How NOT to trim a tree

Tree Topping is a Tragedy

By Amy McDowell

“Forfeit his hand, he who beheads a tree.” John Evelyn, Sylva, published in 1664.

Those words were written 347 years ago, but incompetent morons are still topping trees today. My heart lurches with horror when I see a tree butchered like the one in this photo.

(Photo by Larry Costello)

Trees do need pruning from time to time, but they NEVER need a severe heading back or topping. In fact, a tree will never fully recover from being topped. It will scramble to replace all of that food-producing leaf surface, but the rapid new growth is always weaker.

“Don’t do big, drastic pruning once every 15 years,” says Dr. John Ball, a professor of forestry at South Dakota State University. “Tree care should be life-long and low-intensity.”

At a recent arborist conference, Ball shared his advice on tree care. Training young trees is ideal, because you can set them up to live a long and healthy life. Most often, however, people wait until the trees are mature and then prune them. “You cannot make a tree healthy by making it smaller,” writes Dr. Alex Shigo. And over thinning the canopy, says Ball, is like bleeding a tree to death. “Branches are independent, not parasitic. Each one must produce its own food.”

ISA Certified Arborists can look at a tree and recognize what to prune. You can trust that an ISA Certified Arborist will do what is best for the tree. They sometimes laugh that their clients expect to see a huge pile of tree trimmings when they are done working. A trustworthy arborist is one who is most concerned with the safety and health of the tree and not concerned about creating a large pile of brush to impress their clients.

There are more than two dozen ISA Certified Arborists in and around the Des Moines area. You can find arborists in your area by visiting www.TreesAreGood.com.

I’d like to thank Dr. John Ball of South Dakota State University for the inspiration for this column. The photo, taken by Larry Costello, was provided by the International Society of Arboriculture.

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