<p>A 12" diameter tree that is 25 feet tall should cost very little to take out, unless there’s something nearby for it to land on, or if it’s tangled in electrical lines.</p>
<p>Don’t top your pine tree unless you want it to die. If you just want to trim limbs, that’s a different matter.</p>
<p>I have a chain saw. ;)</p>
<p>I agree with dmd, don’t top trees.
[Plant</a> Amnesty - 5 reasons to stop topping!](<a href=“http://www.plantamnesty.org/stoptopping/5reasons.aspx]Plant”>http://www.plantamnesty.org/stoptopping/5reasons.aspx)</p>
<p>Around here they seem to charge between $100-200/hour depending on the complication of the job.</p>
<p>EK4: your Plant Amnesty web site seems to confuse pollarding with topping. In some cases, pollarding can be a highly effective way of creating a renewable resource from a tree: [Pollarding</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollarding]Pollarding”>Pollarding - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>They want to use the pine tree for fodder?
[Conifer</a> Topping It May be Common, But is it Right?](<a href=“http://www.plantamnesty.org/stoptopping/window_conifertopping.htm]Conifer”>http://www.plantamnesty.org/stoptopping/window_conifertopping.htm)</p>
<p>Ok…i won’t have the pine tree topped.</p>
<p>(Complete aside to EK4: I agree with you about conifers. However, I only recently learned how pollarding was used in Europe to create all kinds of renewable resources, and it’s changed how I look at pollarded trees. I no longer see them as ugly.)</p>