Brush
Look up your Set-Out Date
Set-Out Dates
Your set-out date for brush will be on a Sunday. We will collect the brush during the week after your Sunday set-out date.
If your brush is not out for pickup on the set-out date, we may not collect it.
How to Place Brush
Follow these guidelines so we can pick up your brush safely and quickly.
Size Restrictions
Brush must be:
- Between 18 inches and 8 feet long
- Less than 8 inches in diameter
Brush vs. Yard Waste
Please separate brush from yard waste. Yard waste and brush are separate collections.
- Brush is sticks and branches from trees, shrubs, or bushes.
- Yard waste is leaves and other plant material.
Placement
- Stack brush on the terrace, or the grass at the edge of the street. Do not put brush in the street or on the sidewalk.
- Keep brush at least 4 feet away from trees, cars, utility poles, mailboxes, fire hydrants, and other obstructions.
- Do not put brush in bags, boxes, or other containers.
- You may bundle small amounts of brush with string or twine.
- Do not bundle brush with wire.
- Bundles must be less than 4 feet long.
- Bundles must be less than 40 pounds.
- Stack brush with the cut ends facing the same direction.
Stumps
Remove as much dirt as possible from stumps. Stumps with too much dirt will not be collected.
Large Brush Piles
If you see the chipper crews passing your very large brush pile, it means we reassigned the work to another crew.
A crew with a truck-mounted crane will return in a day or two to collect oversized brush piles.
Contractors
If you have hired someone to take care of your trees, the contractor must haul the brush they created away for processing.
Frequently Asked Questions
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I have a big pile of brush and they drove right past it. Why?
Piles that will take crews longer than 15 minutes (give or take) to collect by hand are re-assigned to a truck-mounted crane to collect.
The crane truck runs a day or two behind the chipper crews because they focus just on the very large piles and also on streets that the chipper crews can't drive down (like very narrow dead-ends).
Why can't I see brush set out dates?
If you have brush and do not see a set out date, take it to a drop-off site.
There are two possible causes for this.
Option 1: All of the Set out Dates have Passed
Every home gets five set out chances. In a given year, these opportunities start in April and end in September each year.
If you looked up your address anytime from September on through the early part of the next year, you may not see any set out dates because your opportunities have all passed.
Option 2: The Set Out Dates Are Not Yet Published
Again, the Streets Division's brush collection window usually starts in April and wraps up in September before the fall leaf collection begins.
The we publish the set out dates for brush pickup for a particular year usually sometime in late February or early March. This should give you at least a month to plan.
So, if you are looking at this form in January or early February looking for the spring set out dates - you're a little early.
We always announce when the dates are available, so you shouldn't miss it. Be sure you stay connected to local news sources like your alder's blog, the City of Madison official social media posts, and you can even sign up to receive news releases and other messages directly from the city to stay informed.
When do you collect brush?
We collect brush during most of the year.
Typically, brush collection will start in April with the spring weather.
People get multiple set out chances.
The final chance is usually in September.
Why do you stop brush pickup in September?
It's a matter of staffing.
We stop in September because we need to shift the brush collection crews over to provide the fall leaf pickup duties.
Fall leaf collection requires every available person we can put on that duty, and every available truck we can spare in order to keep up with the volume of leaves. We can't do that and also keep up with the demand of brush collection.
Why don't you do more brush pickup later in the year after the fall leaf pickup?
Fall leaf pickup does not completely end until the first week of December.
There is usually a lot of demand for extra leaf pickup in early December, too.
On top of demands for more leaf pickup (and more brush pickup), there's the chance of snow we need to worry about.
The people who collect your brush and your leaves are the same people who drive the snowplows.
If it snows, we need those people in the plow trucks.
We have to weigh all of these needs and demands to decide what to do each year.
In years past, if the weather cooperates, we have announced an extra "last chance" brush pickup in late December.
We can't promise that every year will let us do that because we never know what the weather will let us do.
If we do a "last chance" pickup, we will announce it before that work gets underway.
Make sure you stay tuned into your local news sources so you know if we do any extra pickups. Sign up to receive the blog posts from your alder. Stay connected to your neighborhood newsletters. You may even want to sign up to receive news from the City of Madison just so you can stay informed what is happening locally.
The set out date form isn't recognizing my address. What do I do?
Call us at either 608-266-4681 or 608-246-4532. Our office hours are Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 4pm.
The problem is usually just a temporary tech issue that resolves itself or maybe a subtle data entry issue (like an extra space, something spelled wrong, or maybe you accidentally put in more information than needed).
Unlike other city address forms, this one is pretty basic. All you need is your house number and street name.
Regardless of the cause, if you're having trouble, give us a call and we will help.
The website is showing the next set out date, but my brush is still out there. What is going on?
The set out date lookup is a simple tool.
If a set out date has passed, then the system will default to showing you the next available set out date where you can get brush out for pickup.
You can't use the set-out date look up to track the progress of where crews are working.
If you stacked your brush out on the Sunday assigned to your home, crews have that whole work week to collect from all of the neighborhoods.
It takes multiple days during a work week to get to everyone.
If you are sure your stack of brush was missed, please use the the report-a-problem form or contact us to let us know.