Emergency Tree Service in New Bedford, MA

In New Bedford, a falling tree rarely has anywhere empty to land.

New Bedford is a city built tight. The old whaling port grew up the hill from the Acushnet River, and neighborhoods like the North End, the South End, the West End, and Acushnet Heights are lined with triple-deckers set close together, cars parked along both curbs, and overhead wires running down nearly every block. Many of the street trees are decades old and grew up into those wires. When one of them fails, it almost always lands on something: a porch, a roof, a car, or a neighbor's house.

The city also sits right on Buzzards Bay. The bay funnels hurricane surge to the northeast, and the 1938 Hurricane and Hurricane Carol in 1954 flooded and battered New Bedford's waterfront; Hurricane Bob hit the region again in 1991. The New Bedford Hurricane Protection Barrier, finished by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1966, now closes the harbor against surge, but it does nothing about wind. Clark's Point, Fort Taber, and the South End still take the full force of a southerly blow off the bay.

The other half of the risk comes from behind coastal storms. When a strong northeast wind sets up, the National Weather Service Boston/Norton office regularly issues High Wind Warnings for southern Bristol County, and big trees around Buttonwood Park, Hazelwood Park, and the older residential streets are the ones that come down.