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Hall of Shame

Tree Solutions will always trim your trees properly, we’ll never leave them ugly, disfigured, or ruined like these.

To learn more about the effect of tree topping and other options you have, please visit our Tree Topping page.

This section’s purpose is to show the results of the WORST TREE TRIMMING practices known to man. Please note: NONE of the work shown in these photos was done by Tree Solutions. We would NEVER trim trees this way. We would be ashamed to call ourselves tree trimmers if we left your trees looking like this.

Homeowners:

Do your homework before you hire. Once your trees have been destroyed like this, it’s nearly permanent. Make the right decision for your trees BEFORE the chainsaws get fired up.

topped red maple trees, hatracked red maple trees

These Red Maple trees were topped several years ago, and now have many dead branches from the topping, and only sparse foliage to feed the root system.

hallofshame1aThis Red Oak was treated to the classic “topping” or “hat rack”. I’m sure it was trimmed as a result of the ice storms, but there’s absolutely no reason to take off all the remaining limbs.

This tree is now in a very fragile state. 95-99% of it’s foilage has been removed. If it lives, it will sprout many new fast growing shoots. They will be attatched through a poor surface connection, and as they grow the homeowner will live in increased risk of a failure causing injury or damage.

The blown up clip on the right shows a large wound where the trimmer failed to use proper techinque to make the cut. Now the tree has an even larger wound to attempt to seal over.

 

hallofshame2This Silver Maple tree has been tipped and topped much like the Red Oak in the first photo. The problem this creates in Silver Maples is that they decay more quickly than virtually any other tree. These limbs wil soon be hollow, and the trees viability will depend on it growing new green wood faster than the old wood decays. The tree will also sprout a large amount of fast growing new sprouts, so as the new tops grow heavier, the supporting wood decays and becomes weaker.

 

 

 

 

hallofshameredmaplesThese Red Maples have been butchered. They will never recover or look anything similar to the normal beautiful round crown shape Red Maples have. Red Maples are one of the most difficult trees to trim, because they will not tolerate large reductions or improper pruning. In addition to this fact, many times the tree’s owner will pay MORE for this substandard work, due to the totally false thinking that “removing more is better, and does cost more”.

Bad work, destroyed trees, a hefty bill, and much more future expense for further care or removal. Don’t let this happen to you!

Be careful who you hire….With Tree Solutions you’ll NEVER end up with trees looking like this.

 

hallofshamemaplewcomments

lionstailedpinewra

This Pine tree has been trimmed in the classic lion’s tail. All the limbs have been removed up to 2/3 of the way up. This leaves the tree unable to dampen the wind loading upon the stem, (by dissipating the energy through the lateral limbs), and this tree is now a hazard tree in danger of breaking in high wind events.

As a general rule, 2/3 of the tree’s height should have lateral limbs to help it maintain stability.

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