual reasons a number lands at the top of its band instead of the bottom.
Compare bids on the same terms
Before you rank two numbers, make them describe the same job: stump ground or left, wood hauled or bucked and stacked, brush chipped or piled at the road. Then ask each outfit for the insurance certificate itself — the emailed PDF, not the assurance. The bid that itemizes and documents is nearly always the bid that finishes clean.