The Complete Guide to Landscape Design, Renovation, and Maintenance
by Cass Turnbull

MY TREE'S TOO BIG
The good news is your tree is not too big and you can't make it smaller. It is exactly and perfectly the correct size for its age, genus, and species. Now, wait! Don't put this book back on the shelf! There are alternatives. Your tree may be 1) a big weed, 2) inappropriately placed, or 3) too oppressive, in which case you may prune it, move it, or kill it, but under no circumstances is it appropriate to torture it. Topping is torture, and it will make matters far worse in the long run. Topping, you may recall, is ugly. It also devalues your tree. Trees have a monetary value that is part of the value of your property. A professional appraiser will reduce the appraised value of your tree generally by about one-third if it's been topped. An average appraisal for a large, old tree might be $1,000.00.

Topping is Not The Answer
Topping doesn't work to keep trees small. It just stimulates rapid regrowth of weakly attached suckers. It endangers tree health. It doesn't kill them right away. It kills them slowly, many years later when they succumb to root rots, or die in the drought, or break up because they are finally rotten clear through. Topping trees is hazardous to tree health sort of the same way smoking is hazardous to human health. People don't die from the cigarette smoke, they die from some other cause fifteen years later. For many years people did not connect smoking with health problems, just as topping does not appear to be connected with the eventual seemingly unrelated death of the tree. Topped trees are dangerous trees, as well; they are more likely to drop limbs or blow over. Therefore, there are few, if any, circumstances under which topping is appropriate, not even for a billion-dollar view, not for the power lines (it's better to remove them and replant). For people who want to make their too big tree small again, I know this is bad news. Read on.

In nine cases out of ten the homeowner needs 1) attitude adjustment, or 2) a good pruner. We will deal with your attitude in the last part.

The ill effects of topping: Shown is a deciduous tree soon after topping. The same deciduous tree one year later. At right is a topped conifer. The natural shape and therefore the purpose is compromised.

What A Good Tree Pruner Can Do For You
A good tree pruner (an arborist) is an underpaid artist. He or she can transform that big, ugly old thing in your back yard into a thing of beauty. How does a tree pruner (called an arborist) do it? The highest compliment I ever got was when someone came out to his yard and said, "I never noticed how beautiful that maple was! Did you prune it?" Good pruning is invisible and truly miraculous. Try it on your tree before you opt for removal. Removal (death) is appropriate in some situations, but pause and reflect before you decide on removal because:

1. Trees are real honest-to-God living things. They just don't move and make noises the way animals do when you kill them.
2. Trees are a legacy. You may owe it to posterity to leave that tree even if you don't enjoy it so much. Some kid someday will want to build a tree house in it, some animal may make its home in it, and so forth. Who are you, of a mere eighty-year lifespan, who change addresses an average of once every seven years, to cut it down? Not to mention its benefits to mankind and the ecology, like shade, wind break, making oxygen out of carbon dioxide and cleaning particulates out of the air. Why should it die because you are too lazy to rake its leaves?

A good pruner can train your tree away from your gutters, can open up your tree to let in tons more sunlight, can remove weak and dead limbs so nothing is likely to fall on you or your house--really, a pruner can often tell when there's danger. If you fear your large tree, have a qualified arborist do a "hazard tree evaluation." If it's truly hazardous and not simply too big, it should be removed. A good tree pruner can make it easy for you to walk under or around or by your tree. Or he or she can just plain make it less bulky and oppressive. Depending on the species of tree, a good pruner can create "windows" for your view. A pine tree (see illustration) will take a lot of thinning. Not so, a cherry tree.

	Trees should not be topped, but they can be pruned. Here is an example of a pine tree obscuring a water view.
	Here is the same tree thinned or "windowed" for a view. Trees vary in the degree to which they will accept thinning without dying or suckering back in following years. Pay close attention to these parameters.

Don't Be Afraid of Your Trees Height
Frequently people decide to try to stop their tree from getting bigger as it approaches the roof line of their home. If the tree towers thirty feet over the house, they leave it alone. It's a psychological problem, an invisible height barrier. It is subconsciously disturbing to have a tree the same height as your house. The solution is to let the tree grow taller. A good pruner will help it look better for now. Trees cannot be stopped with pruning; the species of the plant determines its size and basic shape.

Most people top their trees because they're arborphobic (afraid of large trees). Trees do not fall over because they are too big. They fall over because they are structurally unsound or sick. An elephant doesn't fall over any more often than a pig--it's just more impressive when it does. A healthy tree has exactly the right amount of roots to hold up its crown. Some types or species of trees are genetically prone to be weaker structured or shorter lived. Signs of a potentially hazardous tree are: mushrooms and white sheeting under the bark, large cracks and deep rotten hollows, old topping cuts, the ground around trees heaving in windstorms, recent construction nearby, trees that used to live in the forest but were recently left by new development or clear-cuts, trees whose roots have been cut or compacted or covered up by bulldozing, leaning trees, trees with thinning and yellowing foliage and excessive amounts of dead wood. Wind-throw does occur in high wind areas but can be prevented by thinning trees so the wind passes through them. Topping makes trees more prone to wind-throw because the characteristic thick regrowth catches even more wind. A good motto is: When in doubt, thin it out.

