Heard a homeowner in Bend tell her neighbor pruning is just cutting branches off, and I almost dropped my pole saw

Wade Young · 2026-09-30T23:20:05.475805+00:00

Was up on a ladder behind this lady's fence in Bend two weeks back, deadwooding a big ponderosa, and I hear her tell her neighbor that pruning is just cutting branches off. That's it. Just cutting. Her husband had already topped their birch down to about 12 feet with a chainsaw the month before, so I guess she believed it. Thing is, that birch is toast now, sprouting a mess of watersprouts everywhere because nobody made a proper cut at the branch collar. I wanted to climb down and explain that the cut itself is maybe 20 percent of the job, the rest is knowing what to leave, where to cut, and when to walk away. I kept my mouth shut and finished the pine, but it bugged me the whole drive home on Highway 97. So now I keep a beat up handsaw in the truck and a sharpener, and I offer to show folks one cut on their own tree when they ask. How do you all handle it when a client tells you what to do based on bad advice from the neighbor?

🐿️Pinecone Attack

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Heard a homeowner in Bend tell her neighbor pruning is just cutting branches off, and I almost dropped my pole saw | Arborists - Pinecone Attack