They call Rockford the Forest City for a reason: the Rock River runs straight through the middle of it, and the old neighborhoods on both banks are roofed with oaks, elms and maples that were young when the mills were loud. Tree Care Enterprises works under that canopy — pruning to keep a young street tree headed up and out, tree trimming to lift limbs off rooflines and sidewalks, tree removal when an elm has died back to bare wood above the driveway. Storms track along the river valley and can leave a whole block littered by morning, so storm damage cleanup comes first: the drive opened, the walk swept, the yard cleared down to green. Along the water, the gardens and the arboretum show what patient pruning does over decades, and every yard in town can have a share of that. A city keeps a name like that only by tending the trees it already has.