Occasionally an arborist will reduce the size of a tree using selective heading cuts. This is called "drop crotching." It is not the answer because, although it reduces suckering, it will not prevent the tree from rotting out.

A Justifiable Dendrocide
There are circumstances where it is all right to kill your tree. A truly hazardous tree should be removed. There was a house I know where someone had planted a baby giant sequoia under the eaves. I watched for four years until it reached the roof and the owners finally topped it. It is a good candidate for removal. You cannot train evergreens around things as you can deciduous trees (those which lose their leaves) except perhaps some pines. Needled evergreens planted in front of windows or next to walkways may have to go because you cannot reduce their width. The city is full of people who tried by cutting half way into their conifers. OOPS! Whereas deciduous things will respond by regrowing tons of skinny, UGLY, but at least green-leafed branches, your average conifer will not green up again, ever. Big trees under power lines are candidates for justifiable dendrocide. Replace them with trees that crown-out low.

Selectively thinning a series of overplanted trees by cutting some out is sometimes justifiable dendrocide. One of the hardest yards I ever consulted on was another plant lover's yard, overgrown with a series of huge, incredibly wonderful, overplanted, rare trees--two giant katsura, an Empress tree, Korean dogwood, and a ginkgo. I can't remember what else. But they were now competing too heavily with each other and shading out equally wonderful shrubs below. These smaller shrubs were showing signs of stress by getting to thin and leggy as they reached for the never-enough sun.

It is true that trees can be planted in groves like a forest, and even one below the other (Japanese maples are good to plant under other trees) or in groups. Birches look best this way, but sometimes there are just too many. Selective tree removal is the life-boat theory of gardening. Removal is appropriate when pruning alone can't cure the too-intense shade. It helps if the trees in question are not rare, old and wonderful ones, as in the above example.

You may care to remember the definition of a weed. Common weedy trees that you see in my area are big-leaf maples, Western red cedars, holly, mountain ash, and alder. Be careful, though! With a simple Attitude Adjustment a weedy tree could be the star attraction of your yard.

Sometimes it's all right to kill a tree if it's very, very, very sick and old. Old, heavily diseased, fruiting cherries and native western dogwoods are good candidates for death with dignity. You may have a case for wrongful placement. This means that the previous owner planted a birch--which invariably gets aphids and drips sticky honeydew--over the only parking spot; a madrona over your patio--they are always shedding bark, berries, or leaves (I'd rule against extermination and tell you to hire a neighborhood kid to rake); or a weeping willow over your drain pipes, making your rotorooter bill exceed $300 per year.

Don't get chainsaw happy on me now. Blocking your view is not justifiable dendrocide and it brings a scowl to the judge's face.

The deciduous thing in front of your window can probably be thinned successfully so that you can see sort of into and through it. As for your sweeping view of sea, lake or mountains, it's time for an attitude adjustment.

You paid lots of money for that view and you pay lots and lots of property taxes every year to keep it. You want to keep it a view. You don't want all those damn trees in the way. I've heard it a billion times. But your view should include some lovely trees as focal points (these are called Horizon Trees). If creating a distant vista view requires removing more than three trees, maybe you were meant to have a "woodland" view instead. (I can hear the protest even as I write.) Well, consider the alternatives and the big picture.

It is humanly impossible to reduce the size of a tree significantly without deleterious effect. I am referring again to topping.

When you top your trees (or your neighbors' trees below you) you have only ensured an ugly view of mutilated trees with the worst yet to come. Some trees are so healthy and vigorous that they spring back pretty well, but just observe how a real one looks compared to one you've tortured for years. Really look at its branches in the winter. You'll see what I mean. If you still top, start looking over your shoulder for the Tree Police. They're going to come to show you what it's like to be "kept small.

So you say, justifiable dendrocide. Wrong! Just imagine, for a moment, what the skyline will look like when everybody removes his or her big trees between the top of the hill and the water below. Rooftops and power lines and someone else's dirty back alley! Looks good, doesn't it? Trees break up that bleak outlook, cover up the unsightly, and soften the view for the entire community. Now start thinking in terms of the grandeur of a big tree. Look at beauty with your eyes, not your pocketbook. Think of the pretty fall colors. Now leave that tree alone or have a professional come to prune it and make it a real star! Be a real hero, be a person who knows how to treat a tree!

SUMMARY
The three options for the too-big tree are:
(1) Remove it.
Perhaps you want to plant a smaller growing tree now and take out the big one later. If your tree is truly hazardous, it should come out soon.
(2) Prune it.
You can reduce the bulk and clutter, (not the height) of trees. Taking off lower and specifically interfering limbs is all right, too. Use a professional arborist (member of ISA--International Society of Arboriculture or NAA--National Arborist Association). Have him or her prune to National Arborist Association pruning standards.
(3) Love it.
Tree lovers judge the greatness of a tree by its size and age. Bigger and older is better! Love it and leave it alone may be the best and cheapest solution.

Forward to What Makes a Yard Look Good or Bad

Back to Radical Renovation