Maple trees in Glenview, Illinois.
Maple is the most common large yard tree on the North Shore and the one most likely to turn into a removal. Silver and Norway maples grow fast, get big, and then fail at the crotch - and a maple over a size threshold is still a protected tree in Glenview even though the village will not help pay for another one.
Glenview rules on maple
Maple is named by the Village of Glenview among its high-quality species, so a private maple at 8 inches or more in diameter at breast height is a protected landmark tree and needs a removal permit from Inspectional Services. There is a wrinkle worth knowing: the same village that protects your mature maple excludes most maples from its Tree Planting Incentive Program - the 50 percent, up-to-$300 planting rebate launched in 2022 - on the grounds that maple is already overplanted and does not advance the canopy-diversity goals in the village's Urban Forest Management Plan. So you may need a permit to take one down and get no rebate for planting another.
Where maple stands in Glenview
Maple is the signature tree of Glenview's post-war subdivisions. Silver and Norway maples line the mid-century streets in Swainwood, Glenbrook Countryside, and Cole Park, and the biggest of them are now 60 to 70 years old - exactly the age and size where storm limb failures start. Newer sections around The Glen have fewer, because by the time those streets were planted maple had already fallen out of favour on the village's lists.
How to tell it is maple
Opposite branching and paired winged seeds. Silver maple has deeply cut leaves with silver undersides that flip in wind, shaggy grey bark, and surface roots that lift sidewalks. Norway maple has broad flat leaves with a milky sap at the broken stem, dense shade nothing grows under, and often a girdling root at the base. Sugar maple is the one worth keeping - tighter habit, orange-red fall colour, no milky sap.
Maple on the North Shore
Silver maple was planted everywhere in the post-war subdivisions because it grew faster than anything else, and the bill for that is now due: the oldest ones are at the size and age where they shed large limbs in summer storms. Norway maple, planted as the elm replacement after Dutch elm disease, has become so dominant that it is now excluded from several village planting-incentive lists as overplanted. Both are shallow-rooted, which is why maples lift driveways and why they come down in saturated-soil windstorms.
How maple fails
The classic maple failure is a co-dominant stem - two trunks of similar size meeting in a tight V with bark pinched between them. That union has no wood continuity and splits, usually taking half the tree and whatever is under it. Included bark, a seam of decay running down from an old topping cut, and heavy end-weight on long horizontal limbs are the things worth a look before a storm finds them. Silver maple wood is weak and brittle for its size, so a limb that looks survivable often is not.
What we actually run into on Glenview maple jobs
The call we get most often in Glenview is a split or splitting silver maple - two co-dominant trunks meeting in a tight V, bark pinched in the seam, with a house or a driveway underneath. Caught before it opens, that is frequently a cable and a reduction cut rather than a removal, which is a fraction of the price. Once it has split, it is a removal and often a rigging job. The other standing Glenview maple issue is surface roots lifting driveways and parkway sidewalks; root pruning near a maple of this size is a decision to make with an arborist, because it is also how you destabilise the tree.
Have it looked at - (847) 571-5688Caring for maple
A co-dominant maple can often be saved with a cable and a reduction cut rather than removed, and that is a far cheaper conversation to have before the split than after. Reduce end weight on long limbs instead of lion-tailing them. Never top a maple - it responds with a dense flush of weakly attached regrowth that is more dangerous in ten years than the original problem. Keep mowers and string trimmers off the surface roots.
Maple work in Glenview
| Tree Trimming & Pruning in Glenview | $400-$2,500 |
| Tree Removal in Glenview | $1,500-$8,000 |
| Large Tree Removal in Glenview | $4,000-$15,000 |
| Arborist Consultation in Glenview | Quoted on site |
Planning ranges for the North Shore, not quotes. On a Glenview lot, size and how a truck, chipper, or crane reaches the tree move the price far more than species does. Every job is walked and quoted in writing first.
Frequently asked - maple in Glenview
Do I need a permit to remove a maple in Glenview?
If it is 8 inches or more in diameter at breast height, yes - Glenview lists maple as a high-quality species, which is its stricter protection class, and a protected private tree needs a removal permit from Inspectional Services. Call the village at (847) 904-4300 or have us file it with the job.
My Glenview maple is split down the middle. Can it be saved?
Sometimes, and it is worth an on-site look before you assume not. A co-dominant union that has not yet failed can often be cabled and the end weight reduced, which costs a fraction of a removal. A union that has already opened into the trunk, or one with decay running down from an old topping cut, is a removal. The difference is visible from the ground in about ten minutes.
Will the village help pay to replace a maple I take down in Glenview?
Not for another maple. Glenview's Tree Planting Incentive Program reimburses 50 percent up to $300 for preapproved plantings, but most maples are specifically excluded as overplanted. Species on the approved list - hackberry and linden among them - do qualify. Check the current list with the village before you buy the tree.
Sources
The Glenview permit, parkway, and planting-program facts on this page come from the village's own published pages, last read 2026-10-04. Ordinances change - the village is the authority, not this site.