The Davey Tree Expert Company

They never contacted me following my email for service.

I have had Nature First work on some of my projects as well as work on my own home. Everyone that I have dealt with has been very professional and informative. Working for a Landscape construction company we sometimes need larger trees trimmed and removed. This can sometimes be time sensitive. They have always work with our schedule and they do what they say they are going to do. The crews are always responsible and extremely clean. It has been great working with them and I highly recommend their services.

I have used Nature First (which is now part of Davey) for on-​going tree service work. They seem more knowledgeable and careful than others. Recent work was done very nicely leaving the tree looking good, and the yard was impeccably clean.
Our neighbor discovered some accidental damage to a water softener unit. The damage was not apparent at the time because the unit was covered by a protective tarp. A wayward branch must have hit it. Even though the damage was discovered and reported days later, a company rep responded instantly offering to pay for it.
They are not a bargain but pricing seems in line with other alternatives.
Will certainly use them again.

The Davey Tree Expert Company trimmed a neglected Liquid Amber tree in our front year a few weeks ago. We were worried the tree had gotten too big and it was very messy dropping leaves and acorns. They thinned and shaped the tree and it looks great and we will now have less mess. They didn’t disturb any of the plants on our newly landscaped yard. They definitely exceeded our expectations. Many thanks to this very professional crew.

This is a great tree service! I called a previous company that came out to diagnose the problem and a month later they still hadn’t set up a time to do the work. With Nature First, I called that morning, someone was out to give me a quote that afternoon and they removed the trees the following morning. Fast, experienced – great people to do business with :)

Reading reviews of this company on Unilocal made me hesitate. Yet, after a walk through on our property with Mimi, I was convinced of my desire to work with this company. Mimi is a wealth of knowledge and knows her stuff. New to this land, I delighted in learning about the care of our trees and other plants from her!
The group of tree trimmers were most excellent to watch in action and they checked in with me on my preferences for certain trees as they went! They did a great job on clean up and dealing with an invasive neighbors issues! We had extensive work done with different kinds of trees being tended to, and a major removal of a dead one! The stump removal left no trace! I sit here in my yard relishing in a job well done! The experience over all was top notch and I will be calling them for the next phase of work we want to do!

Made an appointment. Set my day aside but they didn’t show. When I finally called they said they were swamped and would I like to reschedule? Hell no!!!

I have used Nature First Tree Care at two of my clients homes over the past month and am very pleased. Caren who works in the office is so nice and very helpful. All the tree trimmers were great too. Jeremy is very knowledgeable about all aspects of tree care. I would highly recommend Nature First Tree Care.

We had used Nature First for years and they did wonderful work, but this last experience was so terrible we will never call them again. I wonder if they have new staff with insufficient training. The task was to cut down a huge Eucalyptus. Not easy. And to trim two other trees. They took the Euc. down, breaking the tops of two retaining walls and smashing a Mimosa in the process. They butchered the tree in the front of the house. When I refused to pay, they came back the next day, repaired the retaining walls (although the wood no longer matches) and re-​pruned the tree in front. The Mimosa was too damaged for them to do much more. I wasn’t going to write a negative review, figuring they blew it, but tried to fix it afterward. But two days later our neighbors called. The crew had cut through a water hose and rather than telling us (or fixing it), they stuck the broken end through the fence. When the automatic water came on, our neighbor’s yard was flooded. That’s messing up and trying to hide the fact. And that means we will never deal with Nature First again.

I would characterize Nature First as a good service for «brute force» type of work, but not good for fine or cosmetic /​aesthetic work.
I hired them to remove and old tree and old growth and plant a new tree in it’s place.
Pros: they were efficient; they did a very nice job with the cutting, stump removal, and planting. Their quote was in line with other quotes, neither higher nor lower.
Cons: they arrived a day late, which was problematic as I arranged my schedule to work from home on the day they scheduled but could not do so for the day they actually arrived. They did not complete the clearing of the old foliage — there was a disagreement regarding the scope of the work, the complete nature of the clearing to be done was not explicitly called out by me, but the result is questionable from an aesthetic point of view.
If you use them, be prepared to clear your schedule to be present when they show up, as they require guidance along the way.

