Tree and shrub care in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

Cape Elizabeth's Public Works Department named emerald ash borer the top tree threat in town in its fall 2024 tree alerts, reporting that it has been found throughout Cape Elizabeth and typically kills an infested ash within three years. The same bulletin flags hemlock woolly adelgid in neighborhood landscapes and town woodlands, notes biocontrol releases at Winnicks Woods in 2023, and lists beech leaf disease as one to watch.

With a licensed arborist on staff, pruning and plant health care start with identifying what is growing on the property and which of those pests it is exposed to, before any cut is made.

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Public trees and shoreland buffers

The town's tree ordinance requires a Tree Warden permit to plant, spray, fertilize, prune or remove any public tree, and it counts the part of any tree overhanging a public area as a public tree. Excavating, trenching or paving within 10 feet of a public tree, or inside its drip line if that is farther, also needs a permit, requested through Public Works at least two business days ahead.

On shoreland lots, the zoning ordinance permits pruning of branches on the bottom third of a tree inside the buffer strip, while selective cutting must leave a well-distributed stand of trees. Pruning plans on waterfront property are written to those limits.

Treatment rules on the coast

Pest treatment on residential property falls under the town's pesticide ordinance, which limits cosmetic landscape use to exempt products and lets the Public Works Director grant ten-day waivers where a pest threatens public health and safety or is an invasive species. Near the shore, the Maine Board of Pesticides Control keeps its own list of products allowed for browntail moth treatment in the zone 50 to 250 feet from marine waters.

Winter moth has already cost the town many mature oaks, and the tree alerts note that dead oaks remain on private woodland. Structural pruning, deadwood removal and regular inspection are the tools for the trees still standing.

For ash worth keeping, the tree alerts point to preventive systemic injection by commercial arborists, with an estimated effect of about three years, and suggest considering it on healthy, high-value trees ahead of spring. For hemlocks, the town recommends checking the undersides of needles for the white, cottony tufts of the adelgid.

Licensed Arborist · Pruning

How we handle tree & shrub services

Tree work is one place credentials matter. With a licensed arborist on the team, we prune trees and shrubs for structure, health and clearance — proper cuts at the right time of year, not hack jobs that invite disease.

See the full tree & shrub services service page or everything we do in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

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