Tree Topping isn’t Cool. Call before you cut.

FOT is proud to feature a guest blog post from the City of Vancouver Urban Forestry.

Healthy trees provide shade, reduce energy costs, prevent soil erosion, beautify landscapes, and filter air and water.

Sometimes property owners become concerned when trees grow large and worry that branches will fall and cause property damage or harm. Often times “topping”, or the removal of large amounts of leaves and branches from a tree’s crown, is considered the best solution.

In fact, all the experts agree that topping does not work, it’s dangerous, and it’s expensive!

Improperly pruned branches will grow back rapidly, creating dangerous trees that fail in storms. The thick new branches, or sprouts, grow quickly but are weakly attached to the tree. When a tree is topped, rather than properly pruned, it is weakened and opened to decay. This, too, leads to the tree being damaged during storms.

Topping is expensive: It has to be repeated every few years. The life span of the topped tree is shortened. Removal of previously topped trees is expensive due to the unsafe tree conditions.

Prune properly to allow your trees to realize their full potential for health and beauty in the landscape. Proper pruning can remove excessive growth without the problems topping creates. Hire a professional to remove dead, diseased, broken or crossing limbs to promote tree health and structural stability.

Don’t top, get the facts. Avoid “door-to-door” tree services or landscapers that suggest tree topping; many are misinformed about proper tree pruning techniques. Instead, seek out professional advice. Contact an Arborist who is certified through the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) and always get multiple bids.

Excellent resources for proper pruning and general tree care can be found at The National Arbor Day Foundation, arborday.org, and the ISA site treesaregood.org.

Trees make our communities a better place to live by improving our air and water quality and beautify our neighborhoods. To maximize the community benefits of the urban forest we all can take part in caring for our existing trees and planting more trees.

For more information on proper tree pruning or how to hire an arborist, contact City of Vancouver Urban Forestry at (360) 487-8308, [email protected], or visit them online.

Learn how to prune like a pro at an upcoming pruning workshop with Vancouver Urban Forestry. These free, hands-on workshops focus on proper pruning and how to make the right cut each time. For more information or to RSVP, contact [email protected] or call (360) 487-8308.