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Free Chipping Program

SSFSC sponsors a free brush & wood chipping program twice a year in support of creating your defensible space. You cut brush and trees within the defensible space of your home, stack it in piles along your driveway or road to your house, we send professional crews to your home to turn them into chips.  You can keep the chips for mulch or ground cover or the crews will remove them.  And its all Free! thanks to generous support from one or more of the following organizations:
  • San Mateo County
  • Santa Cruz County
  • Santa Clara County
  • Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District
  • Pacific Gas & Electric
  • South Skyline Organization
  • Sempervirens Fund
  • South Skyline FireSafe Council Donations from residents like you
The Fall Free Chipping Program will be from November 1st thru 3rd, 2017. Our Fall program is now available for sign up by clicking the button below.  Sign up by October 15th to have your brush piles reviewed before we send the chippers out!

This is a FREE program from your South Skyline FireSafe Council.  A team of 5 bonded tree service professionals will be on-site doing this work.  You can help offset some of the cost of this service by clicking the    DONATE    button on the left-hand side of this page.

Here is some of the feedback from your neighbors who participated last year:

I got home Tuesday afternoon to no more piles! Thank you for the service and helping us keep our property more "defensible". Everything was left in great condition!
                                -- Debra and Don

Thanks for the great job on the chipping at our place.
                                -- Baylor and Linda

You guys were so efficient and good!  Thanks-and please let me know how I can help with the program next year.
                                -- Barrett

Let me add my thanks as well.  Fantastic program!!!!  Fantastic job!!!!  Thanks you so much for your efforts in making this happen.
                                -- Pat

Thank you Ed and the rest of your wonderful group. Such a great service that you provide to all of us.
                                -- Vicki


We require 500 cubic feet minimum piles for most efficient use of funds.  That's a pile of brush 10ft wide, 5ft high and 10ft long.

DO'S DON'TS
▢ Create defensible space to about 100 feet from structures & 30 feet from access roads. ▢ Piles must be free of all roots, stumps, rocks and mud.
▢ Cut ends must face the same direction and point out toward the chipper location. ▢ Piles must be free of poison oak, Scotch broom after it seeds, blackberry and vines.
▢ Piles must be located on the uphill side of private road, driveway, or lane with good access. ▢ Piles of leaves, pine needles or yard clippings cannot be chipped
▢ Piles must be within 8 feet of the chipper location and 5 feet or less in height and about 10 feet long ▢ Piles must be free of all non-vegetative materials (trash, metal, wire, etc).
▢ Material to be chipped must be less than 8 inches in diameter.  ▢ SSFSC will not chip for: timber harvest projects, tree farms, new construction or vacant lots.