How listings are built

Where the listings come from

Listings come from three public sources, and owners can add their own business. Every listing says where it came from, in the card under its phone number and address.

The federal USDOT registry

Most listings start as a record in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) company census. That's the public registry of companies holding a USDOT number, which the U.S. Department of Transportation requires of companies that run commercial trucks. The current listings use the census file dated August 29, 2026.

We include active registrations whose company name points to tree work, with words like “tree”, “arborist” or “stump”. Names that point to another kind of business, like a tree farm, a nursery or a freight carrier, are left out.

Google Business Profiles

Plenty of tree companies don't run trucks the registry covers. To find them we searched Google's business listings for arborists and tree removal, first in every county with at least 15 registered tree companies and then in 323 more counties with fewer. A result that matched a company already listed here added its Google details to that listing. A result that matched nothing became a listing of its own, marked “Listed from Google Business Profile”, when Google files it under Tree service or Arborist service.

Those listings show the name, address, phone number and website on the Google profile, and the rating and review count under the rule below. Some profiles give no street address. Where Google's map puts one of those in a U.S. county, it's listed in that county with its phone number and website, and with no street address or map. None of them has a USDOT number, registration year or fleet size, because there's no registration behind them, and those rows are left out rather than filled in.

State license lists

Minnesota, New Jersey and Rhode Island each publish a full list of the tree businesses they register: Minnesota's Tree Care Registry, the New Jersey Board of Tree Experts' business directory and Rhode Island DEM's list of arborist companies. A business on one of those lists that matched no listing here has a listing of its own, marked “Listed from a state license list”. It shows the name and town the list gives, with a phone number where the list has one, and the list's entry: the licensing body, the license number, the class and the status, and the date we read the list. A suspended registration doesn't make a listing.

A business already listed here that's on one of those lists keeps its listing, which shows the entry in a card of its own. We match them by name and phone number, then by name and town, then by the same name in the same county.

Other states and cities publish lists we only match against. Where a company listed here matched an entry on one of those, its listing shows the entry: which list, the license number and status where the list gives them, and the date we read it. We use the lists from California, Washington, Maine and Louisiana, and from Denver and Lincoln, Nebraska. A company missing from a list may still hold the license, since not every match can be made from a name and phone number.

A company that does tree work and appears in none of these sources won't be here until it's added. If that's you, add your business.

Added by their owners

A business in none of these sources can add itself. We check its phone number with a call that reads out a code, and a person here reviews the listing before it's published. These listings are marked “Added by the owner” and show what the owner sent us: the name, phone number, town and the jobs it takes, with a street address and website where they gave one. The owner manages the listing from then on, like any verified owner.

What a listing shows

The company name. We use the trade name (DBA) on the registration unless it's generic, like “Tree Service”, in which case we use the legal name.
The phone number and address on the registration, on the Google profile or on the state's list.
For a registered company, the USDOT number, registration status and the year it first registered.
For a registered company, fleet size, from the number of trucks on the registration.
A state or city license entry, where one matched.
A map of the ZIP code area. Maps are placed at the center of the ZIP code, not at the street address. Where a Google listing's ZIP code and Google pin fall in different counties and its town is in the pin's, we list it in that county, and its map shows the area around the pin instead.

If a detail isn't on the record, we leave it out. We don't fill gaps with guesses, stock descriptions or placeholder text.

Verified owners

A business owner can claim a listing by entering a code we send to the contact details on the company's USDOT registration, or by sending details we check by hand. A listing built from a Google Business Profile or a state license list gets its code at the phone on the profile or the license record, and one with no phone we can use is checked by hand. Verified listings are marked “Verified owner”.

A claim link we email to an address the business publishes (the one on its USDOT registration or listing, or one on its own website's domain) verifies you when you press the button on the page it opens, and it works one time.

Verified owners can change the name, phone, address, website and services shown, and add hours, photos and a short description. Text under “From the owner” is written by the business, not by us. The USDOT number, registration status, registration year and fleet size always come from the federal record.

Duplicates

A business is often listed more than once, from more than one source or more than one registration. We show it once. Two listings in the same county are the same business when:

they share a phone number, and their names share a word that says which business it is, like a family name, not only a word for what it does;
they share a website of their own, not a page on Facebook, Yelp or a site like them;
they share a street number and street in the same ZIP code, and their names share a word as above; or
they're in the same town or ZIP code and their names are the same once endings like LLC or Inc are set aside, or nearly the same where one of them has no phone number.

