Old trees, read carefully.
Consulting arborists to estates, old gardens and architects in the Hudson Valley. Tree surveys, preservation around new building, and care for trees that are older than the house.
- Surveys
- from $750
- Preservation
- from $1,800
- Veteran care
- quoted
About Larchmere
A tree that has stood for three hundred years can be lost to one afternoon with a trenching machine.
I started Larchmere in 2008 after twenty years of climbing and felling, because the trees I was called to take down had mostly been damaged years earlier, by a driveway, a patio or a new wing. We do not sell removals. We read trees, write down what we find, and help the people who own them and build near them make better decisions.
Hugh Aldane
Three kinds of work, all of it on paper first.
Fees are fixed before we visit. Most surveys are one site day and ten working days to report.
Tree surveys
From $750
Every tree on a site measured, mapped, graded and given a retention value, with the plan drawn to your survey. What lenders, planners and designers ask for before anything else.
- Tree schedule and constraints plan
- Condition and retention grades
- Delivered in ten working days
Preservation plans
From $1,800
For building near trees you mean to keep. Root protection zones, a method statement the contractor can follow, fencing and ground protection drawn on your plans, and site visits at the moments that matter.
- Impact assessment and method statement
- Tree protection plan for planning
- Supervision visits during the build
Veteran tree care
Quoted per tree
Long-term care for the oldest trees on an estate or in a garden: phased crown reduction, decompaction and mulching of the root zone, and a written plan that runs for ten years, not one season.
- Ten-year management plan
- Work carried out by our own climbers
- Annual inspection and short report
A tree survey, page by page.
Before you commission one, read one. This is a shortened survey of a single veteran oak on a site where an architect wanted to build: the tree, its condition, where its roots are, and what we told the client to do.
Arboricultural survey and impact assessment
Tree T14, an English oak at Holloway House
Prepared for the architects of a two-storey extension on the east lawn, to show where the oak’s roots are, what the building can do near them, and what the tree needs to come through the work in the same condition it went in.
- Site
- Holloway House, Rhinebeck (sample)
- Client
- Ferrand Hale Architects (sample)
- Surveyed
- 14 April 2026, dry, light wind
- Surveyor
- Hugh Aldane, consulting arborist
- Reference
- LA-2026-031
- Pages
- Five, plus appendices
Estates, gardens and building sites.
A few recent commissions. Most of our work comes from architects and land managers who have used us before.
How a commission runs, in four steps.
A call and the drawings
Tell us about the site and send what you have: a survey, the architect’s plans, a planning deadline. We reply with a fixed fee within two days.
A day on site
Hugh visits in person, measures every tree, and looks at each one from the ground and, where needed, from the crown.
The report
A written survey with plans in PDF and CAD, usually in ten working days. Plain language first, the technical schedule after it.
Through the build
For preservation plans we come back at demolition, foundations and landscaping, and write a short note to the team after each visit.
From the people we work for.
Sample notes, written for this concept site to show how client words sit on the page.
“We changed the footprint of the house by six feet because of Hugh’s report, and the oak is the reason the house looks the way it does now.”
Architect, Rhinebeck, sample review
“The first survey of our parkland in forty years that the trustees could actually read. We still use the ten-year plan at every board meeting.”
Estate manager, Dutchess County, sample review
“He talked us out of taking down a beech we had been told was dangerous. Four years on it is still standing, and still fine.”
Garden owner, Millbrook, sample review
Commission a survey.
Tell us about the site and the trees, and send drawings if you have them. Hugh replies himself, usually the same week, with a fixed fee and a date to visit.
- Telephone
- (555) 014-2009
- Office
- Mill Lane, Larchmere, New York
- Covering
- Dutchess, Columbia, Ulster and Litchfield counties