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Serving Los Gatos & the Santa Cruz Mountain Foothills
Los Gatos Tree Service & Landscaping
Certified arborist-led tree care and estate landscaping for Los Gatos homeowners — where the natural setting defines the community, strict tree protections apply throughout the town, and the standard of care has to match the beauty of what's already here.
Who We Are
Arborist-Led Tree & Landscape Care for Los Gatos's Distinctive Properties
Los Gatos is defined by its relationship with the natural landscape around it. The wooded hillsides, the mature oaks along Blossom Hill Road, the creekside canopies threading through town — the trees of Los Gatos aren't backdrop. They're central to what makes this community worth living in, and to what makes its properties worth what they are.
We are a team of tree and landscape professionals with deep experience working throughout Los Gatos and the surrounding Santa Cruz Mountain foothills. Our work is guided by certified arborists at every step — from the initial assessment through the final recommendation — because in a community with Los Gatos's level of tree protection and landscape expectation, that kind of professional rigor isn't optional.
Los Gatos homeowners come to us because they want a team they can trust with trees they genuinely value. We bring the credentials, the care, and the long-term perspective that trust requires — and we've built our reputation in this community one property at a time.
Call The Experts
Why Los Gatos Homeowners Choose Us
Expertise That Matches What Los Gatos Properties Require
Los Gatos has one of the most actively enforced tree ordinances in Santa Clara County, a topography that adds real complexity to tree work, and homeowners who hold their properties to a high standard. The team you hire needs to meet all three.
Certified Arborist Leadership
Every assessment, every project plan, every recommendation originates from a certified arborist. In Los Gatos, where tree decisions carry both regulatory and financial weight, that expertise is the foundation of every project we take on.
Los Gatos Tree Ordinance Experience
Los Gatos regulates a wide range of trees throughout the town, and the ordinance is actively enforced. We work with the city's permit process regularly, understand what triggers review, and can prepare the arborist documentation your project requires.
Hillside & Creek Corridor Expertise
Much of Los Gatos's most distinctive tree work happens on sloped terrain, near riparian zones, or on properties with complex access. We have the equipment, the technique, and the site-specific planning experience for that kind of work.
Dual-Licensed, Fully Insured
CSLB License #985639 covers both Tree Service (C-61/D-49) and Landscaping (C-27). On a Los Gatos estate where tree work and landscape renovation often run concurrently, having one fully credentialed team matters.
150+ Five-Star Reviews
A reputation built across some of the most quality-conscious homeowners in the South Bay and West Valley. Our Los Gatos clients return because the work consistently meets the standard they expect.
Family-Owned Since 1965
Decades of experience with the trees, soils, and conditions of the Santa Clara Valley and its surrounding foothills. That institutional knowledge shows up in how we plan and execute work on every Los Gatos property we touch.
Arborist-Led Care · One Company · Every Service
Tree & Landscaping Services for Los Gatos, CA
From permit-compliant tree work and certified arborist reports to estate landscape design and year-round maintenance programs, Los Gatos homeowners have access to our complete range of services through a single, trusted team.
🌲 Tree Services
Understanding Los Gatos's Tree Environment
A Town That Built Its Identity Around Its Trees — and Protects Them Accordingly
Los Gatos has a tree ordinance that reflects how seriously the community values its canopy. The town regulates the removal and significant alteration of protected trees throughout its boundaries — including a broad range of oaks, bay laurels, redwoods, and other significant specimens — and the permit process is actively administered. Homeowners who proceed without proper approvals can face substantial fines and mandatory replanting requirements that often exceed the cost of doing the process correctly from the start.
The town's geography adds another dimension. Properties along the Los Gatos Creek corridor, on the hillsides above town, and in the foothill neighborhoods east and west of the downtown core sit in microclimates and terrain conditions that require genuinely site-specific thinking. Slope stability, drainage, riparian setbacks, and access for equipment all factor into how tree and landscape work gets planned and executed here in ways that flat suburban properties simply don't encounter.
The predominant species throughout Los Gatos — coast live oaks, valley oaks, California bay, bigleaf maple, and mature ornamental specimens on older estates — each have care requirements that a qualified arborist applies with precision. Oak management in particular demands careful attention to pruning timing, root zone protection, and irrigation practices to avoid the fungal pathogens that are prevalent in this region and can cause rapid decline in otherwise healthy trees.
Los Gatos also has fire risk considerations for properties near open space and the upper hillside zones, where CAL FIRE defensible space requirements add a vegetation management layer to property care.
