Space Coast tree work, done by people who know which oak is about to fall.

On a single-family or two-family lot under an acre, generally no — Palm Bay's landscape code exempts those lots from its tree-removal permit, and it also exempts the invasive species on its list (Brazilian pepper, Australian pine, melaleuca, camphor, chinaberry, eucalyptus, castor bean) everywhere. Lots over an acre, commercial property and anything in a planned development go through the Planning Division, which reviews in about seven business days. Statewide, F.S. 163.045 lets you remove a tree on residential property without any local permit when an ISA Certified Arborist documents that it poses an unacceptable risk — our arborist writes that letter when the tree earns it. Melbourne, Satellite Beach and the other beach towns have their own tree ordinances, and some of them do require a permit on a house lot; we check before we cut.

Most removals land between $450 and $3,200 in 2026. A queen palm or a 30-foot slash pine on an open lot is on the low end; a 60-foot laurel oak leaning over the house, the pool cage or a canal is on the high end because it has to be climbed and rigged down in pieces or picked with a crane. Stump grinding is separate — $120 to $450 for most stumps — and so is hauling, which we include unless you want the wood. You get a written price after we've looked at the tree, not a guess from a photo.

Because Palm Bay was platted by General Development in the late 1950s and built in waves from the 1970s on, and the fast-growing trees planted then — laurel oaks and slash pines especially — are reaching the end of their lives now. A laurel oak lives about 50 to 70 years and rots from the inside as it goes; a slash pine that's been root-cut by a driveway, a pool or a septic drainfield dies from the top down and snaps in a storm. Add Ian and Nicole in 2022 and Milton's wind in October 2024, and the trees that were going to fail have been failing. Our arborist tells you which ones on your lot are worth keeping.

Yes — and the right way is not the 'hurricane cut' that leaves a pineapple of five fronds on top. Over-pruning a palm starves it, invites disease and nutrient deficiency, and does not make it safer in a storm; the University of Florida's guidance is to take only fronds below horizontal. We remove the dead and dying fronds, the seed pods and the loose boots, leave the green canopy, and on sabals we can do it from the ground or a bucket without spiking the trunk. With lethal bronzing killing queen and sabal palms across Brevard, we also tell you when a palm is sick, not just untidy.

If a tree falls on a covered structure — the house, the pool cage, the shed, the fence — a standard Florida homeowners policy usually pays to remove it from the structure and repair the damage, subject to your deductible, and often a few hundred dollars toward hauling the tree away. A tree that falls in the yard and hits nothing is generally not covered, and removing a standing tree before it falls is never covered. We document storm damage with dated photos and an itemized invoice you can send to your carrier; we don't offer coverage opinions.

24 hours a day, every day. Brevard took Frances and Jeanne three weeks apart in 2004, Matthew in 2016, Irma in 2017, Ian and Nicole in 2022 and Milton in 2024 — when a pine comes through the lanai at 2 AM the first hour matters. Call, tell us what's happened, and a crew is dispatched by priority: trees on houses and blocked driveways first, hanging limbs next, yard debris last.