Tree Service in Troup, TX

Tree Service in Troup tends to come in two kinds: homeowners in the older blocks around Duval Street who want big trees cut back from the house, and rural owners nearby with a pine or two that suddenly turned brown. Troup is a city of 2,006 people (2020 census) in southeastern Smith County, with city limits reaching south into Cherokee County. Highway 110 runs through the center, 19 miles to Tyler and 26 to Rusk, and Highway 135 shares two blocks of Duval Street on its way between Kilgore and Jacksonville.

A town laid out by the railroad

Troup grew up as a railroad town after the International Railroad Company opened its Palestine–Troupe line in 1872, and the town was platted in 1873. Before that, the area sat between two older intertribal settlements, Nanih Shinuk (Sand Hill) and Ofunlo Hina (Screech Owl Bend), whose descendants are part of the state-recognized Mount Tabor Indian Community. Lots in the original town are compact, and the oldest shade trees there are often crowded by houses, sidewalks and overhead lines that came later.

How to tell a pine is in trouble

Texas A&M Forest Service has been warning East Texans that trees stressed by drought, freeze and construction attract secondary pests. For pines, the main one is the Ips engraver beetle. Look for:

• A crown that fades from green to yellow to reddish brown
• Dying branches, often starting at the top
• Many small white to reddish-brown pitch tubes on the bark, each where a beetle bored in
• Fine boring dust in bark crevices or at the base

By the time the whole crown is brown, the tree is dead. A dead pine dries and becomes brittle within months, and it is safer and cheaper to fell while the wood still holds together.

And for hardwoods

The same Forest Service guidance names hypoxylon canker as one of the most threatening fungi for weakened hardwoods in East Texas, especially oaks. The giveaway is bark that sloughs off to reveal a gray, tan or black crust on the wood beneath. Cedars and junipers have their own pest, cedar bark beetles, which leave small exit holes and sometimes sawdust on trunks and limbs. If you are seeing these signs on several trees along a road, the Forest Service asks residents to contact their local forester.

Two counties, two sets of decisions

Because Troup crosses into Cherokee County, properties on the south side may fall under a different county's burn ban than those to the north. If you are not sure which county you are in, look at your appraisal district record before you plan to burn brush. We usually chip it instead.

What we do in Troup

• Fell and remove dead or beetle-hit pines before they get brittle
• Prune or remove oaks showing canker or heavy dieback
• Cut back limbs from roofs, chimneys and service lines in the older blocks
• Clean up storm damage on town lots and acreage
• Grind stumps

Call (903) 636-8096 with your address and a photo of the tree if you can. You will get a written estimate after we look at it. Get a free estimate