Stump grinding in Gresham, Oregon

Before the grinder arrives in Gresham

Call 811 before the grinder is booked and give the locate the notice period on the card above; the machine works below grade where gas, water and the service to the house run, and 811 marks the utilities’ lines only, so irrigation, lighting and anything past the meter are yours to find. Multnomah County’s peak storm months are December, February and January, when the ground is saturated; a grinder on a wet lawn makes ruts, so a stump from a winter removal can wait for a dry week.

Gresham’s tree code is written around removal and replacement, not stumps, so the permit question is whether the tree above the stump was regulated: 8 in DBH, or 6 in inside the floodplain, hillside and natural-resource overlays. A single-family lot of 35,000 sq ft or less may take out 3 in 12 months under the free exemption; past that it is a Type II permit with a fee from the city schedule, and the Planner on Duty (503-618-2780) sorts which before a standing tree comes down.

A street-tree stump is the exception. Removing a street tree in the right-of-way takes a free Type I permit and a replanting from the city-approved list, so that stump is ground deep enough for a replacement tree, and the city decides the species.

What stump grinding costs in Gresham

The modeled range below runs per inch of diameter with a minimum, measured across the widest part of the cut. In Gresham what adds to it is the quarantine, not the city: an ash stump’s grindings cannot leave the quarantine area except as chips of 1 in or less, and an infested oak’s stump is supposed to be chipped or burned where it stands, so hauling the grindings away is not always on offer and grinding finer is the extra charge instead.

Access matters as it does everywhere; a walk-behind machine through a side gate costs hours. The Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro mean wage for tree trimmers and pruners is $35.04 an hour by BLS figures, a labor index rather than a price.

Modeled at $4 to $6 per inch of diameter with a $150 minimum, rounded to $50. Modeled estimate, not quotes (method).

Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 37-3013. Checked 2026-10-02.

Grindings, wood and quarantines

Two pests decide what leaves the lot. Emerald ash borer is confirmed in Multnomah County and the Oregon quarantine applies: raw ash wood stays inside it, moving only as chips of 1 in or less, as kiln-dried debarked lumber, or after a 160F core heat for 60 minutes with ODA permission, and any load is covered during the April 1 to September 30 flight period. Details are on the Oregon EAB page.

Mediterranean oak borer is confirmed without a quarantine, and the state’s instruction is written for this job: cut, then burn or chip the infested tree to 1 in or less on site, stump included; keep cut oak firewood within 10 miles of the tree; report with photos and location to the Oregon Invasives Hotline.

Burning is Oregon DEQ’s call, not the city’s; its rule for the county is in the box below, with the statewide yard-debris guide for seasons and alternatives. Grindings from any other species are chips and soil that settle as they rot and tie up nitrogen for a season, so overfill the hole; with 40.66 in of rain a year and December the wettest month at 6.15 in, a hole left low in November is a puddle by January.

Replanting the spot

Gresham is in USDA hardiness zone 9a. Replant after the grindings are raked out and the hole backfilled with soil, or after the spot has settled for a season; the Troutdale station normals give July 0.55 in and August 0.63 in of rain, so a spring planting is watered all summer and an October one roots through the wet season.

Where the stump belonged to a regulated tree, replacement is required, 1-for-1 under 24 in and 1 caliper inch per 4 in above that, and the new tree does not go into fresh grindings. If it was an ash, the replacement should not be ash; the Oregon EAB page explains why.

Hardiness zone 9a. Grinding vs full removal: which one you need.

Source: USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 (OSU PRISM ZIP data). Checked 2026-10-02.

What to do next

Measure the stump at its widest, note the species, since ash and oak change the disposal, and note whether a machine can reach it. File the 811 locate, confirm whether the removal fell within the city’s 3-tree exemption or needed a Type II permit, and ask the grinder where the grindings go. Check the company at the Oregon license lookup, then call.

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