I’m having a little trouble understanding the bad reviews, we’ve used Nature First for years and they’ve been awesome. They just pulled away from our house after trimming our trees. The yard is as neat as a pin, the price seemed very reasonable for the size of the crew, time, and equipment required, and the work itself is beautiful. Any monkey can climb up a tree and whack off branches — as evidenced by some of the work our neighbors have had done — but the Nature First guys are artists.
Sometimes Unilocal can be a podium for complainers and apparently that’s what’s going on here. Read these bad reviews carefully, these guys all sound like impatient cheapskates with unreasonable expectations. Nature First has been around for years so they must have hundreds of satisfied customers. I’m one of ‘em.

THANK YOU NATURE FIRST! My cat had been stuck in a tree for two days in 90 degree weather and when I called the fire department, they said there was nothing they could do about it. THh officer recommended that I call Nature First. When I called the number, one of their employees, Jamie said he was on his way out of town but that he would turn around and come help my cat. He arrived promptly and saved my cat and did not even complain when my cat peed on him. Not only that, but he was a really sweet guy and way more understanding than the local emergency services. Thank you Jamie for saving my cat and being so understanding! THank you thank you thank you!

Nature First:
–Professional
–Local
–Honest
–Timely
–Most excellent job pruning, trimming, and leaving our trees in a position to continue with their growth–
Thank you for not hacking our trees. We honestly appreciated having a connection to your arborist for educating us on our choices/​options.

When Mimi came to my place to estimate the job of pruning various large firs near my house in the Santa Cruz Mountains, I was immediately impressed by her knowledge as a Certified Arborist and caring concern for the trees. Even though her cost estimate was high, because they had to rope down the limbs to protect my roof, I gave her the job. Two crews came to finish the job in less than a day. Right at the start a rope thrown up hit a branch that fell directly through my skylight. They had my skylight replaced with another custom one, delivered and installed by a roofing company at no cost to me. They pruned the sail of various big trees, made it safer for my roof and house, and saved the trees. I am pleased.

Avoid at all cost! Nature First was recommended by our contractor for some tree work on our property. We should have recognized from the start this was a going to be a problem.
It took several calls over a week to get someone to call us back. Then, we had to wait until the following week to get a call back from Mimi. More delays the following week with Mimi (who must be the only aborist at the company) out of town. Finally get her to come out, but now we have to wait for the site work to begin. More delays with Mimi not returning calls, then not showing up for scheduled appointments, then popping in unannounced just because she was in town. We finally said enough and hired another aborist.
All in all, waiting for Nature First cost us close to a month in delays for a one week project. The good news is the new aborist did a surgical job for ¹⁄₃ the cost of what Nature First proposed for their huge job.
When we told this story to our neighbors, we found they had the same issues with Nature First. In this economy, it’s inconceivable any business could be this unresponsive.
9÷14÷10 Update:
I was going over some of my past Unilocal reviews when I saw Nature First implying I don’t exist. Well, I do. And I’m a firm believer in honesty.
To help you decide if I exist, as well as what to believe, I’ve posted the estimate I received from Nature First in the photos section. I removed my identifying information other than the Bob R. It took me all of 15 seconds to find this in my email.

I noticed there aren’t many tree care specialists on Unilocal,so I thought I’d chime in.
I am very impressed with the service at Nature First. First of all, a certified arborist came out to look at the tree. Having an arborist involved was and is very important to me, so this made me happy.
As for the work, they were very professional and did a fabulous job pruning my way out-​of-​control Pepper tree. They didn’t just cut all the branches off like many other tree trimmers do to peppers – they made sure to maintain/​improve the natural shape of the tree instead of just hacking away at it. Jeremy explained that he was choosing which branches to cut because he wanted to encourage the tree to grow a certain way. I appreciated that he was concentrating on the future health/​aesthetic of our tree. They did a great job cleaning up afterward as well – even my gravel driveway was clean, and that’s tough to do!
Thanks to Joe and Jeremy and Juan! I look forward to having them back again.
I’d also like to note that their office is in Soquel, but don’t be scared away – they told me that they serve practically the whole bay area.