La Selva Tree Care

A crew of 5 worked a whole day on my property, cutting, trimming and pruning trees — big and small. It was a LOT of hard work and you could tell they are real pros with the way they maneuvered around and trimmed the trees. They were responsive to little additional asks. The crew is nice and the crew manager was flexible with my needs. Price was very fair too.
Id totally hire them again. Only thing I might do a little differently is run tighter time management because we did run out of time at the end. The big pieces were complete but there were some little things I wish we had done.

Reduced the canopy on my elm tree… did a great job. Arrived on time. Worked closely with me on exactly what to cut. Didnt break anything else. Cleaned up nicely. All at a competitive price.

Tree butchers, nice people but they lack pruning skill. Used cleats to climb my Chinese Elm, used chain saw to make cut too short on the collar, topped many trees on my street, stub cut canopies.

Great service! Reasonable price, great, friendly crew and thorough clear up. Frisco and his son are very straightforward and really helped me understand what would be best and most economical. The job was done effectively and quicker than I thought. Recommended.

Friendly crew and awesome service, met with frisco and nick gave my company a great quote and took care of our huge hedge in a matter of two days I highly recommend.

Great price to top a dying oak in a difficult location over a creek. Amazing crew on the ground and the tree climber was thoughtful in checking before making cuts that would negatively affect our privacy. They left the wood in a neat pile and cleaned up the yard so that it looks better than when they started! I will definitely use them again for all of our tree services.

After a number of tree trimming nightmares over the years, I was so please with this company. They gave us a very fair price, got the job done efficiently and left the yard and street totally cleaned up. I would use them again for sure!

We have four enormous Cypress trees that are over 100 foot tall. The professional crew did an exceptional job of thinning and pruning these giants. We were impressed by the care with which they cleaned up the job and took care not to damage the garden below. In the course of their work a koi net became broken and the manager insisted on taking an extra day to replace the broken item before he would accept our check for the work. Overall a very positive experience. They are fair and work well. Eddie also told us if there were any problems in the future regarding these trees that he would take care of it without any additional charge. Good work.

What a nightmare.
This all started when they formed a contract with my mother stating that for 12K they would do as much work in her yard until she’s happy or she doesn’t pay a penny. My mom agreed if they would finish the work before the rains came (before the end of January).
They missed some appointments, showed up unannounced on other days (which forced her to unexpectedly miss some appointments because now she was forced to stay home and supervise La Selva’s Tree Care crew) and then they disappeared for weeks at a time. They did not finish the work before the rains came.
Did they do some work? Yes. They were good at cutting some brush. They did trim some trees. However, they did not entirely listen to her. They cut a tree that she asked them not to cut. Refused to cut trees that she asked them to (stating that they worth money but that wasn’t up to them to decide what stays and what goes). She wanted to keep the wood chips from her trees to make paths in her yard but they took her took off with her chips. Even though they offered to bring loads of other people’s chips, she wanted her own and the point is, they didn’t respect her wishes.
Different crews came out each time. My mom would tell one crew one thing and then have to tell another crew the next time. They left stumps that were tripping hazards. Speaking of hazards, workers didn’t have the proper safety gear (no gloves, no goggles). She passed out band-​aids to workers and even leant one a long sleeve shirt.
They used the cement bench that I bought her as their saw sharpening area, cracked the bench and then tried to cover it up by dumping some debris on it. When she confronted them about it, they said that they didn’t (my mom saw them doing this!) They left branches on her roof, her neighbor’s roof and in the plants, leaving my nearly 80 year old mom to clean up.
Then Gonzalo shows up at my mother’s house unannounced, which not only unprofessional but scared her and intimidated her. He wanted to do more work but it’s the end of March now. The birch trees (among others) that needed to be trimmed are no longer dormant. She offered to do a partial pay and then come back in fall. They said no, they wanted to do it now. She didn’t want to compromise the health of the trees that she wanted trimmed, that should not be cut right now, so she said no.
Where I get involved with all of this is I spend a lot of time going back and forth to my mom’s house. I know her yard VERY well. I saw it before they started work and she gave me the walk through last weekend. I have also hired tree services for my own house so I know what jobs are worth. When this conflict came up, my mom asked me what to do. I told her to be fair and pay them for the work that they did do. I gave her a number based on my experience, which was generous because people in San Jose generally charge a little more than Santa Cruz.
She tried but they demanded payment for 80% of the job when that wasn’t the amount of work that was done. He wanted 8K for only 5 days worth of work ($ 1600 a day) that was sporadically spread out over a period of 3 months. The job that wasn’t complete, wasn’t done properly, they abandon the job for long periods of time without communication, they stole her wood chips, broke her personal property, and they left a mess everywhere. No way! Try half that or less.
I personally tried to negotiate with Gonzalo on the phone, sighting grievances with the work but he said he only wanted to meet in person. I said no because he was even trying to tell me what my mom should want (instead of listening to her wishes) and sighted 25 years in business as his excuse. If this is true, he should know better and shouldn’t be doing any of this.
He wasn’t listening to her, he wasn’t listening to me, and he wasn’t being reasonable. I offered him a more than fair price and he said no, he wanted his 80%. Technically, according to the contract, she should not owe him anything since the company did not live up to the terms of the agreement, and that was stipulated in the contract.
It has escalated to the point where we are now referring this case to the state licensing board for mediation. Maybe we should also escalate this to OSHA too. And since you are hitting her with outrageously trumped up billing charges, maybe my mom should send you a bill you for her services as your on the job supervisor, your clean up crew, and for her expertise as a nurse since she acted in that capacity for your ill equipped work crew?
As for showing up unannounced, I’m very protective of my mother and have no tolerance for bullying. If anyone from this company continues to intimidate and harass my mother, I will not hesitate to call law enforcement. Trying to take advantage of and intimidate a senior citizen? Not cool!

