The wind comes through at two in the morning and by sunrise there is a 60-foot cottonwood lying across the driveway with its top third in the neighbor’s yard. Almost every homeowner in that position wants the same two numbers before anything else: what fallen tree removal costs, and how soon a crew can be there. In the Treasure Valley, clearing a downed tree usually falls somewhere between $300 and $5,000 or more, and a tree resting on a house, garage or shed sits in its own band of $1,500 to $4,000 or more.
Those ranges are wide because the tree on the ground is only half of the pricing question. The other half is where it fell, what it is touching, and whether a truck can get within 30 feet of it.
This article breaks down both halves, so you can look at a quote and tell whether it is fair.
What Fallen Tree Removal Costs in the Treasure Valley
Price tracks three things: size, what the tree landed on, and access. A tree flat on an open lawn is the cheapest version of the job. The same tree draped over a roof is a different job with a different risk profile, and it is priced that way.
| Situation | Typical cost | What drives the number |
|---|---|---|
| Limb or branch down on a roof, gutter, fence or car | $150 to $850 | Size of the limb and whether it has to be lifted rather than cut free |
| Tree down in the open, under 30 feet | $300 to $800 | Mostly cutting and hauling time |
| Tree down in the open, 30 to 60 feet | $800 to $2,500 | Trunk diameter, volume of wood, number of truckloads |
| Tree down, 60 feet or taller, or no truck access | $2,500 to $5,000+ | Hand-carrying wood out, or a crane on the extreme jobs |
| Tree resting on a house, garage or shed | $1,500 to $4,000+ | Weight has to come off the structure in controlled pieces |
| Stump ground out afterward | $150 to $500 as an add-on | Diameter and how close it sits to concrete or utilities |
Those are typical ranges, not quotes. The real number depends on site conditions that nobody can judge from a phone call or a photo, which is why the estimate happens on the property. If you want to sanity check a figure before you call anyone, the tree removal cost calculator walks through the same variables a crew uses.
If the tree is on a structure, over a driveway you need, or blocking a door, call now at (208) 247-9766 for same-day help. If it is down in the back yard and nothing is at risk, book a free on-site estimate instead and take the time to compare crews.
How Fast a Downed Tree Actually Gets Cleared
Emergency availability here is 24/7, including nights and weekends, with same-day response. What that means in practice is worth spelling out, because storm advertising in this market gets vague.
Same-day response means a crew is dispatched the day you call, not that a truck materializes in a set number of minutes. After a real windstorm, every tree service in Ada and Canyon counties is triaging at once. Jobs get ordered by danger, not by who called first. A tree on a bedroom roof or a trunk pinning a car outranks a trunk lying peacefully in a side yard.
The clearing itself is usually faster than people expect. A medium tree down in an open yard is often a half-day job for a three-person crew: buck the trunk into rounds, chip the brush, load out, rake the site. A tree on a structure takes longer because every piece has to be cut in an order that keeps weight moving away from the building rather than settling into it.
Two things reliably slow a job down. The first is access, since wood that cannot be dropped near the chipper has to be carried. The second is a tree still under load, where the trunk is bent, pinned or holding tension. That wood can move violently when it is cut and the sequence has to be planned before a saw touches it.
What Makes One Fallen Tree Cost Twice as Much as Another
Two identical trees can be $900 apart on the invoice. Here is where the difference comes from.
Access. A crew that can back a chip truck to within 30 feet of the trunk works two or three times faster than one hand-carrying rounds through a side gate. Tight lots in the North End and older Bench neighborhoods sit at the expensive end of their size band for this reason alone.
Tension in the wood. A trunk propped on a fence or a limb bent under a roofline is storing energy. Cutting it in the wrong order can spring the wood or split the trunk upward, which is the failure that injures people doing this themselves. This is the single strongest argument for hiring a pro instead of renting a saw.
What it is touching. Wood on a shingle roof has to be lifted or lowered, never dragged. That usually means rigging from an adjacent tree, or in the worst cases a crane, which puts the job into the highest cost tier.
Wood volume and disposal. A mature cottonwood produces a startling amount of material. Whether rounds stay stacked on site for firewood or leave with the crew changes the price, and it is a legitimate way to trim the bill. There is more on that choice in what to do with the wood after a removal.
The stump. A fallen tree usually leaves a stump or an upturned root plate. Grinding it during the same visit costs $150 to $500 and is cheaper than bringing a machine back later.
Three Fallen Trees, Three Very Different Bills
These are anonymized composites of common Treasure Valley situations, with figures shown as the typical range each one lands in.
