Tree Removal in the Austin Hill Country

Removing a mature oak in the Hill Country is rarely a simple felling job. Lots in Lakeway and West Lake Hills drop away in terraces; Belterra and Circle C backyards are fenced tight against play sets and pools; and half of Dripping Springs is acreage where the tree is a quarter mile from the nearest place a chipper can park. We climb and rig nearly everything, lowering limbs on ropes — and when a trunk hangs over a roofline on a slope, we bring a crane and lift it out in sections.

We remove trees across the whole southwest arc of the metro — Dripping Springs, Driftwood, Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, and Southwest Austin. Every quote is free, itemized, and includes hauling, and where a city permit applies we tell you before we quote, not after.

When a tree needs to come down

The Hill Country is hard on trees in its own particular ways. Oak wilt kills red oaks in a season and walks through root-grafted live oak stands block by block — western Travis and Hays County are among the most active corridors in Texas. Thin limestone soil means root plates spread wide and shallow, so a saturated spring storm can lean a healthy-looking oak in an afternoon. And the 2023 ice storm left cracked unions and hidden deadwood all over the canopy that keeps showing up years later.

If your tree is dead, more than a third dead-crowned, hollowed at the base, cracked at a major union, or leaning toward the house after a storm, removal is usually cheaper than waiting for the insurance claim. We will tell you honestly when a tree can be saved with pruning or cabling instead — about a third of our removal calls end up as trims.

What tree removal costs here

Most removals in our service area run $400–$1,200 for small-to-medium trees and $1,500–$4,000+ for large oaks with difficult access — and difficult access is the Hill Country specialty: steep grades, switchback driveways, terraced yards, septic fields you cannot drive over. Crane-assisted removals cost more but are often safer and faster than a two-day climb, especially on Lakeway and Westlake slopes.

One local wrinkle that changes the math: permits. Austin protects trees 19 inches and up, and West Lake Hills, Rollingwood, and Lakeway have their own ordinances. A quote from anyone who has not asked which city your tree stands in is not a real quote.