Why would you care if they're licensed if they're doing yard work or replacing faucets or cutting down trees? I understand wanting some assurance for whoever will wire your whole house or will make major plumbing repairs but not for small jobs. Yes, trees can fall, but it's easy to make sure the person cutting them knows what they're doing - I've cut trees myself.

For small repairs (light switches, blown fuses, faucets, installing water heaters, cutting down trees, cleaning gutters), before I started doing them myself, I called friends who knew what they were doing, usually 50-something year old men who were jack of all trades.