New title
Baca’s Trees
Tree Removal, Tree Pruning & Trimming and Tree Services in Albuquerque, NM and the Surrounding Areas
Since 1980, Baca’s Trees has been caring for trees and shrubs throughout the community, offering ISA Certified Arborist Services in Albuquerque and throughout New Mexico.
Our talented team is dedicated to exceptional tree care for all residential and commercial properties. Whether you are maintaining your shade and privacy, preparing for a wedding, or are just concerned about your trees, we have the experience and tools to get the job done right. We are licensed and insured to handle any job! Please give us a call to learn more about our services or to get started with a no-obligation estimate.
• Tree Removal & Stump Grinding
• Tree Trimming & Safety Pruning
• Tree Planting
• Tree Diagnostics & Pest Management
• Tree Cabling & Bracing
• Tree Reduction & Crown Lifting
• Root pruning and control
• ISA Certified Arborists
When the Baca brothers started Baca’s Trees more than four decades ago, they did it because they cared about trees and their community. That holds true today. We take pride in serving our friends and neighbors in Albuquerque and throughout New Mexico. To ensure we’re able to provide the best tree services in New Mexico we continually invest in ongoing training and the latest equipment. We guarantee that you will be impressed with our services from the initial quote until the job is completed and fully cleaned up. We encourage you to give the friendly team at Baca's Trees a call at 505-477-0123 to learn more about our services or to request an appointment for professional commercial or residential tree services.We recycle all of our green waste. Call us for information about free wood and woodchips.
Baca’s Trees Blog
by Baca's Trees
•
06 May, 2024
I left a cold and unpredictable April to go on vacation in Italy. I came home to welcoming warmth, flowers, and leaves on most of the trees. Traveling is fun, but there’s no place like home! As I write this today, it is small business day, the day identified to remind us that small businesses run the world. This special day is near and dear to my heart. We are a business of less than 30 employees. We have been in business for more than 40 years. We are proud New Mexicans and we proudly serve New Mexicans. Thank you for supporting our small business! What’s happening in my world? Pinon Needle Scale turns inner needles on Piñon trees brown. It actively attaches to the needles and sucks the moisture out in February and March, and again in October and November. It is not always noticed until April when the needles have finally turned as brown as they are going to get and needle drop is more than normal. Treating now is futile since they are not damaging your tree now. While they are not actively damaging the tree, they are actively laying around watching cable television and making babies. 😉 This time of year the only thing you can do to help your tree is to hose off the nest. The nest is white and found in the undergrowth and on the crotches of the tree. It looks like dryer lint. Spray it off with a hard stream of water. It will come back. Spray it off again. Try to make sure your tree is cleaned off, especially in February and again in October. Aphids are in abundance! Since they are close to the bottom of the food chain, let’s try not to poison them. They don’t kill anything except cactus and flowers. Use the recipe to suffocate them and the environment will stay in tact. In a 32 oz spray bottle, put 1/4 teaspoon dish soap, 1 shot glass of cooking oil, and fill the rest with water. If you don’t have a shot glass, that’s another issue entirely. 😂 Weeds have popped up everywhere. Spraying your weeds with a vinegar solution can control them if you spray when they are small. if you use chemical treatment, the only safe one I know to use in your landscape is the original, white bottle Roundup. I’m not suggesting you use roundup. I’m just saying that if you use chemical control, this is the only one that does not harm your trees. I am speaking on behalf of the trees. About 25% percent of my appointments so far this season have been trees damaged by weed killer. I expect this number to grow. To say that the weather this spring was wonky is an understatement. We went from warm to cold to warm and cold again so fast that my head was spinning. This weather took a toll on the trees. I have not seen any apricot trees with fruit. Many trees did not produce leaves at all. I’m still waiting for my Chinese Pistache to fully leaf out. Even the trees in the nursery took a hit period. I don’t think we’ve seen the full damage of the wonky weather yet. The weather has turned very warm now, and we are close to the end of planting season. The tree selection is good right now. Always when you plant a tree you have to ask yourself what you want your tree to do for you. I have been to several houses this season where they planted a deciduous tree to block the view of the nosy neighbor. That only works while the tree has leaves. Since they did not put an Evergreen, they can run around naked in their backyard in the summer, but not in the winter. 🫣 Oh well. Score one for the nosy neighbor! There is a perfect tree or shrub for your landscape. If you want spring flowers or fall color or shade or privacy or bee friendly or bird food or you need something to plant on your property line so you don’t have to look at your neighbor’s mess, you can find the right tree. You just have to determine what characteristics are most important to you. The perfect tree does exist! Thank you again for reading. Call our office if you need an appointment with one of us or if you would like a returned call. Please be patient. This is our busy season. 😅 Gracias … Camille the Arborista
