Hot take: I stopped topping trees after seeing what happened to a maple in Boulder

Henry Perry · 2026-10-03T12:20:03.404985+00:00

For a long time I thought topping was just a lazy shortcut, not something that actually kills the tree. Then a client in Boulder showed me a silver maple her old landscaper had topped 8 years ago. The thing had grown back as a mess of weak shoots, and two big limbs had torn out and crushed her fence during a storm in May. I went back and looked at the cuts, all flush and way too big, and it hit me how wrong I had been about the damage. I had topped a few trees myself early on, mostly because the homeowner kept pushing for a quick height cut. Now I turn those jobs down and explain the rot and the weak growth that shows up 5 to 10 years later. Has anyone else had a client push back hard when you refused to top their tree?

💡Thought Shares

Loading…

Hot take: I stopped topping trees after seeing what happened to a maple in Boulder | Arborists - Thought Shares