Time to learn pruning skills

A STORM has uprooted huge trees!

Houses are damaged, streets are blocked and the neighbourhood is living in fear! The first reaction is to cut down the trees.

But these are the very same trees that have grown and provided so much loving shade and support to the neighbourhood on hot and scorching days through the years.

Is it the fault of the trees?

We just never learn. Look at the photographs in “All shook up” (Star

Metro, Oct 15). When will we learn how to prune our trees correctly?

Why do we prune to induce a huge crown of slender long branches reaching for the sky?

Correctly pruning and pollarding trees to give them a stable balanced crown is a science and skill that our tree pruners never seem to learn.

The standard operating procedure is apparently to trim off lower branches, saw off the top, allow a large bunch of branches to emerge from the sawn-off point and let them grow long and slender upwards to the skies.

Why are they doing this?

This creates a crown that is unbalanced, top heavy and at the mercy of strong winds. The slender branches sway and snap or, if they don’t, the tree uproots.

Please do not blame the trees and go around chopping them “as they are dangerous”. The trees are, more often than not, not at fault. Wrong pruning technique is!

It is time our councils learn how to prune trees correctly. While on the subject of pruning, we know this is the time of the year when we will be facing storms and strong winds.

Should councils not be required to prune tall trees in anticipation of such problems? Won’t this be better than waiting for the inevitable winds and then blame the trees?

Do it correctly and all the years of hard work to grow our lovely trees will not be undone by a storm.

We will then have trees that grow with us and provide us with lovely shade and shelter that we can cherish for a very long time.