The cheapest way

[Toddppm]

On my way home yesterday just 2 blocks from the house I hear a chipper and look up and these guys had just finished topping a nice size poplar. I pulled over and was checking it out and the butcher was out infront checking out his handy work and walked over to my truck, I says Hey you finished with that tree yet? He explained to me how the owner wanted the cheapest way possible to keep the tree from dropping branches on his house. I asked him for what? There was a pocket of decay in a crotch about 40 ft. up, hmmm, wonder how they saw that? This guy said the man got a couple other estimates and they told him the cheapest thing he could do besides cut it down was to top it and they were the cheapest, so they got the job. I told him with all the work they did climbing around topping that tree it wouldn't have taken much more work to take the trunk down????? He said they even got this guys bus. from the yellow pages, funny I couldn't find their listing, must be cause they're from about 40 miles away. This house is right across the street from a corner house that just got their 3' dbh silver maple topped again by one of the largest and oldest co's around. Anybody ever stop and talk to the homeowners and ask why??? I've been tempted to make a flyer up explaining the bad effects of topping and drop them in the peoples mail boxes but it probably wouldn't help.

 

[treeman82]

Todd, I hear ya loud n' clear. I see a lot of times over here people who buy these pretty nice houses, by no means the most expensive, but still... they buy em and have really nice trees topped. I drive through the neighborhoods with topped trees and look as they all sucker out. I remember going to look this spring at some red oaks that needed to be removed. They had been topped several years back and were all suckered out. The suckers were probably a little under 1' in diameter where they met up with the former cut. It was interesting, it would not have taken much more to have cut them down when they were being topped. I priced them for at least $1200 per tree to cut down, and they were only 40' tall w/ suckers. Thing is though each of the trees had either a patio, or fencing or other BS stuff around them.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I had a "too tall" conversation with the electritian who wired the central A/C into my folks house this month. (CO detector was going off just befor Cristmas so we got furnace-A/C all at once)

Just bought an old house, nice big sugar maple out front. Ran out to look at it and talked him into $400 in building clearance instead of removal. Gorgouse tree 'cept for the ROW work in front.

 

[Toddppm]

Anybody remember that Journal of Arboriculture article where they did a survey on people who had their trees topped? That was a good one, hopefully it will get online when they put the back issues up. I thought I saved that issue , but I went on a cleaning spree and threw all the mags away that i had read.

 

[FSburt]

This reminds me of the Cedrus deodora out here on the west coast that continually are getting topped. I did a job for a guy in 96 it was a 60 ft Cd he wanted topped because he was afraid of it blowing over in a wind storm. I talked him out of it and to let me thin and raise the crown. Worked well. I always make it a habit to checkup on my trees to see how they are doing over time to make improvement or to just see how the tree is growing. Well I went back by 1/02 and was shocked to see that my tree was trimmed again but was topped, what a shame to that tree. Oh well I guess I get a little to attached to my tree work and get alittle torked but i am not the owner and he is the the one paying for it so thats life. I'll still go by to see how this recent trim affects this tree. I've had more than one person try to get me to top their Cd 's because their neighbor told them or the insurance person told them that was the safest way to keep their tree from blowing down. I figured most of the trees have been standing this long since the 20's and 30's and could have blown over by then so topping may reduce the overall tree height but it would still blow over in the right kind of conditions.

PS Just got my new spring 02 Baileys catalog has some new climbing stuff in there. Whats the deal on their Black max rope is it some other rope renamed for baileys or what. Later

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I always start it out with any tree can fail in the wrong conditions. If you top it and it grows fast...

Removing these branches over the house whill not reduce the risk but the potential decay may raise it...

If I have trouble convincing them I start talking about university studies and such, this is not just what I say but....

Still cannot convince everyone, like some say people concider us a short step above the garbage man.

"I'm an Arborist." "Oh! You trim trees! Must be fun hacking away at them all day"

 

[rbtree]

FS,

A couple friends have the Blackmax. It is fine, just a bit on the limp side. i don't know for sure, but I think it is made by N England for Bailey's. The listed strength rating is identical to safety Blue HiV.
I didn't check to see if it has a blue core.

Nothing wrong with Safety Blue, but I like the slightly tighter weave Samson Bluestreak. It resists abrasion a bit better, handles as well or better, and is a bit stronger.

Still 2002 B.'s catalogless.

........Tree butchery still raises its ugly head here and there in the PNWet...................

Just saw an old customer's yard. A 10" dogwood and two large styrax japonica had been reduce to a messy hatrack. As well as some other less drastic hacking.....$5000 value down the drain. I had carefully thinned them hard and done a bit of crown reducing to satisfy everyone's view- periodically over the last 7 years. Didn't find out if it is a new owner. If not, I will likely call and chew out the customer some time when I'm in a bad mood.

 

[UrbanEarth]

I am actually surprised that insurance companies have not looked into the topping of trees. That may be an area to do some educating instead of trying the general public alone. If topping does produce more hazardous trees (which would have to be substantiated by studies) the insurance companies could have conditions such as "If the tree was topped, then sorry , you have no coverage.....:
Does anyone have any stats on tree failure topped versus non-topped?

Alan