bigshea13

topping is definatly not pleasing to the eye nor is it benificial to the longevity of the tree. in 90 percent of the cases its due to improper training or lack of proper technique. no doubt one of you is going to read this and rip me a new one but as most of you already know i really dont give a shit what anyone else thinks im going to post it anyhow.
Ive been in the game for the last 15 years... for the last 5 years ive been doing tree care on my own. ive traveled half way across the country and back pruning, planting and removing trees in a wide variety of situations and enviroments. ive grown to take extreme pride in my work. one of my abilities that gratifies me the most is my ability to shape to the customers liking. it took me alot of years and tons of practice to be able to look at a tree and round, flatten, stretch,ect it to fit the desired look that an owner is wanting.
ive returned to the line clearance end of it all again. what a change. no more do i have the option to properly groom and shape and place all the proper cuts that i would normally install doing private work. i now find myself settling for "less than perfect" standards of tree care. im now required to "produce". in order to get the needed amount done i have to cut corners on either the safety of my crew or the quality of my work. its a no brainer for me......seeings how my brother and my best friend work on my crew the trees come second.
i try very hard to do the best i can in the time alloted but im here to tell ya it doesnt always turn out as planned. my new boss approached me last week and told me that if he were going to have anyone trim the trees in his yard it would be me ,but...............he needed more from me production wise. he said that its a matter of vegitative control. if the trees get into the lines its a potential for outages and possibly physical harm to people or their property. the trees are in the utilities right of way. they could just remove them and have nothing left or they can adapt and use alternitive methods of trimming ie...topping in some cases.
i went from 15 trees a day to thirty. last tuesday i topped 66 spruce. the utility is NOT going to pay to have the trees cared for like everyone wants..its just not gonna happen. guys liek me have two choices
1 quit
2 try our damnest to do the best we can to make the trees we have to cut out of the power line look as pleasing as possible

and as i said before...sometimes when your in a hurry they just dont turn out. maybe the lines are burried deeper than origionally thought and by the time youve obtained the proper clearence there is really nothing left to work with.
topping is not good but sometimes its the only solution other than complete removal. if theres no power to turn on your outside lights you wont see your tres in the dark and if theres no power to run your furnaces youll probably have to cut your trees down to keep warm and if you dont have power you wont be surfin tree world.
the next time you see a topped tree under a power line think about the options if there may have been any that the guy who did it had other than to remove it. if you say,"then remove it" think of how it would look if all the trees under all the lines were removed. the world would look like a giant parking lot.