A phone number or website on 5 or more of our listings, as a franchise's or a call center's is, never joins listings, and nor does a phone number we don't show. Two listings with different phone numbers of their own stay apart, and so does any listing its owner has claimed. The listing we keep is the one from the registry where there is one, then one with a license entry, then one with a Google profile, then the older one. It takes the other's Google profile and license entries, and the other's page sends you to it.

Google ratings

For some companies we show a star rating and review count from their Google Business Profile, labelled “via Google”. We only show them when there are at least 3 reviews, and we never copy review text. A company owner can ask us to hide their rating. Where we hold a link to the profile, the listing has a “See reviews on Google” link so you can read the reviews at the source.

Counties and ranking

A county gets its own page once it has at least 15 listed tree service companies, counting every source. Once it has a page, it keeps it until it has fewer than 10, so one listing merged or taken off doesn’t close it. Companies in smaller counties still have their own listing pages.

Listings are shown in three groups: Pro listings first (Pro is a paid plan for listing owners), then other listings whose owners have claimed and verified them, then everyone else. Within each group, tree service companies are listed in the order below. When you sort by ZIP code or town, listings are grouped by distance, and the same three groups apply within each distance group, nearest first.

A Google rating of 4.0 or higher from at least 3 reviews, weighted by how many reviews stand behind it, highest first. Each rating counts as if it started with 20 reviews at 4.5, so a few reviews move it only a little: 5.0 from 6 reviews scores 4.6, and 4.9 from 11,000 scores 4.9.
The review count, where two companies have the same score.
Larger fleets, by number of trucks and then drivers.
Company name, alphabetically.

A rating below 4.0 is still shown on the listing, with its review count. It just doesn't move the company up this order, so the listing sits with the ones we hold no rating for. We only use a rating to put a company ahead of another, never to push one down, because a handful of Google reviews isn't enough to say a company is worse than one nobody has reviewed at all.

Mistakes

Registry records, Google profiles and license lists can all be out of date. If something on a listing is wrong, see the corrections page.

Public records on a listing

A listing can show public records beside the details it's built from. Each record names its source where it's shown, and a field the source leaves blank drops its sentence. A record says what a business holds, not how good its work is.

The federal record

For a listing with a USDOT number, the FMCSA company census gives:

Whether the company runs across state lines or within its state
Its drivers and power units
Its vehicles by type, and whether they're owned or leased
The miles it reported for one of the last three years
The kinds of cargo it says it hauls that fit this trade
Its MC number
The month it last updated its registration

FMCSA's inspection file gives how many roadside inspections it had in the last 24 months and the date of the latest, shown with FMCSA's own note on reading inspection data. We don't show crashes, out-of-service orders or safety ratings.

License records

For a license on a state list, the card gives the expiry and every class the list shows for it.

For a license from California, Washington or Oregon we also read the licensing body's own records, by license number only: the Contractors State License Board, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries and the Oregon Construction Contractors Board. They give the status in the body's own words, the expiry and classes, and the bond, insurance and workers' comp the body lists. A suspended license isn't shown.

Business registrations and certifications

Some listings show a record from one of these:

The business registries of New York, Colorado, Oregon, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Texas and Iowa
SAM.gov, the federal government's register of businesses that can bid on its contracts
Maryland's list of licensed nurseries

We show one only where the business's name, with words like Inc or LLC, and its town are exactly the record's, and only while the record is current. A state's own list shows only on a business in that state.

Building permits

Some listings show the building permits their contractor pulled since 2023, from these city and county portals:

San Francisco Department of Building Inspection
San Diego County Planning & Development Services
Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety
NYC Department of Buildings
Marin County Community Development Agency
City of Fort Lauderdale Development Services Department
Miami-Dade County Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources
City and County of Sacramento
Chicago Department of Buildings
Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections
City of Austin Development Services Department
Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections
City of Anaheim Planning and Building Department
City of Bellevue Development Services
City of Everett Permit Services
City of Elk Grove Building Safety and Inspection
City of Saint Paul Department of Safety and Inspections
City of Kansas City, Missouri, City Planning and Development
City of Orlando Permitting Services
City of Detroit Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department
City of Somerville Inspectional Services
City of San José
New York City Department of Buildings
City of Raleigh
City of Boulder Planning and Development Services
City of Tyler
City of Denton Building Safety

A permit is matched by license number where the portal gives one. Otherwise it's matched only by the contractor's exact business name, and never by a name that's only a person's name, only initials, or only trade and place words. County pages show this trade's permits from the last 12 months. We never show a homeowner's name or address, or what the work cost.

We never show complaints, violations, citations, wage cases or debarments, or personal details such as birth dates or home addresses.