by Baca's Trees
•
29 Mar, 2024
Gardens around the world are favorite visiting spaces for travelers. There is something about being among the life that is within gardens that bring us peace. Studies show that healing from an illness or injury is accelerated when the patient can see a tree from their window and even more so if they can spend time in a garden. For this reason, gardens are incorporated in hospital and convalescent facilities. Some of our favorite places in Albuquerque are green spaces such as the UNM duck pond, the zoo, and the botanical gardens. Some may argue that we live in a desert and greenery comes at a premium. This is true. We may not be able to sustain lush grass or backyard streams and ponds but, we can bring life to our living space. There are several grasses that we can sustain and our desert plants can be beautiful and life giving. Lavender and potentilla, to name a few, flower all summer long. I love watching the bees dance over the Rosemary and the Texas sage as they bloom. Bird of Paradise, Vitex, and Desert Willow provide showy flowers all summer and take very little water. Some trees such as fruitless Mulberry and Bur Oak provide enough shade to drop the temperature 10 degrees! Their strong limbs can hold a back yard swing or even a zip line. COVID lockdown was our “Come to Jesus” moment. During this time, when people were forced to stay home, we started to create the green space in our yards that we wanted to come home to. Dining al fresco at home was fun and helped to make this difficult time tolerable and even enjoyable. Did I mention the peace that comes from working in the garden? Mindless tasks that give us a sense of pride and accomplishment help us to work through anything. Give us a hand pruner and an unruly shrub, and we can solve the problems of the world!
by Baca’s Trees
•
14 Mar, 2024
Weather is always all over the place in March. It’s cold. It’s hot. It’s windy. It’s dry. Do I wear shorts? Light jacket? Trees feel the same way. I know because we talk. Warm days welcome the flowers and buds, and cold evenings can shock them into freezing. It is most visible on fruit trees but Pistache, Redbud, Raywood Ash, Vitex, Desert Willow, to mention a few, can really struggle. Whitewash can help the trees deflect the warm sun, so the cold is not so shocking. Whitewash is white latex paint mixed with water at a rate of 50/50. Now is the time to whitewash. If your fruit tree freezes, you can possibly lose your fruit. My Apricot is fully flowered. I plan to place a 100-watt lamp under my tree to keep my tree warm and cozy during the crisp mornings. • Old fashioned Christmas lights will keep your tree nice, and toasty as will placing a 100-watt beam lamp under your tree. • Soaking you tree the day before an expected freeze will help. The sun warms the soil, and the heat is dissipated at night. • If your tree is small enough, you can cover it with a sheet or tarp. Mulch was the big discussion at the most recent Tree Conference. A professor from WSU gave an interesting talk. Ground covers should, among other things, help to conserve soil moisture, reduce compaction, moderate soil temperature, enhance plant growth, enhance beneficial soil organisms, control pests to reduce pesticide use. • Layers of cardboard or plastic below the surface with soil on top is TERRIBLE. Besides suffocating trees, cardboard is treated with chemical to help them stay waterproof and plastic has been found to have toxic properties as well. I often see these in vegetable beds. • There is rubber mulch, cut and colored to look like wood chips or just pieces of tire that people are using, sometimes under a swing set or in other areas of the yard. While these last, God only knows what it is does not enrich the soil. In fact, I am leery of any synthetic. Further, these retain heat. We sometimes see the little rubber mats around trees. These synthetics allegedly hold moisture, but they also create a habitat for bugs that are not good. • Wood bark and pecan shells are also very popular. Bark and shells both had the same task in life; to keep moisture out. They are both hydrophobic meaning they do not help the landscape retain moisture. • The Professor deduced that WOOD CHIPS are the best mulch. As they decompose, they leave the environment richer than when they got there. They are available, inexpensive, retain moisture, provide nutrients, easy to replace as they decompose, and they smother weeds while allowing trees and shrubs to breathe and grow. Have I mentioned … Baca’s Trees provides free wood chips. We keep them in front of our yard for the taking or you can call the office if you want them dumped at your house. Take all you want. We’ll make more! Keep it green! Camille the Arborista
by Baca's Trees
•
06 May, 2024
