Crane & Large Tree Removal in Bedford Township, Michigan

Who owns the tree, and what do the township’s ordinances say?

Bedford Township’s ordinances were read for this page, and the short answer is that there is no tree ordinance. The township’s Compilation of General Ordinances (Supplement 63, codified through Ordinance 44A-355 of October 7, 2025) lists ordinances on blight, noxious weeds, dangerous objects, sidewalks, parks and utilities, but none on trees; the 2012 “tree ordinance” once indexed by the Michigan DNR’s ordinance library is not among them and the DNR’s copy is no longer online. What the ordinances do say about trees:

• Zoning Ordinance 44, § 400.1913 (site plan review): “No grading, removal of trees or other vegetation, or other site preparation shall occur prior to site plan review and approval.” That is a rule for developments, commercial sites and subdivisions, not for a single-family lot. § 400.1907 sets landscaping requirements for new sites, and the PUD article (§ 400.1704A) asks developers to map existing trees of 10-inch caliper.
• Blight Ordinance 102, § 114.004(J): “any stacking, storage or accumulation of grass, weeds, bushes, fallen leaves, branches, brush, trees or trimmings, including landscaping materials which are not actively involved in a current project on the property” is blight. A removal has to include the haul-away; a pile of cut ash left at the lot line is a violation.
• Ordinance 97 (2014): a Consumers Energy electric franchise — a reminder that Consumers Energy has electric service territory here, so check the bill before calling a utility about a wire.

A tree on your own lot in Bedford Township, then, needs no township permit to come down. The roadside is different. Sterns Road, Lewis Avenue, Summerfield Road, Dean Road, Smith Road and the rest of the county grid belong to the Monroe County Road Commission, which states that any work proposed within the MCRC right-of-way requires a permit (Permits, 734-240-5132, Permits@mcrc-mi.org, 840 South Telegraph Road, Monroe). US-23 through the township is MDOT’s. The township offices on Jackman Road answer zoning questions; they do not manage roadside trees.

Electric utility and safe tree clearance

Check the electric supplier on the property bill before arranging line clearance. Consumers Energy lists Bedford Township in its electric service territory; do not assume that a Monroe County address is supplied by DTE. Consumers Energy’s tree-maintenance policy covers vegetation around its lines, including branches rubbing on service conductors. Utility line clearance is separate from a complete private-tree removal and haul-away estimate.

For a downed line, keep clear, call 911 and contact the electric utility: Consumers Energy 800-477-5050, or DTE 800-477-4747 where DTE supplies the property. DTE’s published trimming guidance distinguishes pole-to-pole lines from the customer’s service drop. Arrange any disconnection with the utility; do not have a private crew cut around an energized wire.

Oak wilt: the rule that sets the calendar

The Michigan DNR’s standing request is that oaks not be pruned from April 15 to July 15: sap beetles carry the oak-wilt fungus to fresh wounds, red oaks can die within weeks, and the disease moves through root grafts to the next oak. Storm wounds in the window are painted at once. MSU Extension records oak wilt across the Lower Peninsula. Bedford’s oak woodlots — the red and white oaks behind the subdivisions off Sterns and Consear — are exactly the trees this protects, so a live-oak trim here waits for mid-July while a dead-tree removal does not.

Storm damage risks in Bedford Township

Bedford Township is eight miles from Toledo Express Airport, where the March 13, 2026 windstorm was measured at 61 mph; the same front put more than 94,000 DTE customers out across south-east Michigan that night. The 2012 and 2022 derechos crossed the township too — the 2022 storm dropped 10-inch oak limbs in Sylvania, two miles south. On open acreage the wind has more room: fencerow ash go over in rows, and silver maples over garages lose stems. The storm history and insurance guide includes the Michigan DIFS guidance on tree-removal coverage.

Bedford’s big-tree stock: acre lots, long driveways, and rows of dead ash

Emerald ash borer was discovered in south-east Michigan in 2002, so Bedford Township’s ash have been dead longer than Ohio’s. Ash was the fencerow tree of the county — it seeded itself along every lot line and ditch — and on the ODNR’s three-to-six-year mortality timeline all of it died between the mid-2000s and the early 2010s. What remains is rows of standing dead trunks 18 to 28 inches through along lot lines, over pole barns, over the neighbor’s drive, and above the service drop. A dead ash sheds limbs at a touch and cannot be climbed; on a Bedford lot the question is whether a bucket truck can get down the drive and along the fencerow, and where it cannot, the crane goes.

The silver maples planted around the 1960s–90s houses are now 30 inches and more, brittle (the ODNR describes an 80-foot tree that takes “significant storm damage throughout its life”) and over the garage. The oak woodlots are heavy and sound — a rigging problem — and the cottonwoods along the drainage ditches are the biggest and weakest of all. What Bedford has that Toledo does not is room: a long gravel drive is a crane road, and a set-up on the drive avoids the county right-of-way and the MCRC permit entirely. Where a lot needs a fencerow cleared rather than one tree removed, the brush and land clearing page covers it; the dead ash guide explains the method and the cost premium.

Crane scenario: four dead ash along a lot line, one over the pole barn

The crew that does this work for the site owns its cranes and is licensed in both Ohio and Michigan; its yard in Metamora, Ohio is a few miles from the state line.

Working with a crew from across the line

Nothing legal stops an Ohio crew at the state line — neither state licenses tree services — but three practical things do, and most Toledo companies simply do not cross. Ask any crew that does the same three questions: does its insurance certificate cover work in Michigan; who pulls the Monroe County Road Commission permit if the crane or the chipper will sit on the shoulder of a county road; and does it hold a Michigan MDARD pesticide business license if it intends to treat anything. A crew that answers all three has done this before. The Ohio vs Michigan guide covers the rest of the corridor; the Sylvania page is the Ohio side of the same neighborhood.

What to send for a Bedford Township estimate

The address; a wide photo from the road and one from the yard; how many trees and roughly how big; whether any stands on the county-road shoulder; the length and surface of the driveway (gravel is fine; soft lawn is not); whether a wire runs through any crown; and whether the stumps should go. That is enough to say whether the job is a bucket-truck or climb-and-rig removal, a crane job or a clearing job, and what the cost ranges look like.