They were great in service, expertise and satisfaction. They worked from morning to afternoon, a crew of 5. They expertly trimmed a large pine, cedar and a tall shrub and removed 2 trees and stump grinded as well. Frisco and Nick are easy to talk to and know their tree trimming. We discovered a hummingbird nest right under one of the trees to be trimmed (we were concerned and didn’t want anything to happen to the nest.) One of the workers was poised on a ladder to steer clear any branches in the vicinity of the nest, wow, who does that? All in all — we received excellent service. I highly recommend La Selva Tree Care

La Selva Tree Care did an excellent job removing two trees — one very large old willow — and pruning two other trees. Their rates are very reasonable. They are professional and cleaned up all the debris. I would hire them again in a heartbeat.

These guys did a great job removing a 90+ foot pine tree. The tree was in a difficult position at the back of our house and because we are on a hill the tree leaned over our home and is fairly inaccessible from the street. Other companies bid us higher and told us we would need a crane. Nick came out and understood quickly what was needed; he was not intimidated by the job. He gave us a quote that was less than the others. On the day of work the crew arrived at 8:00am sharp and the first thing they did was to protect the areas (the windows/​skylights on the house, roof, the grass on the lawn, the driveway). Then they took the tree apart carefully. The whole job took 3 days and a crew of between 4 and 8 guys. Each day they cleaned up (rake and blow). The crew was friendly and easygoing, when my neighbor asked if she could have some rounds for her granddaughter they cut them up and delivered them. The owner came out to see the progress and meet us on the first day. This is a family run business. They did a great job, on time, on budget and with a smile. Will be a pleasure to work with them again in future. See pics here

Very easy to work with, fast and professional, highly recommended. They take credit cards, but the price you are quoted is a cash price, so if you want to pay with a credit card, you have to pay the transaction fees yourself.

Absolutely hassle-​free, no surprises: they did the agreed-​on work for the agreed-​on price, and were always pleasant and helpful.

As good as it gets, folks. My wife and I needed four big oaks trimmed. It had been years and they were badly in need of a major ‘haircut’. I had heard that La Selva Tree Care was good so I called and talked to «the boss», Frisco. Her came right out and was extremely professional and personable. He has the kind of personality that you feel like you’ve known him a long time. He then gave me a quote and it fell right into what I though was a fair price. We set a date for the trimming.
The crew came over and fours hours later… four beautiful trees again! It was amazing to see how much foliage was trimmed. It filled up our large driveway. They brought out the chipper and cleaned everything up. We were soooo pleased with their care and tree trimming talents. Everyone was very, very nice. They even did a few no charge extras for me.

Excellent service, very reasonable prices, quality work. From the time I called to the time the job was complete was less than a week. I came home to find not only my trees gone, but my yard immaculate. I am thrilled with them and will definitely use them again and again. Highly recommend!

La Selva Tree Care is a top-​notch, quality operation! This was my second time using them. From my first contact with Frisco, to the clean-​up when the job was done, it was a 5 star experience!
We had a huge, old oak tree uproot and come down in a storm. Frisco came within a day of my call to give me an estimate, which was extremely reasonable. We have artificial turf adjacent to the tree, so my main concern was that they not damage the turf in the process. The team of 4 men took great care covering the turf with plywood and taking the extra time and energy to gently lower the limbs so to not damage the turf. We also had them trim some redwoods. I cannot say enough about the men that worked in my yard for 2 days. After the first day they left the grounds cleaner than they had found it. They were prompt, courtious, careful, and so hard-​working. Overall I would describe them as PROFESSIONAL! If you need tree work done, dont hesitate to call La Selva Tree Care.

La Selva Tree Care came to prune my 2 massive Cypress trees. 5 guys came early in the morning and started working for 4 hours. In the end, they did such a great job even my gardeners were impressed when they came later on in the day. They also did an excellent job of cleaning up, even went to my neighbor’s yard to clean up any debris that might have fallen in her yard.
Several of my neighbors use them and recommended them to me.
Their fees were reasonable and I highly recommend them. It’s so nice to be able to use good local companies.

LaSelva Tree Care has worked for us a couple times; each experience was an absolute pleasure. They are reasonably priced, do an amazingly thorough, competent job, take extraordinary care not to damage surrounding vegetation, clean up after, and we highly recommend them.
Janice Wittenberg, Aptos