ADVICE ON TREE PRUNING
Pruning is an essential part of maintaining healthy trees. Pruning can be used to improve the structure of the tree, to remove dangerous or defective branches, to reduce shading, to reduce wind loading, or to provide clearance between the tree and a structure. Care must be taken however, as removing too big a branch can lead to disease entering the tree via the wound/s left behind, or reduce the vitality of tree due to the excessive volume of leaf bearing material being removed. In most cases, unless a potentially hazardous structural defect needs addressing, it is always best to prune trees as little as possible in order to maintain their health.
When it comes to pruning your trees, you will have several options to choose from. Some common terms used to describe these operations are “crown thinning”, “crown lift” and “crown reduction”. If you think it may be useful that you understand which option the tree surgeon is recommending before agreeing to proceed with the pruning we have the three most common methods linked below.