Tree Topping

Some arborists refer to this as shearing, rounding or topping. In many counties and cities this practice is prohibited by ordinance yet a quick review of the yellow pages will probably find at least one tree service advertising this as a service it specializes in providing its customers.

It is important that the customers become educated that this practice is not healthy for the trees and that it is creating a hazard and maintainance problem at best. It will not quickly kill the tree but contribute to the mortality spiral and destroy any structure that will allow the tree to become a mature speciman that we recognize as a Live oak.