Tree Service in Hewlett, NY

There are five Hewletts, and the tree rules change depending on which one your mailbox is in. Most companies quoting work here do not know that. We are about three miles away, so it is the first thing we sort out.

Which Hewlett you are in decides the rules

Hewlett proper (11557) is an unincorporated hamlet - about 7,000 people - under the Town of Hempstead. Town Chapter 184 regulates trees in the curbside area only: the strip between sidewalk and street. That takes a $25 permit from the Commissioner of Highways, and the Town will not issue one to remove a healthy, growing tree. Trees fully on your own property, behind the sidewalk line, are essentially unregulated.

Hewlett Harbor is a different world. It is an incorporated village, and its code makes it unlawful to remove, substantially alter, or destroy any tree of 22 inches circumference or more, measured five feet above the ground, without a permit. And the part that catches everyone: even a dead tree has to be reported to the Building Inspector, and cannot be removed without his approval.

Hewlett Bay Park, Hewlett Neck, and Woodsburgh are each their own incorporated village with their own tree chapters, generally requiring a permit to remove or substantially alter trees on private property.

None of this is a reason to panic - permits for genuinely hazardous trees are routine everywhere. It is a reason not to let a crew from forty miles away start cutting on a Saturday because nobody checked. Tell us your address and we will tell you which path applies.

Over-mature trees on lots that never got bigger

Hewlett built out early and never redeveloped. Nassau County went from roughly 670,000 people in 1950 to over 1.4 million by 1970, and this area filled in during that wave, then stopped. What is left is housing stock older than the county average with trees that have had seventy-plus years to grow into it.

Practically, that means big specimen trees close to houses, garages, and PSEG wires, with no drop zone - the crane-and-rigging category, not the fell-it-and-chip-it category. The incorporated villages in particular have the estate-scale trees where a single removal is a serious, permit-gated project rather than an afternoon.

Salt, storms, and a slow decline

Sandy hit the Five Towns hard in 2012 - trees down across North Woodmere pulling service lines off houses, the Woodmere docks destroyed, and salt water pushed into low-lying bay-adjacent yards. Hewlett Harbor spent years and millions rebuilding stormwater infrastructure afterward. Isaias followed in 2020 and uprooted thousands of trees regionally.

The part homeowners miss is the timeline. Salt intrusion into a root system does not kill a tree that winter - it shows up as thinning canopy and dieback years later. A lot of the decline we are called about in the bay-adjacent sections traces back to a storm from over a decade ago. If a mature tree here has been getting sparser each spring, that is worth checking: see signs a tree is dying.

What we do in Hewlett

• Tree removal - climbed and rigged, or craned, with the permit path sorted first.
• Emergency and storm work - trees on houses and wires first. Wires down: PSEG at 1-800-490-0075.
• Trimming and pruning - deadwood and weight reduction on over-mature specimens.
• Stump grinding - see the cost guide for what to expect.

Hewlett, Hewlett Harbor, Hewlett Bay Park, Hewlett Neck, Woodsburgh, and neighboring Woodmere and Cedarhurst. Written, itemized estimates: (516) 555-0100.