Pahrump tree service sees spike after July storms

In the aftermath of the torrential storms last week, landscaping and tree service businesses have seen a spike in the number of service calls as of late.

Rob and Laine Brubaker own Brubaker’s Tree Service in Pahrump.

The couple has been inundated with service calls after the storms swept through town on July 25 and 26.

The Brubakers have had more than 38 calls as a result of the fierce rains and wind conditions that felled dozens of trees at residences and businesses throughout the valley.

“At a quarter ‘til 11 on Sunday night the 25th, I started getting texts, pictures, and phone calls from our regular customers and I noticed that there was quite a bit of damage around town,” Laine Brubaker said. “One lady said that she was sitting in her house looking out the sliding glass door and actually watched a tree fall over. “The soft ground and shallow roots allowed it to slowly fall over.”

Boost in business

Though the Brubakers have received numerous calls for service, they are rightfully focused on their regular customers at present.

“We could see a lot more business because we’ve had a lot more calls but our regular customers have been keeping us pretty busy,” she said. “We are already booked through the end of August before the storm hit. A lot of people don’t want to wait and can’t wait, so I have referred business to other companies in town, but they are busy also. I don’t refer businesses that are not insured and licensed.”

Proper watering methods

Brubaker also provided advice to homeowners on how to properly take care of their trees in order to avoid instances that occurred at the height of last month’s storms.

It should be noted that Laine Brubaker is a member of the International Society of Arboriculture, where her knowledge extends to the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants, as well as how plants grow and respond to cultural practices and to their environment.

Brubaker spoke primarily about how irrigation systems that dispense water to trees affects their growth.

“A lot of the property owners have drip systems and they run those about 10 minutes a day,” she said. “In the summertime, they will run it twice a day. For lawns and plants, that’s probably fine, but it forces the trees to try and get as much water as close to the surface as they can because that amount of water never goes deep enough for the roots to reach for, which forces the tree’s roots to look for water closer to the surface. As a result, the trees are not properly anchored with roots, and that wind storm we had on the 25th, was a good example of what happens when trees are not properly anchored.”

Patience please

Due to the increase in business, the Brubakers created a voicemail informing would-be customers that they will call them back within two to three days, which prompted the couple to issue a caveat to homeowners who need immediate service.

“There’s a lot of gypsies working in town and they don’t even have signs on their trucks,” she said. “We see them at the landfill every day and they may not be licensed or insured, but they are just trying to feed their families.”

With just the two performing tree services during the summertime in triple-digit heat in Southern Nevada, the Brubakers take precautions to avoid any heat-related illnesses throughout the day.

“We drink water all day long and take an electrolyte pill,” she said. “We usually take three of them during the day when it’s triple-digits. Between the two of us, we drank close to 36 bottles of water today. Most people who work in their yards during the summer can go inside their house and cool off, but we can’t do that, so we make darn sure that we drink lots of water.”

Various options

Although the Brubakers are not taking on employees to speed up the work process, they do give customers options to both save money and get the job done as quickly, safely, and efficiently as possible.

“Our truck and trailer has to pay for itself,” she noted. “Even though the dump is free, we can haul all of the smaller green stuff. If we take the wood, we don’t charge for that because we eventually plan to sell the wood. If they want to haul everything themselves, they can save that money, plus we’ll spend more time at the site because we won’t be going to the landfill. They hire us for our expertise and equipment, and a lot of people take us up on that.”

Historic rain and winds

Regarding the severity of last month’s storms, Rob Brubaker said it’s been decades since he’s witnessed anything close to it.

“The last storm that came close to this one was around 1996 or 1997,” he recalled. “I was out of state, but I heard a lot about it. In the early ’90s, there was one with 100-mile-per-hour winds. With this recent one, when combining 80-mile-per-hour winds, with all of that rain, it’s a recipe for disaster with trees in this area. It was bad enough with the winds, but the moisture really made the trees susceptible to the winds pushing them over.”

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes