Barnes Tree Service, Inc.

Barnes Tree Service has been working out of Rochester, Massachusetts for six decades — 61 years by the Better Business Bureau's count, from a 1965 start and a 1966 incorporation — and now runs 51 people out of two Rochester locations. Its distinguishing credential is utility work. The company is a TCIA Accredited Utility Contractor and says its crews include Certified Utility Line Tree Clearance Arborists, the qualification required to prune safely around live electric, telephone and cable lines. Tree Care Industry Magazine, reporting in 2020, described the accreditation and noted that the company had passed into the ownership of two sisters, Kim Fleurent and Brenda Sylvia, CTSP, who took over their father's long-time tree care business. Kim Fleurent is listed by the BBB as general manager. That utility footing shows up in the work. The Taunton Gazette reported in 2012 that two Barnes crews were staged with Taunton Municipal Lighting Plant ahead of Hurricane Sandy, and that the utility and Barnes had a working relationship going back at least twenty years at that point. A 2022 Rochester Land Trust page recounts the company's arrival in town — bought from the late Carl S. Barnes in 1966 with three employees — and the conservation land it later sold to the trust. For a homeowner the practical range is pruning, tree removal, stump grinding, log removal, brush chipping and vegetation mowing; the company also runs a Stihl dealership with equipment sales and service. It says it is fully insured and serves residential alongside commercial and municipal clients. The Better Business Bureau has accredited the company since 1999 and grades it A+, with no complaints on its file — but also no customer reviews, and none surfaced elsewhere, so no rating is published here. Ask for references on residential work specifically: a firm whose reputation is built on utility line clearance may or may not be the right fit for a single tree over a driveway.