Reduced Height
Reduced
height refers to topping, pollarding,
or similar damage caused by wind storms, snow, or vandalism.
Topping (Figure 1), or any maintenance practices that result
in removing a large portion of the crown, may weaken tissues
from the trunk to the roots.
The loss of parts of the live crown can be expected to be
followed by dying-back of the root system (and vice versa).
Topping also stimulates excessive sprouting. Sprouts are
poorly attached to the main branch. As sprouts increase
in size, they may become hazardous. Topping is often done
to reduce conflicts between the tree's crown and utilities.
In many cases though, topping may exacerbate conflicts between
a tree and utilities (Shigo, 1989).
Dramatic reduction of the crown volume
results also in large stubs that are points for disease
and pest entrance and the development of epicormic shoots.
