DIY or Professional Decision Guide
DIY or Professional Navigator
Start with the work you are considering
Learn which conditions commonly lead homeowners to a utility, emergency service, tree-care provider, plant-health resource, or a cautious DIY learning path. This website does not inspect the tree or declare any situation 100 percent safe or unsafe.
Keep-clear rule: Do not touch a line, enter an active failure area, stand beneath damaged wood, or continue when the tree, site, weather, method, or your capability is uncertain.
Go straight to HazardStep 2 of up to 6
Power-line check question.
Could any power line be involved?
Look only from a clear location. This includes a downed or touching line and any line close enough that a person, tree part, ladder, or tool could enter the electrical area.
Sourced Omaha task and stop guides
These six permanent guides are secondary reference material—not generated result pages or internet safety certificates.
How this navigator uses numbers
Numbers appear only as sourced electrical stops, utility-process timing, or horticultural technique. They never act as a DIY safety score.
- 10 feet: An occupational minimum-approach concept for an unqualified person, used here only as a conservative electrical stop. It never means work beyond that distance is safe.
- two business days: Submit a Nebraska 811 locate request at least two business days before excavation, then wait for facility responses and account for private lines.
- 2–3 times wider: A planting-hole width relative to the root mass; it is not a safety classifier for who should handle the tree.
- 2–4 inches: A Nebraska Forest Service surface-mulch depth, applied without piling material against the trunk.