Pruning & Removals

Let our pruning and removals team bring an acrobatic materials engineering lab to your yard. Enjoy the show or trust that our safe and scientific approach will leave your property the way you wanted. We excel at technically difficult trees but our competency extends to all aspects of tree care. For especially difficult areas our crane and barge subcontractors facilitate. We also have experience with road closures and NYSEG crews.

Because trees compartmentalize decay and do not heal, it is especially important for long term health that they be pruned correctly. A certified arborist is trained in tree anatomy and physiology. There are a host of objectives our clients want to achieve through pruning. Standard corrective pruning eliminates deadwood and improves the architecture of your trees by removing, crossing, rubbing, and parallel limbs.

Canopy reduction (not topping!) mitigates the effects of storms by decreasing lever weight and sail area, while maintaining your trees' architecture. Wind tunnel research has confirmed that this approach to pruning absolutely has the most profound effect for safeguarding against failure. The same experiments discovered that techniques that lift or open trees  can exacerbate storm damage (interior and lower limbs act as vibration dampeners that stabilize trees in high winds). That being said, sometimes lift pruning creates a view, opens a walkway, allows more light to turf and garden areas, or provides building clearance, and is the best choice.

Ornamental pruning is used when shaping plants, improving floral displays, and maintaining hedges. Fruit production can also be enhanced in quality, quantity, and ease of picking. Finally, codominant stem subordination is preferred when a single apical leader is desired, yet more than one is growing. This can have both aesthetic and structural implications. Subordinating a competing leader is gentler on the tree's physiology and can encourage it to become a branch instead.