maxp68•4d ago

That day in 2015 at a job site in Portland changed my whole approach to pruning

I was working on a big old oak near Laurelhurst Park, probably 80 feet tall, and my boss at the time told me to stop doing thinning cuts and start using reduction cuts instead. He showed me how leaving a lateral branch at least a third of the diameter of the removed limb keeps the tree healthier and reduces storm damage later. It felt wrong at first, but after a few years I've seen way less failure on those trees I worked on back then. Has anyone else had a mentor change their mind on a basic cut type?

2 comments

2 Comments

kellymurphy4d ago

Heard the same thing from an old arborist in Spokane. Changed my whole view on cuts.

robert2753d ago

Old arborists have some wild opinions, half the time they're based on what worked in 1952. Cutting a branch is just cutting a branch, it's not brain surgery. We're not talking about transplanting a heart here. Sure, don't hack it to pieces, but acting like the wrong cut will kill the whole tree overnight? Come on. I've seen trees survive rusted chainsaw blades and lightning strikes, they're tougher than people give them credit for.