Tree Service in Jefferson, LA

Tree Service in Jefferson, the unincorporated community many locals call Old Jefferson, deals with some of the older suburban trees on the East Bank. The area was divided into plantations running back from the river in the French and Spanish eras, then grew as the small communities of Shrewsbury, Southport, Hoeyville and New Carrollton. When the four-lane Jefferson Highway opened in 1928, suburban building picked up. A lot of yards here have trees that have been growing since the middle of the last century.

The community is compact, about 2.71 square miles of land with roughly 10,600 residents in the 2020 census. It is hemmed in by New Orleans to the east, Elmwood to the west, the river to the south and a drainage canal, railroad tracks and the Earhart Expressway to the north, with only Causeway Boulevard and Central Avenue crossing into Metairie. Lots are modest, houses are close together, and big trees often affect two or three properties at once.

Parish trees and the parish tree list

Jefferson Parish's Parkways Department, which lists a permit office at 200 Shrewsbury Road in Jefferson, manages trees on parish right-of-way. Removing anything taller than six feet at maturity from that strip requires a free permit from the adjacent owner, and any approved removal has to include the stump. If a replacement is required or you want to plant on the right-of-way, the parish's Desirable Tree List controls what can go in.

That list surprises people. It splits approved trees into Class B, for strips seven feet or narrower or under overhead lines (crape myrtles, Little Gem magnolia, redbud, yaupon and similar small trees), and Class A for wider strips without lines (live oak, Nuttall and Shumard oaks, red maple, southern magnolia, cedar elm and others). It also names trees not allowed on parish property at all, including bald cypress, water oak, hackberry, sweet gum, Chinese tallow, camphor, silver maple and several pines.

On private lots

None of that list applies to your own yard, but it is a useful hint. Many of the species the parish keeps off its right-of-way are the same ones we remove most often from Old Jefferson yards: water oaks with rotten centers, hackberries with brittle limbs, and Chinese tallows that seed into every bed. When we take one out, we can suggest a better-behaved replacement for the space.

Typical work in Jefferson

• Sectional removal of trees squeezed between houses
• Clearing limbs over driveways and the street to the parish's 14-foot standard for local roads
• Pruning live oaks back from roofs and service lines
• Stump grinding after removals so the yard can be replanted

Call (504) 384-7694 to arrange a look at your trees. Get a free estimate