Barbaric Pruning

If you want a tree to die a slow and painful death, you leave stubs when you remove unwanted or broken branches.

Such it has been for the past 8 or 10 years with this poor bedraggled live oak. It could have been one of the most majestic shade trees in its county, but it’s going to struggle to survive another 5 years. All because some person with a chain saw did a miserable job of pruning it.

Whenever you remove a branch, you want to make the cut essentially flush with the trunk. Not flat up against it – you want to leave a layer of the branch collar so the tree will be able to produce its healing layer of new bark across the open wound more quickly. When things work like they’re supposed to, you’ll see those rolls of bark forming symmetrically across the cut surfaces.

When you leave a stub, the roll of new bark runs into the stub and stops. At the same time, the stub starts to decay. That rotting often proceeds fairly quickly, and it extends both downward into the main trunk and sometimes up from the spot of the cut as well.

Let’s look at the photo where I’ve circled five areas.

Orange circle: Look at that nasty stub sticking 8 or 9 inches out of the crotch. You can see how it has led to decay straight down into the main trunk. It has become very evident as the bark of the trunk is now splitting.

Red circle: There is another stub leaning into the righthand branch. That stub is decaying and the bark of the right branch isn’t looking too sound, either.

Green circle: All that decay converges in that one area. That’s probably where this tree will fail. It could be in a windstorm, or it could be with ice. This tree will probably split, and decayed internal wood will be visible toward the bottom of that green circle.

Blue circle: The bark in this area is separating. Note that it’s straight down from the green circle. That’s all part of the same decaying tissues. This tree is a goner. And you can’t see it very well from this angle, but they’ve also knocked the bark off the bottom 15 inches of the trunk on the right side. A pack of trained beavers couldn’t have done more damage.

Pink circle: There’s yet another stub up there, and it’s causing decay all the way down the right side of that branch to the crotch.

Could a certified arborist do anything to save this tree now? I am not one, so I shouldn’t be passing judgement, but I’d be amazed if they could offer any help at all. There’s not enough left to salvage. Really sad.