Tree Surgery

Tree surgery is a practical form of tree management. It requires the physical implementation of persons or machinery to prune part of or remove the whole of a tree. In idealic circumstances, the best form of tree management is to simply leave the tree alone.  This is because trees are self-optimising organisms that develop to suit the setting or circumstances that they are subjected to. 

However, in some cases, a tree's vitality or development is not favourable for the site and/or the landowner with whom the burden of liability lies. Therefore, the implementation of tree surgery in the form of pruning management is beneficial for mitigating potential risk or predictable failures whilst retaining trees wherever possible. When it is not possible to safely retain the tree, practices such as sectional dismantling are utilised to safely remove trees from height in all locations and situations.  

Depending on the individual requirements of the site/person/tree, there are a variety of pruning management practices that can be utilised/undertaken. These are:

Crown lifting

The crown of a tree is the foliage-bearing section of the tree consisting of its branches and leaves, and not including any clear stem/trunk. 

Crown lifting involves removing the lowest branches of a tree or preparing lower branches for future removal. 

Crown reductions

Crown reduction involves reducing the height and/or spread of the crown of a tree. The purpose of this form of management is to reduce mechanical stress on individual branches or the whole tree. This can promote the retention of trees by making their overall mass more suited to its immediate environment. The final objective of such management is to retain the main framework of the crown for the development of future regrowth. It should be noted that not all species are suitable for this type of management, and the extent of such works, if viable, is determined by individual site-specific assessments.

Formative pruning

Formative pruning is minor pruning undertaken during the early years of a tree's growth in order to establish a desired shape (form) and/or correct any weaknesses or defects that may affect the tree's structure later on.

Thinning

Crown thinning is the removal of selective branches or limbs, either within or on the extremities of the canopy in order to promote a balanced crown. The purpose of this pruning method is to reduce the 'sail effect' of wind-loading to the canopy, or increase light availability to the areas beneath the tree. Such pruning does not reduce or remove the height and spread of the existing canopy. 

Pollarding

Pollarding inititally involves removing the top of a young tree once it has reached a desired height in order to encourage multistem branching from that point, which can then be harvested for various purposes, and to prevent a tree from outgrowing its allotted space. Once a tree has been pollarded, this should be repeated rotationally, and the branches should continue to be pruned back to the original pollarding point to mitigate the poor anchorage of stems that this form of management consequently promotes.


Removal of deadwood

The removal of deadwood should always be avoided due to the significant benefit that it offers to native ecology. However, in some settings, the potential for deadwood to fall can pose a risk to persons or property, and for this reason its retention is considered a safety hazard. Therefore, in these situations, deadwood can be removed by an arborist without affecting the vitality of the tree.

Retrenchment pruning

Retrenchment pruning is a type of reduction method used for the management of veteran trees to promote the natural development of lower growth in order to mitigate potential failure occurring to the tree, thereby securing its retention for as long as reasonably possible, whilst enhancing the ecological attributes that veteran trees offer.

Sectional dismantlement

Sectional dismantlement is a technique used to remove trees within confined vicinities in order to safely remove the tree in a controlled manner to prevent any damage occurring to the site by either holding or lowering small sections of the canopy or stem until its entire removal has been achieved.

Crown reduction of Common Pear (Pyrus communis)


Crown lift and thin of Sweet Gum (Liquidambar styraciflua)


Re-pollarding London Plane (Platanus x hispanica)


Lift and formative prune of Common Oak (Quercus robur) and removal of Lawson Cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana)

Unfortunately, sometimes trees have to be removed. In these circumstances, we don't like to see any timber wasted unnecessarily and covnerted into firewood. For this reason we have invested in a band-sawmill, which we are pleased to offer as an additional service. Please see our 'Sawmilling' page.