I left a cold and unpredictable April to go on vacation in Italy. I came home to welcoming warmth, flowers, and leaves on most of the trees. Traveling is fun, but there’s no place like home! As I write this today, it is small business day, the day identified to remind us that small businesses run the world. This special day is near and dear to my heart. We are a business of less than 30 employees. We have been in business for more than 40 years. We are proud New Mexicans and we proudly serve New Mexicans. Thank you for supporting our small business! What’s happening in my world? Pinon Needle Scale turns inner needles on Piñon trees brown. It actively attaches to the needles and sucks the moisture out in February and March, and again in October and November. It is not always noticed until April when the needles have finally turned as brown as they are going to get and needle drop is more than normal. Treating now is futile since they are not damaging your tree now. While they are not actively damaging the tree, they are actively laying around watching cable television and making babies. 😉 This time of year the only thing you can do to help your tree is to hose off the nest. The nest is white and found in the undergrowth and on the crotches of the tree. It looks like dryer lint. Spray it off with a hard stream of water. It will come back. Spray it off again. Try to make sure your tree is cleaned off, especially in February and again in October. Aphids are in abundance! Since they are close to the bottom of the food chain, let’s try not to poison them. They don’t kill anything except cactus and flowers. Use the recipe to suffocate them and the environment will stay in tact. In a 32 oz spray bottle, put 1/4 teaspoon dish soap, 1 shot glass of cooking oil, and fill the rest with water. If you don’t have a shot glass, that’s another issue entirely. 😂 Weeds have popped up everywhere. Spraying your weeds with a vinegar solution can control them if you spray when they are small. if you use chemical treatment, the only safe one I know to use in your landscape is the original, white bottle Roundup. I’m not suggesting you use roundup. I’m just saying that if you use chemical control, this is the only one that does not harm your trees. I am speaking on behalf of the trees. About 25% percent of my appointments so far this season have been trees damaged by weed killer. I expect this number to grow. To say that the weather this spring was wonky is an understatement. We went from warm to cold to warm and cold again so fast that my head was spinning. This weather took a toll on the trees. I have not seen any apricot trees with fruit. Many trees did not produce leaves at all. I’m still waiting for my Chinese Pistache to fully leaf out. Even the trees in the nursery took a hit period. I don’t think we’ve seen the full damage of the wonky weather yet. The weather has turned very warm now, and we are close to the end of planting season. The tree selection is good right now. Always when you plant a tree you have to ask yourself what you want your tree to do for you. I have been to several houses this season where they planted a deciduous tree to block the view of the nosy neighbor. That only works while the tree has leaves. Since they did not put an Evergreen, they can run around naked in their backyard in the summer, but not in the winter. 🫣 Oh well. Score one for the nosy neighbor! There is a perfect tree or shrub for your landscape. If you want spring flowers or fall color or shade or privacy or bee friendly or bird food or you need something to plant on your property line so you don’t have to look at your neighbor’s mess, you can find the right tree. You just have to determine what characteristics are most important to you. The perfect tree does exist! Thank you again for reading. Call our office if you need an appointment with one of us or if you would like a returned call. Please be patient. This is our busy season. 😅 Gracias … Camille the Arborista
by Baca's Trees
•
29 Mar, 2024
Gardens around the world are favorite visiting spaces for travelers. There is something about being among the life that is within gardens that bring us peace. Studies show that healing from an illness or injury is accelerated when the patient can see a tree from their window and even more so if they can spend time in a garden. For this reason, gardens are incorporated in hospital and convalescent facilities. Some of our favorite places in Albuquerque are green spaces such as the UNM duck pond, the zoo, and the botanical gardens. Some may argue that we live in a desert and greenery comes at a premium. This is true. We may not be able to sustain lush grass or backyard streams and ponds but, we can bring life to our living space. There are several grasses that we can sustain and our desert plants can be beautiful and life giving. Lavender and potentilla, to name a few, flower all summer long. I love watching the bees dance over the Rosemary and the Texas sage as they bloom. Bird of Paradise, Vitex, and Desert Willow provide showy flowers all summer and take very little water. Some trees such as fruitless Mulberry and Bur Oak provide enough shade to drop the temperature 10 degrees! Their strong limbs can hold a back yard swing or even a zip line. COVID lockdown was our “Come to Jesus” moment. During this time, when people were forced to stay home, we started to create the green space in our yards that we wanted to come home to. Dining al fresco at home was fun and helped to make this difficult time tolerable and even enjoyable. Did I mention the peace that comes from working in the garden? Mindless tasks that give us a sense of pride and accomplishment help us to work through anything. Give us a hand pruner and an unruly shrub, and we can solve the problems of the world!
