Tree Surgery

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 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 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.

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 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.

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 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 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.