By Jeff Burbrink
Ag & Natural Resources Extension Educator, Purdue Extension LaGrange County

You can see the results of a poorly pruned tree in the photo. Each stub sends out 5-10 sprouts, which are poorly attached to the tree. When storms hit, these trees often lose hundreds of branches. There is a long term impact too … the stubs will often die. Once dead, borers will set in to eat the softening dead wood. That attracts woodpeckers, who eat the borers. The holes drilled into the stubs then harbor starlings and other less desirable birds like sparrows. Inevitably, when I have had calls from people complaining of starlings pooping on their cars, the trees were topped 10 to 20 years before. Photo by Jeff Burbrink.

LAGRANGE — One of my biggest pet peeves is the topping of trees. Topping refers to the practice of cutting through large branches of trees, leaving stubs that are unsightly, can become diseased and dangerous. You can hardly drive down a county road without seeing a tree that has been topped.

Why do people do this? Some people become concerned when trees grow large and worry that branches will break and fall, causing property damage or harm. They feel trees must be shortened or “topped” to make them safer.

In reality, tree topping harms trees, shortens their lives and creates dangerous or hazardous trees that will surely drop branches in the future

Topping creates unsafe trees in three ways.

1. Topping or heading cuts opens the tree up to an invasion of rotting organisms. A tree can defend itself from rot when proper cuts are made in relationship with branch collars. It cannot stop the spread of decay when it is topped. Rotted limbs or the entire tree may fall years after it was topped. Ironically, many people top their trees because they think it will make them safer.

2. The new quick growing branches (or sprouts) are poorly attached and break easily in wind or snowstorms, even many years later when they are large and heavy. These upright sprouts do not have branch collars, the interweaving of trunk and branch wood, that embeds naturally growing branches, providing a very strong attachment.

3. The thick regrowth of new branches (sprouts) caused by topping makes the tree top-heavy and more likely to catch the wind. This increases the chance of storm winds blowing branches out of the tree. A tree can be properly pruned (thinned) to allow wind to pass through the branches. Tree topping typically leads to future storm damage from the tree versus proper structural pruning when done early in a tree’s life.

There’s one other thing: topped trees are ugly. They lose their natural, majestic look once they are topped. The new growth of thin upright branches looks like a broom to some. The natural form and appearance that took years for the tree to grow can be destroyed forever in a few hours by an uninformed tree worker or landscaper who “tops.”

How should it be done? A professional tree pruner should make a series of thinning cuts when doing size control on a tree. The first target are branches that are dead or mishappen. Then branches that are in competition with one another are selectively removed. Owning a chainsaw, a ladder and a pickup truck does not make a person a quality tree pruner!

Want more information? Visit extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/HO/HO-4-W.pdf for Purdue’s publication on proper pruning. You can also find professional arborists who service our area at treesaregood.org.