Pruning Trees

There is a horrible practice in St. Louis that is still going on....butcher pruning jobs on mature trees. I see it more often in South County and City where people love neatly clipped yews, zoysia and hey...why not mature trees.  This particular set of trees was in a neighborhood in Olivette.

I owned a house that had two sweet gum trees pruned like this in the backyard. In the Fall I would cringe to see the tree without leaves that shielded me from seeing the stumped branches.  What people do not realize is that the growth that comes from these stumps is weak and easily comes off in a storm. The wounds are also more susceptible to disease. It really does mess up a tree and once this has been done there is not much more that you can do other than cut it down.

Comments

[FrankieAnon]

You're so right! Chainsaws are gnawing through trees on the street behind me as a write this. If only cities had the foresight to put power lines underground. It rids the horizon of ugly power lines and poles, eliminates the problem of downed lines in storms, and saves the trees.