by Baca’s Trees
•
14 Mar, 2024
Weather is always all over the place in March. It’s cold. It’s hot. It’s windy. It’s dry. Do I wear shorts? Light jacket? Trees feel the same way. I know because we talk. Warm days welcome the flowers and buds, and cold evenings can shock them into freezing. It is most visible on fruit trees but Pistache, Redbud, Raywood Ash, Vitex, Desert Willow, to mention a few, can really struggle. Whitewash can help the trees deflect the warm sun, so the cold is not so shocking. Whitewash is white latex paint mixed with water at a rate of 50/50. Now is the time to whitewash. If your fruit tree freezes, you can possibly lose your fruit. My Apricot is fully flowered. I plan to place a 100-watt lamp under my tree to keep my tree warm and cozy during the crisp mornings. • Old fashioned Christmas lights will keep your tree nice, and toasty as will placing a 100-watt beam lamp under your tree. • Soaking you tree the day before an expected freeze will help. The sun warms the soil, and the heat is dissipated at night. • If your tree is small enough, you can cover it with a sheet or tarp. Mulch was the big discussion at the most recent Tree Conference. A professor from WSU gave an interesting talk. Ground covers should, among other things, help to conserve soil moisture, reduce compaction, moderate soil temperature, enhance plant growth, enhance beneficial soil organisms, control pests to reduce pesticide use. • Layers of cardboard or plastic below the surface with soil on top is TERRIBLE. Besides suffocating trees, cardboard is treated with chemical to help them stay waterproof and plastic has been found to have toxic properties as well. I often see these in vegetable beds. • There is rubber mulch, cut and colored to look like wood chips or just pieces of tire that people are using, sometimes under a swing set or in other areas of the yard. While these last, God only knows what it is does not enrich the soil. In fact, I am leery of any synthetic. Further, these retain heat. We sometimes see the little rubber mats around trees. These synthetics allegedly hold moisture, but they also create a habitat for bugs that are not good. • Wood bark and pecan shells are also very popular. Bark and shells both had the same task in life; to keep moisture out. They are both hydrophobic meaning they do not help the landscape retain moisture. • The Professor deduced that WOOD CHIPS are the best mulch. As they decompose, they leave the environment richer than when they got there. They are available, inexpensive, retain moisture, provide nutrients, easy to replace as they decompose, and they smother weeds while allowing trees and shrubs to breathe and grow. Have I mentioned … Baca’s Trees provides free wood chips. We keep them in front of our yard for the taking or you can call the office if you want them dumped at your house. Take all you want. We’ll make more! Keep it green! Camille the Arborista
by Baca's Trees
•
08 Feb, 2024
Superbowl, Valentine’s Day, Spring. Where does the time go? When the temperature gets warm enough, regardless of month or our readiness, bugs and fungus wake up. First is Pinon Needle Scale, a moisture sucking bug presenting as little black dots on the inner needles of your Pinon tree. They like cool, not cold or hot, weather. They are VERY active in February and March. By April, it is too warm for them. They nest on your trees in a white cotton or dryer lint type mass. You see that on the undergrowth and the crotches of the tree (wherever the rain does not hit). If you see little black dots, it isn’t the end of the world. This bug is not a killer, it just thins out your tree as it kills the inner growth before the growth would naturally fall off. I like to say that it is okay to have the scale come to your tree. They are bugs and we need them for the circle of life. It is NOT okay for them to invite friends and family and throw a rager at the expense of your tree. What should you do? • The easiest control is to simply hose off the dryer lint with a hard spray of water. This should be done about every 2 weeks in February and March. • Dormant Oil* acts as a suffocant and can be