Before the first students cross Francis Quadrangle each morning, the old oaks that shade the Columns have already stood through whatever the night's weather brought, and a heavy wet snow tends to show up first as a call about a leaning limb near a downtown sidewalk. Nelson's Tree Service, LLC works that overlap between big old trees and the walkways underneath them, clearing storm-damaged branches from the historic streets near downtown Columbia before turning to the snow itself. Century-old trees hold weight differently than young ones — a limb that's outlasted a hundred winters can still surprise a homeowner in the hundred-and-first — and reading which branches need attention before a plow ever touches the driveway is its own skill. Once the wood is cleared, the crew works the ground underneath: driveways near the university, sidewalks along the older residential streets, walkways shaded by canopy old enough to have its own weather. The approach stays tree-first and snow-second, fitting a town that grew up around its oldest trees rather than clearing them out.