When you move into a new home, inspect its trees in your first season: identify each species, check the trunk and canopy for decay, deadwood, and cracks, measure how close large trees stand to the roof and utility lines, and note anything dead, leaning, or damaged for a professional assessment. Trees are the largest living assets on your property, and the only ones that can become liabilities while you are not watching.
In Evansville, mature oaks, maples, sweetgums, and pines shade most established neighborhoods, and many were planted when the houses were built. Lot trees are often middle-aged, with histories (past pruning, old storm damage, buried problems) the seller may never have mentioned. This checklist turns your first walk-around into a real inventory.
Knowing the species tells you the tree’s mature size, its typical weaknesses, and its care needs. Use a tree identification app or a regional field guide with leaf, bark, and bud photos, and work in more than one season if you can; flowers, fruit, and fall color all help. Mark each species on a simple sketch of your lot; that sketch becomes the record every future decision refers to.
Estimate each tree’s height and trunk diameter, and note what it stands near. A species that matures at sixty feet, planted twelve feet from the house, is a planning problem even while it is healthy. Value and risk both start with placement.
A healthy canopy is full, evenly colored, and leafed out to the branch tips in season. Warning signs include dead branches in the upper crown, one section that stays bare, leaves notably smaller or paler than the rest, and early fall color on a single tree while its neighbors stay green. Any of these means the tree is struggling somewhere between root and leaf tip.
Walk a slow circle around every trunk. Look for cracks, seams, cavities, loose or missing bark, and fungal growth at the base, which points to internal decay. Oozing patches and sawdust-like material can signal insects or infection. The trunk is the tree’s structural core; a handsome canopy over a hollow or split trunk is the classic setup for a surprise failure.
Check the root flare, the widening at the trunk base. It should be visible above the soil line. A trunk that enters the ground like a telephone pole was planted too deep or has had soil or mulch piled against it, and it often hides girdling roots that slowly strangle the trunk.
Branches growing into service lines are a utility matter; never attempt those yourself. Anything dead hanging over the roof, driveway, or sidewalk belongs at the top of your professional list, whatever its size. Our tree services page shows how these findings translate into specific kinds of work.
Ask whether a lean is new. Freshly cracked soil at the base, a trunk that used to stand straight, or neighbors who remember a recent storm all raise the urgency. Evansville’s neighborhoods carry damage from storms years past: hung-up branches, split unions wired with old hardware, trees that were topped and regrew weakly.
In general terms, it helps to ask the seller or the neighbors what they know: when trees were last pruned, whether any were treated for pests or disease, and whether any came down in past storms. Keep whatever documents exist (prior estimates, treatment records, planting receipts) with your home records, and build on them as our guide on when to call an arborist explains; starting at move-in makes every later decision easier.
List one is safety: anything dead, cracked, leaning, or overhanging targets, for professional assessment now. List two is care: pruning needs, mulch correction, young trees that need watering and training. List three is watch: minor signs to photograph and re-check each season.
Knowing your service area and its conditions helps you judge which findings are normal local wear and which are real decline. Photograph every tree from a fixed spot; those dated photos become your comparison set for spotting slow change. And for anything on list one that hangs over the house tonight, the emergency tree service page explains what urgent help looks like before you ever need it.
Within your first season, and sooner if anything looks actively dangerous. A first walk-around takes under an hour for a typical lot and catches the urgent items: deadwood over the roof, split trunks, and trees leaning toward the house. The full inventory, species identification, photographs, and records, can build over the first year. The only findings that should not wait for a convenient weekend are the safety ones, because storms do not check your schedule.
Do the first pass yourself; this checklist is designed for it. Then bring in a professional for anything on your safety list, for large mature trees close to the house, and whenever you cannot see the whole picture from the ground, which is most tall canopies. Think of your inspection as triage and the professional visit as diagnosis. The combination costs less than either ignoring problems or paying to assess trees that are obviously healthy.
Neglect is common and usually manageable. Expect overdue pruning, mulch piled against trunks, and deadwood that should have come out long ago, all correctable in a season or two of planned work. The findings that change the conversation are structural: advanced decay, failed unions, and root damage. Those come from a professional assessment, not from the length of the neglect itself. A neglected but sound tree is an asset worth keeping.
Not on distance alone. Many mature trees stand close to Evansville homes for decades with routine pruning and monitoring, and they carry much of the property’s shade, comfort, and value. Removal becomes the right call when condition joins location: decay, cracks, root failure, or a worsening lean in a tree whose fall zone includes the house. Get the condition assessed before deciding, because a healthy tree removed out of caution cannot be put back.
An hour with this checklist turns the trees you inherited from a question mark into an inventory with a plan. If your safety list has anything on it, or you would like a professional baseline for the whole property, call (844) 542-2293 to arrange an inspection and start your records the right way.
