Blue River Forestry & Tree Care

Blue River Tree Care are the only people I call for tree service, at my own home or those of our clients. They are professional, timely, courteous and always clean up.
Even when there were trees down everywhere in Boulder from a fierce windstorm, Dustin came out that day and gave us a quote on taking the 85 foot spruce tree off of my neighbor’s garage. They started work the very next day after the windstorm had died down.
They have also done work for Harrington Stanko Construction when we needed trees taken out and thinned for Wildfire Mitigation. Again, I got a quote right away, all of their insurance information, and the work was done when we needed it done.
All around great service! I recommend them to my friends, as well as our clients.

I called a number of tree trimming services to do some storm damage trimming on one maple tree in my yard. Only 2 companies actually bothered to call me back. Both came out to give me estimates, though it took calling Blue River more than once to get a date for that estimate.
The first company gave me a detailed outline of what they recommended and told me the cost would be a minimum of $ 160 just to show up! That didn’t include any of the actual trimming fees. They recommended a crown clean up to remove the damaged limbs and a structure prune to make the tree less likely to sustain storm damage in the future. They also asked about leaf yellowing. Did I have this problem?
I said half the tree was yellow last year. I did give it some tree fertilizer but it was late in the season when I did it, so it didn’t seem to help. The estimator wanted to sell me a regular service package for fertilizing all my trees (all 2 of them), but it came with no guarantee that the treatments would work any better than doing it myself. Well after hearing that, I looked them on Unilocal and some other review sites and saw many people found the treatments hadn’t worked, so I decided I wouldn’t hire it out, but would do a better job of fertilizing them myself this year.
Blue River’s owner was the one who came out to give me his estimate and apologized for taking so long to show up, saying they are very busy. He basically said the same thing about how the tree would be pruned, but didn’t try to sell me on a fertilizing package. When I told him about the yellowing, he said his company doesn’t do this, but he recommended another business for improving the health of my trees.
He said the pruning job was a small one and could easily be done at the end of a day. His price was only $ 120, and that was for everything. So, I booked them to do the work.
Two guys from Blue River showed up around mid-​day, the day it was scheduled. The tree pruning was done in about 15 minutes with one man in the tree cutting and another throwing the branches into the chipper. When I asked about writing him a check, he said I’d be invoiced by email within the week. I said fine, and went in the house while they continued the chipping and cleaned up their gear.
A little while later, I went outside to get my mail and saw wood chips all over the sidewalk, my driveway, in the street in front of my driveway, and in the street next to the sidewalk. Having had hand surgery a month before, sweeping those chips up wasn’t a job I could do. I should have called them back to do, but I didn’t. I also didn’t see an invoice either by mail or email within the week.
After 3 weeks, I finally called the office to find out where my invoice was and was told it would be emailed soon. After I hung up, I called back to let them know about the mess they had left. I was asked if I had cleaned it up myself and said I hadn’t and explained about my hand surgery. We had also gotten several snow storms since then so when that was shoveled off, it took the chips with it and they were thrown into my yard or into the street. I said I was really disappointed they had left the mess and that I’d be putting that in my review here too. No offer of a discount was mentioned at that time. I waited a bit hoping something would be offered, but when it wasn’t, I finally said good-​bye.
A few minutes later, the office called back to tell me they wouldn’t be charging me anything, since leaving the mess behind is not how they do business. I presume the office had called the men who did the job to talk with them about it and made the decision to not charge me. I would have been fine with a 50% reduction, but I’m not complaining. My job was very small so maybe they felt it was only fair to not charge anything. They obviously wanted me to be completely satisfied, and now, I am.
So, would I recommend this company?
Yes. They did the work as described in the estimate quite well, but in the future, I recommend that cleaning up after themselves be done in a much more conscientious manner, and if it isn’t, call them immediately to have them come back to do it.

I have hired Dustin and Blue River Tree Care to preform several tree care services. I found them to be very professional, skilled, and on time. I have referred Blue River Tree Care to my friends and family and they all have been very thankful for the referral. In the world of flaky service providers Blue River Tree Care stands above the rest.