Tree Removal in Gold Hill

Folks once called it Granite Hill. These days it's unincorporated, sitting about 1,621 feet up and 2.5 miles south of Coloma.

Mining came first. Farming took over once water arrived by canal from Hangtown Creek near Placerville. Through the 1800s, Gold Hill fruit rode the rails to buyers across the country.

There's one more unusual chapter. For a few short years, Japanese settlers farmed here, growing tea, plus mulberry trees to feed silkworms.

On old farm land you might have a mix. Fruit trees past their prime. Big native oaks along fence lines. Pines that came up on their own, wherever the seed happened to land.

Fruit trees aren't covered by the county oak rule. Native oaks are where you slow down. The county oak rule covers them. A summary of it lets you trim, provided the trimming doesn't wreck the tree. Removing one is another matter, depending on size and why.

If an oak is dead or dying and you want the mitigation exemption, get it in writing first. Per the county summary, that paperwork comes from a certified arborist or a Registered Professional Forester.

Station 27 on Gold Hill Rd belongs to El Dorado County Fire, but it has no regular staff. A BLM hand crew uses it as a base under a lease.

An unstaffed station is one more reason your own clearing matters. County Fire's zone advice:

• Keep the first 5 feet around the house free of anything that burns.
• Space tree crowns at least 18 feet apart in the zone out to 30 feet, more on a slope.
• Move woodpiles and needle piles off the walls.

Smaller trees cost less. Oaks and big pines cost more. Here's the range from the guides:

Sources: This Old House tree removal and stump removal guides (updated March 2026); Thumbtack stump grinding guide (October 2026).

Pulling a whole row of old fruit trees? Have all the stumps ground the same day, while the machine is already parked in your yard. Then the row is ready to replant, or just mow over. Thumbtack's example company charges $150 for the first stump and $75 for each one after.

That colony was the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony. It's thought to be the first Japanese settlement on this continent that was meant to stay, though as a colony it ran just 1869 to 1871.

Okei Ito is buried there. She's the first Japanese woman known to have been laid to rest on American soil. The site is California Historical Landmark No. 815. If you live near historic ground like this, take extra care with where trees fall and where trucks drive.

See Coloma tree removal, Placerville tree removal and El Dorado tree removal. Lots of stumps? Read stump grinding. All towns: service areas.