Arborist Health Assessment in Jonesboro, AR

Is the tree sick, dangerous, or just ugly? After the storms this region has been through, that's a real question for a lot of Craighead County properties — and you deserve a written, photographed, plain-English answer instead of a sales pitch.

What's Included in a Health Assessment

We walk the tree the way an arborist should — systematically, from the root flare to the leader:

• Canopy. Deadwood percentage, tip dieback, one-sided growth, and old storm breakage that never healed right.
• Trunk and scaffold limbs. Cavities, cracks, fungal conks at the base (a mushroom is the tree's way of telling you the inside is rotting), included bark unions, and co-dominant stems that can split without warning.
• Root zone and root plate. Soil heaving on one side of the trunk, grade changes that buried the flare, trenching or compaction damage from past construction — the hidden killers.
• Lean and site conditions. Direction, rate of change, what the tree would hit, and how the ground around it behaves when saturated delta clay takes on water.

You get a written report with photos, a risk rating for each significant tree, and prioritized recommendations — trim now, cable and monitor, or remove before the next squall line does it for you.

Tornado Scars and Hanger Limbs

The March 2020 EF3 and the straight-line wind events that hit northeast Arkansas before and since left a specific kind of patient: trees that survived but carry partial failures. Tops snapped and regrown on a twist, limbs that split partway and hung, cracked leaders sealed over with bark while decay worked inside. Some of these trees are fine — we say so. Some are holding a hanger limb over the roof that will come down in the next derecho — we say that too, with pictures.

If you're buying or selling property that sat anywhere near the 2020 path, a documented assessment protects both sides of the transaction. Realtors around Jonesboro send us these calls regularly, and we write reports adjusters and closing attorneys can actually use.

Honest Talk About Pecan Disease

Northeast Arkansas is pecan country, so let's be straight about it: pecan scab is a fact of life here. The humid delta air that makes this region productive guarantees scab pressure every season, and no spray program changes the climate. If a company promises to keep your pecans spotless, they're selling you a subscription, not a solution.

What we actually do: assess whether the tree is structurally sound and worth investing in; prune for airflow through the canopy; clean up fallen shucks and leaves that carry the fungus over winter; and tell you honestly whether your tree's problem is disease, drainage, or simple age. Zinc deficiency — the classic "little leaf" rosetting common in Arkansas pecans — and webworm cycles are things we diagnose and explain with realistic expectations. Sometimes the right answer is enjoying the tree as a shade giant and letting the squirrels have the nuts.

Written Reports for Real Life

• Insurance documentation — time-stamped photos and plain descriptions that adjusters accept without a fight.
• Real-estate transactions — pre-purchase inspections so a closing doesn't hinge on a tree nobody looked at.
• Pre-storm-season audits — a whole-property walk-through before April, prioritized so you can budget the work that matters.
• Second opinions — if someone else told you a tree must come out and your gut disagrees, we'll look and tell you what we see. Sometimes they're right. Sometimes the tree needs a cable, not a grave.

Assessment Prices (2026)

Half our assessments end with "this tree is fine — trim it in a couple of years." We make money on the work that genuinely needs doing, and we sleep fine at night. See the full pricing guide.

Related Services

An assessment usually points somewhere: a tree that needs to come out, one worth cabling and saving, canopy work before storm season, or a pecan plan you can actually live with.

Tree removal →
Cabling & bracing →
Pecan tree care →