In the area of home improvement, there are plenty of projects wherein it’s safe and cost-effective to go DIY. However, when it comes to dealing with mature tree pruning and stump removal, it’s definitely better to call a professional arborist.
Mature Tree Pruning
Forest trees can grow well with nature’s pruning only, but landscape trees need a more intense level of care to maintain their aesthetics and safety. Tree pruning must be carried out by someone who understands how the tree will respond to each cut. Incorrect pruning can cause lifetime damage, or worse, shorten a tree’s life.
No branch should be removed without reason because each cut can change the way a tree grows. Common reasons for tree pruning are to remove rubbing or crowded limbs, dead branches, and to eliminate potential hazards.
Tree pruning is also done to increase air and light penetration to the landscape below or to the inside of the tree’s crown. In most cases, the pruning of mature trees is performed as a preventative or corrective measure.
The health of a tree is not necessarily improved by routine thinning. In order to manufacture sugar for growth, energy and development, a tree produces a dense crown of leaves. Removing foliage through tree pruning can inhibit growth and reduce stored energy reserves, and heavy pruning can be very stressful for a tree.
Because trees and people coexist in suburban and urban environments, trees sometimes have to be modified. For example, a city environment can’t mimic the conditions of a natural forest. We want our trees to complement lawns and landscape plantings. Tree pruning experts have an extensive understanding of tree biology and tree care, so they are able to maintain good tree structure and health while enhancing economic and aesthetic values in our communities.
Removing Tree Stumps
“Evil comes into the world through tree stumps – they are nothing but a portal for evil,” so says the owner of a stump grinding business. While this analogy may sound somewhat dramatic, it might not be as extreme as you think. Stubborn tree stumps are magnets for termites, and if rotting roots reach the foundation of your home, the voracious termites can enter your walls.
Stump roots die slowly and can continue sending up fresh sprouts in inconvenient places such as flowerbeds and walkways. You can’t deny it – that tree stump in your garden is a menace and an eyesore. You’ve tried to conceal it with an oversized flower pot or a statue, but you’re not fooling anybody. What used to be a beautiful tree has now become an unsightly bane.
So, how do you get rid of the “portal of evil?” You could try to pull it out with chains and a pickup truck, but the bumper of the truck will probably tear off. Or you could sweat away for hours, slashing at the stump with a shovel and an axe, leaving a gnarled mess of underground roots ready to shoot up new ones.
Maybe you could drill holes in the stump and fill them with herbicide in the hope that it will eventually rot away over the next two years.
Fortunately, there’s a much better way. Tree care experts who specialize in stump removal can inexpensively, cleanly and quickly turn that menace into useful mulch with a stump grinding machine.
