How much does it cost to remove a hackberry?
Removing a hackberry around Indianapolis typically runs $400 to $1,900, with most jobs near $720. The tough one — hackberry shrugs off compacted clay, alkaline soil, road salt, drought, wind and short-term flooding, which is precisely why it has been planted so heavily as an ash replacement across central Indiana. The part nobody mentions at planting time is that it was one of the most ice-damaged species in the ISA's ice-storm survey, so the trade for that site tolerance is recurring storm calls.
Mature size, and the bracket it puts you in
About 40-60 ft tall with a 40-50 ft spread, and genuinely long-lived at roughly 150-200 years, well beyond most of what is planted around it. Removals land mid-bracket, and the cost driver is unusual for a tree this size: the wood is dense but it is the sheer brush volume from that twiggy wide crown that runs up chipping and hauling time.
Condition changes the price
This is hackberry's specific weakness and the numbers back it: common hackberry took 8.8% severe damage in the ISA ice-storm survey, near the top of the list. That same work found fine branching density and heavy lateral branching predicted ice damage far better than wood strength did, and hackberry has exactly that crown — expect scattered small-to-medium limb loss after every real ice event rather than a catastrophic trunk failure, which means repeat cleanup work instead of one big removal.
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