Free arborist wood chips in Washington and Oregon: how to get a load and use it

How to get free wood chips in Washington and Oregon

Chipping is how a tree crew shrinks a tree to fit in a truck, and every load has to go somewhere. ChipDrop says its deliveries are free because tree companies save on disposal by dropping chips in a driveway instead, and Portland General Electric says its crews make so many chips that it gives them away to recycle them. Trees for Seattle’s mulch page adds that most arborists will dump a load at your home “for low or no cost.”

We could not find a standing city chip giveaway on an official Washington or Oregon page as of October 2, 2026; Trees for Seattle points residents to arborists and ChipDrop instead.

How ChipDrop works now

On ChipDrop’s own help pages, the service is free to gardeners. You can choose to pay for a delivery to offset the tree company’s cost, which ChipDrop says may get chips to you sooner; its suggestion is that offering $20 helps when demand is high in spring and summer, and that payment is never required. Typical waits run 1 to 5 weeks, longer in winter, in less populated places and in cities where the service is new.

You take what comes. A delivery is a whole dump truck, as little as 4 cubic yards and as much as about 20, often 7 to 12, and you cannot ask for a smaller load. Crews may deliver wood chips, plus logs only if you agreed to take them; dirt, construction waste and stump grindings (unless you approve them) are not allowed. Once a load arrives, you come off the list.

Portland General Electric’s free chips

PGE’s full load is 8 to 10 cubic yards; for scale, the utility notes that a standard pickup holds 1. The trucks are tall, wide and heavy, so low arbors, carports and garage overhangs can block a drop, and PGE delivers only to private property, never onto a road or other public right-of-way. It drops a full load or several, and it can decline to dump once it sees the site. Expect a mix of ground wood, bark, needles and leaves.

How far does a load of wood chips go?

A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet. Spread 3 inches deep, a quarter of a foot, one yard covers 27 ÷ 0.25 = 108 square feet; at 2 inches it covers 162, and at 4 inches 81. A ChipDrop load at the big end is therefore enough to cover a small yard.

Calculated: square feet = cubic yards × 27 ÷ depth in feet. Load sizes from ChipDrop and PGE, checked 2026-10-02.

For trees, think in rings. A ring out to a 10-foot dripline is about 314 square feet, so at 3 inches it takes about 2.9 cubic yards; a 20-foot dripline is about 1,257 square feet and takes about 11.6. One PGE load covers about three trees with 10-foot driplines at 3 inches, but not quite one tree with a 20-foot dripline.

What WSU research says about arborist wood chip mulch

The Northwest’s best-known voice on this is Linda Chalker-Scott, the WSU Extension urban horticulturist at Puyallup. In her review of the research for WSU’s MasterGardener magazine, wood chips were among the best performers of 15 organic materials in a 1990 comparison, for moisture retention, temperature moderation, weed control and sustainability. Their mix of wood, bark and leaves resists compaction, and they soak up water and release it slowly.

That rule has a story behind it: Chalker-Scott cites a researcher who amended the soil with 33% composted wood chips and lost rhododendrons to Phytophthora root rot. Chips belong on top of the soil, not in it. For soil itself, her advice for permanent landscapes is to topdress with wood chips rather than dig in compost, and to test before adding nutrients; the details are in fertilizing trees.

How to mulch with wood chips: depth and the ring

For a tree, the ISA’s mature tree care guidance is 2 to 4 inches of mulch, near but not touching the trunk, out to the dripline, the edge of the branches; where that is too far, go as far as the landscape allows. The ring also cuts competition from grass and keeps mowers off the trunk. Trees for Seattle uses the same depth and makes the gap concrete: keep the chips a hand-width from the trunk, in a doughnut, not a volcano.

Chalker-Scott goes deeper for beds: 4 to 6 inches on ornamental sites, and 8 to 12 inches for restoration sites or perennial weed problems, tapering to nearly nothing at each trunk. Chips piled against bark create the dark, moist, low-oxygen conditions that fungal disease likes, which is the whole case against the volcano. If your tree’s roots already break the surface, read tree roots above ground before you spread anything over them.

Timing matters as much as depth. ISA’s case for mulch is that it gives roots fewer temperature and moisture extremes than bare soil, and the Northwest’s moisture extreme is summer: NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals put July and August together at 1.57 inches at Sea-Tac, 4% of Seattle’s 39.34-inch year, and at 0.64 inches in Salem, under 2% of its 40.08. Get the ring down before July, and put in a ChipDrop request in spring to allow for the wait.

Tip: Lay the ring when you plant, before the lawn grows back to the trunk; timing and planting depth are in the best time to plant trees in the Pacific Northwest, and mulching a specimen tree is covered in Japanese maple care.

Wood chips vs bark mulch vs compost

“Mulch” covers anything spread on the soil, so the useful comparison is between the three materials people actually buy or get free. Chalker-Scott’s sheets on bark mulch and compost fill in the other two columns.

Sources: Chalker-Scott, WSU Extension: Wood chip mulch, The myth of pretty mulch, and The myth of soil amendments part III; checked 2026-10-02.

The bark sheet’s point is plain: bark is heavily suberized, so a thick layer can act as a wall between rain and the roots below, and its uniform look is its selling point. If appearance matters, Chalker-Scott suggests asking for finer chipping rather than switching to bark. Compost belongs mixed into annual beds or under chips, as the bottom layer of what she calls a mulch sandwich.

Northwest cautions: fire zones and where to put the pile

In wildfire country, keep wood mulch away from the house. Oregon’s State Fire Marshal says to use river rock, gravel or pavers within 5 feet of a structure and to remove bark mulch there. Washington DNR’s fire prevention flyer warns that beauty bark will smolder and should be used away from the home, and its Spanish version extends that to organic material in general. Chips fit that description; the full zone plan is in creating defensible space.

Then plan the drop. ChipDrop tells drivers never to dump around the base of a tree, on top of plantings, against anything the weight could damage, or where the pile blocks a neighbor’s driveway, and PGE’s trucks need clearance for a tall, heavy dump bed. Pick a flat, open spot you can wheelbarrow from, away from the base of any tree and off your plantings. Chips from your own removal or pruning, and brush chipped during brush clearing, can go straight into rings and paths.

Stump grindings are a different product: wood mixed with soil from below grade, which ChipDrop does not allow in its loads without approval. They are covered on the stump grinding hub.