Tree pruning can be a daunting venture. You stand there looking at a shaggy monolith of wood, bark, and leaves. All those twisty branches. It's confusing. You've got to do something. But is something better than the wrong thing? Are you going to do something for your tree, or something to your tree?
If I had a dollar for every phone call and every chance encounter that ended with me fixing a tree somebody had brutalized, I'd be a quadrillionaire. Am I exaggerating? A little. Not much.
How a good tree becomes toothpicks
Listen. It happens all the time. Picture my neighbor. He is standing next to his tree with a chainsaw in his hand. The saw is big. The saw is special. It belonged to his dad, who was a veteran logger. Which means the saw has more experience than the man holding it.
None of these things are bad on their own. The neighbor is a good guy. The chainsaw is undeniably cool. The tree genuinely needs a trim. But put all three in the same yard on the same afternoon and you have a perfect trifecta. For an intervention.
"Hey neighbor, whatcha doin'?"
"I don't know."
This is a true story, and he was being completely honest with me. He did not know. So I tried again.
"It kind of looks like you're about to cut your tree down."
"No," he said. "Just thought I'd do some light pruning."
Light pruning. He said it the way you'd say "just a trim" to a barber holding a weed whacker. 😂
Here's the thing. He wasn't going to hurt that tree on purpose. Nobody ever is. That's exactly how it happens. So before anything gets fired up, three pointers.
1. Start with good questions
Before the pruning adventure begins, take out a piece of paper and write some down.
Ask before you cut
- Do I even know what kind of tree this is?
- Why do I want to prune it in the first place?
- What tools will I use, and are they sharp and clean? (Maybe a chainsaw is too much. Even a super cool one.)
- What time of year is right for the kind of pruning that needs doing?
- Can I draw a diagram of my tree and start pencil slashing my ideas?
- Who can I ask?
That last one is the question most people skip, and it's the easiest of the bunch. Ask Will. A phone call costs nothing, and it's a whole lot cheaper than replacing a forty year old tree.
2. Write out your pruning plan
Once your questions are answered, really do it. Write out some pruning specs. Google it, ChatGPT it, but contact and study good resources. I can give you how to's until the cows come home. Ask me. I mean it. I will talk about trees longer than you want me to.
3. Follow the Four D Rule
Here's one easy how to. You are never wrong removing the dead, diseased, dying, or damaged. Just educate yourself on the proper removal technique first. At that point you're doing something for your tree, not to your tree. It might look a little wonky for a while, but it will fix itself. It'll grow into itself.
Never, ever, ever, ever top a mature tree. If you planted a giant sequoia in a small backyard, that's your fault, not the tree's.
Most of the time it really is simple. Good pruning is taking less, but at the right spots. The hardest part is walking away. No more tweaking, no more adjusting. Just walk. It is finished. Think about next year.
If you can reach your pruning objective and the tree still looks untouched: congratulations. That's good pruning.
Bottom line
Staring at a tree and not sure where to start? That's the right time to call. Before the saw comes out, not after. If you're in Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, or Post Falls, Will is happy to answer tree questions, talk you through a plan, or come take a look in person. No tree has ever regretted a phone call.
