Stump Grinding in Saint Paul, MN

Stump grinding turns a stump into wood chips with a toothed cutting wheel that works back and forth across it, down to several inches below the surrounding soil. It is the usual way to deal with a stump in a city yard: there is no digging, no pulling and no burning, and the hole fills with a mix of chips and soil that can be topped with dirt and seeded. In Saint Paul the stumps people want gone are mostly ash, from a decade of emerald ash borer removals, plus old elm and maple stumps that have sat in the yard long enough to sprout or rot.

Why bother with an old stump

A stump left in the lawn is a mower hazard and a trip hazard, and it takes years to rot out on its own. Some species, including many maples, send up a thicket of sprouts from the stump and roots. Rotting stumps also attract carpenter ants and fungi. And a stump where you want to plant a new tree, extend a patio or pour a garage slab has to come out first.

Locate before we grind

Grinding goes below grade, so buried lines matter. Saint Paul Forestry requires Gopher State One Call locates before any stump removal on a boulevard, and the same caution makes sense in a back yard where gas, electric, cable or a sprinkler line may run near the stump. Private lines, such as a wire to a garage or a yard light, are not marked by the utility locate, so tell us about them.

Boulevard stumps

A stump on the boulevard belongs to the city, and grinding it needs a Saint Paul Forestry permit. Where Forestry has removed a boulevard tree itself, the city's practice is to come back for the stump when the weather permits; stumps from storm-damaged public trees are usually removed the following calendar year. Before you pay to grind a boulevard stump, it is worth checking whether it is already on the city's list.

Stumps under a city order

If Forestry has ordered a diseased tree removed from your property, the city's letter requires the stump to be debarked down to ground level, which keeps elm bark beetles from breeding in it. Grinding the stump below grade meets that requirement and leaves a clean spot to replant.

Chips, roots and what comes after

A large stump produces a surprising pile of chips. You can keep them for mulch or have them hauled off; Saint Paul's yard waste service does not take stumps. Grinding takes out the stump and the root flare but not every root, and HomeGuide notes that grinding does not include root removal, so a big surface root running across the lawn is a separate line. If you plan to replant in the same spot, it helps to pull back most of the chips and bring in topsoil, or shift the new tree a few feet over.