A 60-foot cottonwood across a driveway on the Boise Bench. Trunk about 34 inches at the base, blown over at the root plate after a spring gust, nothing structural hit. Open access from the street, so a three-person crew bucked and chipped it in a single day. Work like this typically prices in the $800 to $2,500 band and, because access was easy, sits nearer the middle than the top. Grinding the stump and the exposed root plate added the usual $150 to $500.
A silver maple through a back fence in a tight North End lot. No truck access at all, everything carried out to the street by hand through a 36-inch gate. About half the tree was still standing and had to be taken down in sections before the fallen half could be cleared. That combination of hand-carry and sectional work pushes a mid-size tree toward the top of the $800 to $2,500 band. The fence question is separate from the tree work, and Idaho has a fairly clear default on it, covered in who pays when a tree falls on a fence.
An ash that died over the winter and dropped on a Meridian shed. Roughly 45 feet, killed the previous season, and it came down in a June wind onto a metal storage shed. Because weight was resting on a structure, the crew had to remove it in controlled pieces rather than pull it off in one go. Jobs where a tree is on a structure run $1,500 to $4,000 or more. Dead trees do this without warning, which is why a standing dead one is worth pricing early rather than after the fact.
Insurance, Fences and Power Lines: Who Pays for What
Idaho homeowner policies commonly cover $500 to $1,000 per tree for removal and up to $5,000 per storm event. Coverage usually depends on the tree hitting something insured. A tree on your garage is typically a claim. The same tree lying harmlessly on the lawn often is not, even after the same storm.
Photograph everything before any cutting starts, including the base, the point of contact and any interior damage. Adjusters ask for that and crews cannot recreate it once the tree is gone. If a tree hit the house, how tree damage claims work in Idaho covers the sequence in more detail.
If the tree is touching a power line, or brought one down with it, this is not a tree service call first. Treat every downed line as live, keep everyone back, and contact Idaho Power, which handles vegetation on distribution lines and publishes its own guidance on trees and electric lines. No tree crew should be working that tree until the utility has cleared it.
One more local wrinkle. If the tree that came down is a street tree in the right of way rather than on your property, the city has a say in what happens next. The City of Boise Community Forestry program manages those trees, and the rules are summarized in tree removal permits in Boise.
What to Do in the First Hour After a Tree Comes Down
Do this in order and you will make the removal cheaper and the claim easier.
- Move people and vehicles away from anything still standing or leaning. A partly fallen tree can settle again.
- Look for lines. Anything touching or near a wire means you stop and call Idaho Power.
- Photograph the scene from several angles before touching a branch.
- Do not climb on it, cut into it, or pull it with a truck. Loaded wood is unpredictable and a pickup does not have controlled leverage.
- Call for the removal, and if the house is involved, call your insurer the same day.
Storms also bring door-knockers with a chainsaw and a magnetic truck sign. If someone shows up unsolicited asking for cash up front, read how storm chaser scams work here before you hand over a deposit. A legitimate crew carries insurance, and ours works under ISA-certified arborists with $2M liability insurance, insured on every job.
Ready to get it cleared? For an active hazard, call (208) 247-9766 for 24/7 emergency service with same-day response. For anything that can wait a day, request a free on-site estimate with no obligation. You can also read what a normal emergency tree service call involves, or how a planned tree removal in Boise is priced when the tree is still standing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is fallen tree removal cheaper than removing a standing tree?
Often yes, because the hardest part of a standing removal is getting the tree down safely, and gravity already did that. A tree lying in an open yard is mostly cutting and hauling. The exception is a tree that landed on something, where careful piece-by-piece work can cost more than a straightforward standing removal would have.
Will my insurance pay to remove a tree that fell in my yard?
Usually only if it damaged something covered, like a house, garage, fence or vehicle. Idaho policies commonly allow $500 to $1,000 per tree and up to $5,000 per storm event, but a tree lying on open grass is frequently treated as yard cleanup and excluded. Check your own policy language and photograph everything before the tree is cut.
How quickly can someone come out after a storm?
Emergency service runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with same-day response. After a widespread windstorm the order of work is set by danger rather than call time, so a tree on a roof gets moved ahead of one lying in a back yard. Calling early with a clear description of what the tree is touching helps you get placed correctly in that order.
Do I have to remove the stump too?
No, but a fallen tree usually leaves either a stump or a tilted root plate, and both are trip hazards that make mowing awkward. Grinding it during the same visit costs $150 to $500 rather than paying a separate mobilization later. If you plan to replant or lay sod in that spot, grinding is the practical choice.