used as often as you want. Once we get into April, you are wasting your time and energy with dormant oil for this bug. • Chemical treatment can be used, but chemical for a bug as benign as scale is a gateway drug for killing all bugs in your yard. We need bugs so we can have lizards, and roadrunners, and somewhere down the line we get to eat chicken. You will NEVER get rid of this bug. You can only control it. It travels in the wind. It is also worse in areas where Pinons are in abundance in the neighborhood. It’s like trying to keep your child healthy in daycare. Fungus requires cool and moist conditions to grow. We rarely have these conditions but when we do, it is in March and during our monsoon for a day or two. That’s all it takes for fungus to grow. We see fungus on Euonymus, Boxwoods, Photinia, Roses, and Blue Spruce primarily, especially those on the north side of the house. You can mitigate this issue by trimming up your shrubs and Blue Spruce, so they are at least a foot off the ground. Shrubs and trees that touch the ground have the tendency to trap moisture, thus creating a habitat for fungus. Clean up all leaves under the shrubs so as not to trap moisture or spread an existing fungus. You can also spray Dormant Oil on your shrubs, not on the Spruce . Oil discolors them. Finally, we are currently scheduling for treatments in March and April . If we already have a proposal on file for you, simply call the office and I will get you scheduled. If we do not, call the office for a consultation. We are still short staffed in our Spray Division. All treatments will be scheduled on a first-come-first-served basis. *My Dormant Oil Recipe In a one-gallon sprayer of water, add • 1 cup vegetable oil • 1 teaspoon dish soap Spraying should be done when temperatures are above 40° (below this temperature oil gels) and below 80° (above this temperature oil fries). Thank you for your ongoing patronage. We are a family-owned business whose clients are like family to us. Sincerely … Camille the Arborista
by Baca’s Trees
•
22 Jan, 2024
We had significant rain in December. January is another story. Clouds, the threat of rain and snow but, in Albuquerque, nothing! Nada! Zip! I think this is the dry January we hear about. Water your trees at least once or twice this month good soaking! In my world, bugs and fungus are asleep but Baca’s Trees is still a buzz. We trim trees all year long but now is the best time to trim Pine Trees (sappy mess is reduced) and trim Apple trees for production. This is a great time to plant. Trees do great when planted during colder weather and Plant World has excellent stock with more coming in daily. If you’d like us to help you, call the office. I will walk the nursery with you and help you select a tree that will add color, shade, and value to your yard, not to mention life-giving oxygen. In just over a month, we will begin our spring spraying and treatment schedule. We are still experiencing issues with staff shortages on the Spray Team. If you would like us to treat your trees this spring, please call early to get on the schedule. We are working on our website. Take a look and let me know what you like and what you don’t. The changes are for you. We are trying to update it with more information to help you best care for your trees. If there is something you don’t see, let me know. I will do my best to research and supply that information. Your feedback is always welcomed and appreciated! Thank you for your loyalty to Baca’s Trees. Sincerely … Camille the Arborista
Baca’s Trees Estimate Request
Please fill in the form below and we'll have a representative contact you.
Thank you for contacting us.
We will get back to you as soon as possible.
We will get back to you as soon as possible.
Oops, there was an error sending your message.
Please try again later.
Please try again later.
Service Areas
Albuquerque, North Valley, Rio Rancho, Corrales, Bernalillo, Los Ranchos, Placitas & Algodones
About Us
For more than 40 years, Baca’s Trees has been offering ISA Certified Arborist services and tree removal in Albuquerque and the neighboring New Mexico cities.
© 2024
All Rights Reserved
