Tree Service Ellisville MO
Ellisville chips residents’ brush at the curb every spring and fall and takes limbs at its Old State Road mulch yard daily. It will not remove a dead tree unless the tree stands in the city right-of-way.
- Licensed & Insured
- 24/7 Emergency
- Free Estimates
How Wooded Is Ellisville, and Where Are the Older Lots?
Trees cover about 1,267 acres of Ellisville, 45 percent of the city, by the canopy figure in its 2022 comprehensive plan. The city is 4.4 square miles, with Ballwin on the east border and Wildwood on the west.
Just over half the housing was built between 1970 and 2000, and nearly 30 percent is 50 or more years old. The oldest neighborhoods sit north of Manchester Road, or south of it between Oak Hill Drive and Reinke Road. The Hilltop Area, around Marsh Avenue, Hilltop Road, Fairview Drive and Field Avenue, is a Preservation District of larger single-family lots.
The ground is River Hills country: bluffs, valleys and low hills with thin, rocky soil over cherty dolomite and limestone. Caulks Creek drains north toward the Missouri River, Fishpot and Kiefer creeks south to the Meramec. Bluebird Park covers 167 acres on Kiefer Creek Road, with the 68 acres of Klamberg Woods beside it.
On a lot that backs onto woods or drops toward a creek, a truck often cannot reach the tree. It is climbed and lowered in pieces: see large tree removal.
Whose Tree Is It in Ellisville, and Who Do You Call?
The answer turns on which side of the right-of-way line the trunk is on. Ellisville looks after trees in its right-of-way and none on private lots.
| Where the tree is | Whose it is | Who to call |
|---|---|---|
| Right-of-way along a public street | The city’s. Public Works trims, typically each fall. The City Engineer approves planting or removing street trees (Section 510.100). | Public Works Superintendent, (636) 591-6666 |
| Dead or dying in your yard | Yours. The city will not remove dead trees outside the right-of-way. | A tree service |
| Growing against the house | Yours. The property code wants trees kept three feet from buildings and roofs (Chapter 500, 302.1.3). | Code Enforcement Officer, (636) 227-9660 |
| On or near a power line | Ameren Missouri trims in its easements. The service drop to the house is the owner’s. | Ameren, 1-800-552-7583, for wires down |
| On a lot being cleared or built on | Developers must plant three trees for each one removed, per the comprehensive plan. | Planning and Community Development, (636) 227-9660 |
Is a permit needed to remove a healthy tree?
As of October 2026 we could not confirm from the city’s published pages whether taking down a sound tree on an existing home lot needs approval. Ellisville’s zoning code carries its own tree regulations, so ask Planning and Community Development before you cut anything that is not dead or storm-broken. Our tree removal permit guide shows how such rules usually work in St. Louis County. Thompson Tree Care and Landscaping can supply a written estimate and proof of insurance if the city asks.
What Is Dying in Ellisville Yards, and What Does the City Plant Instead?
Ash is the loss the city has built a program around. Ellisville’s Yard Tree Planting and Ash Tree Replacement Program pays half the $300 cost of a new tree where emerald ash borer has killed one. The replacement list runs from redbud and ginkgo to sugar maple, northern red oak and American linden.
The Missouri Department of Conservation’s test is blunt. An ash with dead branches in the canopy and sprouts on the trunk “is not a good candidate for insecticide treatments and should be removed.” Near a roof or driveway that is dangerous tree removal. For oaks and maples, start with these signs a tree is dead or dying.
Honeysuckle is the other local problem. The comprehensive plan names its removal as a city goal, and Public Works will not chip it.
What Will Ellisville’s Brush Chipping and Mulch Yard Take?
Ellisville Public Works chips brush at the curb for free twice a year, district by district, and its limit is limbs 4 to 12 feet long and no thicker than 4 inches. Leave them loose by the road by the Sunday night before your district’s week.
- Fall 2026 brush weeks: District 2, September 8 to 11. District 3, September 14 to 25. District 1, September 28 to October 9.
- Mulch yard: residents can drop brush and small limbs at 553 Old State Road from dawn to dusk, and take mulch home free.
- Weekly yard waste: an optional Republic Services subscription, collected Wednesdays, $36.39 a quarter. Call (636) 947-5959.
- Refused at the curb: honeysuckle, bamboo, thorny material, and trees or bushes with the stump attached.
After a storm, Public Works clears debris from public rights-of-way only. Wood down in a yard stays with the owner, and so does every stump: see stump grinding.
What Have Storms Actually Done Around Ellisville?
The National Weather Service’s tornado list for St. Louis County names Ellisville once. The F4 tornado of February 10, 1959 “formed near Ellisville” at 1:40 AM and moved east-northeast into St. Louis. It killed 21 people.
The nearest recent track is next door. On December 31, 2010, an EF1 tornado touched down just northwest of Manchester Road and Birchwood Drive and ran 1.76 miles northeast through Ballwin, snapping and uprooting trees.
Ameren’s storm crews clear the line and leave the wood for the owner. If a tree is on a roof or a driveway, Thompson Tree Care’s emergency tree service line is answered 24/7 at (314) 712-3035.
Last Updated: October 2026
Ellisville Brush, Mulch Yard and Right-of-Way Questions
Only the small parts of it. The city’s 2026 schedule limits curbside brush to limbs 4 to 12 feet long and no thicker than 4 inches, left loose. Trunk wood and stumps need a tree service.
Not if the trunk is on your lot. The city’s tree program brochure says it will not remove dead trees unless they are in the right-of-way and maintained by the city. If you think yours is, call the Public Works Superintendent at (636) 591-6666.
It can. The resident pays $150 of the $300 cost, and the new tree has to go within 30 feet of the removed ash but not in the same spot. The program does not pay for taking the dead ash down.
The city’s comprehensive plan says most electric service lines in Ellisville are underground, but some older subdivisions still have overhead service lines and there are no plans to bury them. Where yours is overhead, the stretch from the pole to the house is the owner’s to keep clear.