Brendan Allison has been our lead ground worker since early Spring – now it’s time to go aloft! There’s been a few practice and education sessions to get ready, but today was the first day of production climbing. And oh what a day! The rule of thumb is to “go low and slow” honing new skills in a safe manner. Today’s task was low for sure, about 15 feet, but not easy climbing by any means. A row of Jack Pine had grown to obstruct the owners’ view of the lake. The way I look at it, pruning thirty 15 ft trees is equally challenging to working on one 450 ft giant. No wonder Brendan is looking tired but happy. Congratulations!
By the way, the pruning technique used on these trees was “crown-reduction”, not “topping”. Topping of trees is an outmoded practice forbidden by the ISA’s code of ethics. Topping, which is cutting off trees at an arbitrary height with no regard for the trees’ form, creates unsightly and unhealthy trees that often become increasingly hazardous over time. Crown-reduction, on the other hand is a method for controlling the size of trees by pruning trunks and limbs back to side-branches of sufficient size to minimize the risk of decay and development of hazard trees. Read more
