How To Know If Your Trees Need Trimming

Performing regular trimming and pruning helps maintain a tree’s structure, shape, health, aesthetics and vigor. It is also necessary to maintain clearance from homes or buildings, streets, driveways or walkways.

7 Reasons To Consider Tree Trimming As Categorized By ANSI A300 Standards

Manage Risk: Poor tree structure can be a dangerous situation which is why having a trained arborist perform tree trimming on a regular basis is a great way to help your trees develop a strong central leader with proper branching structure. By performing tree trimming from the time a tree is young along with keeping a regular pruning schedule the chances your tree will become a risk will be greatly reduced as it matures.

Manage Health: Tree trimming is important to maintaining the health of your trees. Having an arborist inspect your trees regularly and prescribe necessary tree trimming will ensure they stay healthy.

Develop Structure: Developing the structure of your tree can prove to be very important for many reasons. This maintenance can improve branch and trunk architecture, promote or subordinate certain leaders, stems, or branches along with promote desirable branch spacing. Routine trimming can also promote or discourage growth in a particular direction (directional pruning), such as minimizing future interference with traffic, lines of sight, or infrastructure, or other plants, and restore nearby plants following damage.

Provide clearance: The regular trimming of your trees can ensure safe and reliable utility service-work along with minimizing current interference with traffic, lines of sight, infrastructure, or other plants and raising crown(s) for movement of traffic or light penetration. By performing tree trimming, important lines-of-sight can be maintained such as views of sites, buildings, or other structures along with being in compliance with regulations.

Manage size or shape: Overgrown trees can be a nuisance and a major problem. Managing the size of your trees on a regular basis makes for a beautiful and care free landscape.

Improve aesthetics: Trees are an amazing gift from mother nature and tree trimming is a great way to maintain the great beauty that trees provide us with.

Manage production of fruit, flowers, or other products: Most trees produce fruit or flowers. Some fruits can be a delicious byproduct of trees reproduction systems, and many of our ornamental trees produce beautiful flowers when they bloom. Tree trimming is a common practice to manage fruit and flower production.

If you have a tree on your property that is getting too close to your buildings, you may want to trim back its branches to provide more clearance between the tree and the building structures. This process is very common in order to create more space by raising and elevating the trees canopy, which usually involves trimming the lower branches.

Getting rid of dead branches, also knows as deadwood, is another reason for trees to be trimmed. Once you notice dead branches it’s important to get them removed quickly to allow the tree to properly callus and compartmentalize the area where the branch is attached to the tree, also known as the branch collar. When dead branches are not removed quickly, they can cause cavities or decay pockets to form on the tree which can then lead to structural defects later in the tree’s life.

Top 4 Things To Look For When Hiring A Tree Care Service:

1. What type of certifications do they have? Pro-Tree’s team of trained arborists carry many certifications such as ISA Certified Arborists, CTSP Certified Tree Care Safety Professional, Minnesota Licensed Pesticide Applicator, EHAB Electrical Hazard Certified, and many others. These certifications ensure you are hiring a trained and competent professional to care for your trees.
2. Do they carry the correct insurance and licenses to protect you and your property? Pro-Tree carries general liability and workers comp. insurance to ensure you have peace of mind when our expert team is working on your property. Pro-Tree also carries city licenses for all of the cities they work in. Not all cities require licenses, but it is always a good idea to check with your city to see if they require licenses and if the tree company you are looking to hire is properly licensed. Most cities will ensure proper insurance is in place before the company can purchase their license.
3. What type of equipment will they use to access your property? Pro-Tree uses state-of-the-art equipment when working on your property. Our equipment is designed to not only be efficient, but also greatly reduce damage to your lawn and surrounding property.
4. What industry standards do they follow when prescribing care for my trees? Pro-Tree always follows ANSI A-300 pruning standards and ANSI Z133 safety standards when prescribing care for your trees. These standards are set by the American National Standard Institute. By hiring a contractor, like Pro-Tree Outdoor Services, who follows these standards, you know that the best practices are being used when caring for your trees.