Dormant pruning season and the Texas oak wilt window

The second week of December is a strange one for a tree company. The leaf-drop cleanups are finished, the holidays are about to thin out the planned schedule, and the phone mostly rings when wind or ice brings something down. Most owners treat it as a slow patch. We think it is the most useful planning window of the year, because the work that fills January and February gets booked now, by the companies that ask for it.

Why winter is the pruning season, and why that is a selling point

The International Society of Arboriculture says on its consumer site that growth and wound closure are maximized if pruning takes place before the spring growth flush. It also warns against heavy pruning of live tissue just after that flush. Put together, that is the profession’s own case for doing structural pruning in the dormant months, and it is a far better pitch than “winter special.”

It also changes the conversation with a homeowner. A pruning offer that says “this is the timing ISA recommends for your trees” sounds like an arborist talking. A discount alone sounds like a company with empty days. Both may be true, but only one of them builds the trust that brings the customer back next winter.

Two practical points help the pitch:

• The leaves are down. A climber can see the structure of the crown, the crossing limbs and the deadwood, and so can the homeowner standing in the yard. Photos taken now explain the job better than any description.
• The job is worth a call. Thumbtack’s trimming cost guide, last updated in October, puts the national average for trimming a tree at $436 to $1,221, with most jobs around $730. One booked pruning job pays for a lot of reminder texts.

In central Texas, the oak calendar closes in February

For companies working in oak wilt country, the dormant season has a hard edge. The Texas A&M Forest Service advises against pruning or wounding oak trees from February through June to prevent the spread of oak wilt, which it reports killing trees across 76 Texas counties.

That has three consequences for the next eight weeks:

• Oak pruning belongs in December and January. Every past customer with live oaks or red oaks should hear from you before the holidays, with a plain explanation of why the window closes.
• Oak trimming ads need an end date. Ad groups built around oak pruning should pause at the end of January in the counties you serve, and the budget should move to removals, other species and risk assessments.
• Saying no is a trust signal. A short page on your site explaining why your crews will not prune an oak in April, even when asked, sets you apart from whoever will. The forest service is telling homeowners the same thing, and they notice when a company agrees with it.

Cities add their own layer. Austin regulates trees from 8 inches in diameter on private property, requires a permit to remove a protected tree of 19 inches or more measured at four and a half feet, and treats listed species from 24 inches as heritage trees. If your crews handle the permit, say so on the removal page. If the homeowner has to apply, say that too, with the steps. Either answer beats silence, which leaves the customer to find out from the city.

Put the offer in front of the people who already trust you

The cheapest pruning jobs to win in January are on properties you have already worked. Before the holidays:

• Pull the job list. Two years of addresses, species and the date of the last pruning, sorted so the oaks come first in Texas and the overdue trees come first everywhere else.
• Write to each customer about their own trees. “Your two pin oaks along the driveway are due for structural pruning, and January is the window” gets read. A general newsletter does not.
• Use the Google Business Profile. Add pruning and dormant-season work to your services, post a few photos of the crown structure you can see right now, and ask the customers from this fall’s jobs for a review while the work is fresh. A profile with recent reviews and current photos is what a new January customer checks before calling.

Paid search and Local Services Ads before New Year

If paid leads are part of the winter plan, the setup has to start this month.

Google’s Local Services Ads have a Tree services category, covering companies that plant, remove and maintain trees, and since October the ads carry a single Google Verified badge instead of the old ones. Google puts screening at three to four weeks on average once documents are submitted, and asks tree companies for general and professional liability insurance and state licenses where the law requires them. An application filed this week is running in January. One filed in January is running when the dormant season is half over.

For search campaigns, keep pruning and removal apart. They attract different searches, carry different job values and, in oak wilt counties, follow different calendars. For search ads, LocaliQ’s home services benchmarks from June put the median cost per lead across 16 home service categories at $90.92, measured from April 2024 to March 2025. Against a pruning job averaging around $730, that is workable, but only if the lead is answered.

And that is the part winter tests. CallRail’s January 2025 report found home services businesses let 14% of their calls go unanswered. In December the owner is often the one in the bucket truck. Decide now who picks up the phone when the crew is in a tree.

What to do this month

• Sort the last two years of jobs by species and last pruning date, and send a dormant-season offer to every past customer before the holidays.
• In oak wilt counties, book oak pruning into December and January, set an end date on oak ad groups, and publish a short page explaining the February to June pause.
• File the Local Services Ads application under Tree services this week, with insurance certificates and any state license ready.
• Update the Business Profile with pruning services, winter hours and recent photos, and ask this fall’s customers for reviews.
• If your cities protect trees by size, add a permit section to the removal page saying who applies.
• Decide who answers calls while the crew is up a tree, and test it with a call of your own.

A winter that is booked in December is calmer than one chased in February. Our page for tree service companies sets out how we plan a tree company’s year, and our Google Business Profile work covers the profile side of this list.