Serving Los Gatos and the surrounding Santa Cruz Mountain foothill communities.
More Than a Contractor
A Long-Term Stewardship Partner for Your Los Gatos Property
This is about more than your landscape. It's about community, trust, and an ongoing relationship with a team that understands Los Gatos's trees, its regulations, and its standards — and brings all three to bear on every project they take on here.
Los Gatos properties represent significant investments in a community that has earned its reputation through the quality of what's been built and preserved here. The trees on those properties are part of that value — often irreplaceable, always worth protecting. We don't approach Los Gatos work with shortcuts or generic recommendations. We take the time to understand each property, each tree, and each homeowner's goals before recommending anything.
With certified arborist consultations and preservation reports, estate landscape design and installation, creek-corridor-aware site planning, plant healthcare, Valley Water-aligned irrigation, and year-round maintenance programs tailored to the foothill climate, San Jose Tree Service & Landscaping is the long-term partner Los Gatos properties deserve.
Work With UsWe handle the permit process regularly in Los Gatos — from initial assessment through documentation and submission. You won't be left to figure out the town's requirements on your own.
We factor riparian setbacks, slope conditions, and access constraints into every project plan. Work near Los Gatos Creek or on hillside parcels gets the site-specific attention it requires.
The oaks throughout Los Gatos are among the most ecologically and financially valuable trees on any South Bay property. We manage them with the timing, technique, and disease-awareness their long-term health demands.
Los Gatos properties range from compact hillside lots to expansive estates. We're equipped — in crew depth, equipment, and planning experience — for the full range of what this community's properties require.
Common Questions
What Los Gatos Homeowners Ask Us
Los Gatos's tree ordinance protects trees meeting certain size and species criteria throughout the town — not just in specific zones or districts. Protected trees generally include those with a trunk circumference of 38 inches or greater at 54 inches above grade, as well as certain species at smaller sizes. The ordinance covers both removal and significant pruning, and the town enforces it actively. Before undertaking any substantial work on a significant tree on your Los Gatos property, a professional arborist assessment is the right first step — it clarifies whether your tree is protected, what approvals are required, and how to proceed efficiently through the town's review process.
Yes. Properties adjacent to or near Los Gatos Creek may be subject to riparian setback requirements and Santa Clara Valley Water District regulations that govern vegetation removal, grading, and construction activity within a defined distance of the creek bank. These requirements exist independently of the town's tree ordinance, and projects near the creek corridor often need to satisfy both sets of rules. We're familiar with working in riparian-adjacent conditions throughout the Los Gatos area and can help you understand what applies to your specific property before any work is scoped or scheduled.
Oak management in Los Gatos requires attention to two primary disease risks: Sudden Oak Death, caused by the water mold Phytophthora ramorum, and Armillaria root rot, which can be exacerbated by summer irrigation near the root crown. For Sudden Oak Death, pruning during the rainy season — when spore dispersal is highest — significantly elevates transmission risk through fresh wounds. We schedule oak pruning during the dry season whenever possible and use wound sealant on cuts made at higher-risk times. For Armillaria, we advise on irrigation practices near the root zone and monitor for early indicators of infection during assessments. Both risks are manageable with the right protocols — they just require a level of care and awareness that not every tree company applies.
Tree protection during construction is a standard requirement for permitted projects near protected trees in Los Gatos — the town typically requires a tree protection plan as part of the building permit process. Beyond the regulatory requirement, protecting trees during construction is simply good practice. The most common construction-related tree damage comes from soil compaction in the root zone, root cutting during utility trenching, grade changes that alter drainage patterns, and materials or equipment staging directly under the canopy. A tree protection plan establishes fencing at the drip line, defines no-disturb zones, and gives your contractor clear guidance on how to operate without causing long-term harm. We prepare these plans regularly for Los Gatos projects and recommend engaging an arborist before construction documents are finalized so that tree constraints can inform the design rather than being worked around after the fact.
Hillside landscape design in Los Gatos requires balancing aesthetics with the practical realities of slope, drainage, erosion control, and fire risk. The most successful hillside landscapes work with the natural topography rather than fighting it — using native and drought-adapted plants that establish deep root systems, minimizing impervious surfaces that accelerate runoff, and creating planting schemes that reduce fine fuel load near the structure while maintaining the wooded character that defines the neighborhood. We also integrate existing trees into hillside designs as anchors rather than obstacles, which preserves both the aesthetic and the ecological value of what's already established. For properties near open space boundaries, we additionally account for CAL FIRE defensible space requirements so the finished landscape is both beautiful and compliant.