Pruning (Mainly Deadwood and Broken) Bunch of Red Maples: Bucket or Climb?

guymayor said:
That seems like a forestry approach, rotating the stock. I like to take a longevity approach.
"Eventual removal" is not a certainty. Definitely not in the owner's lifetime. Trees can gradually get smaller, and last indefinitely. So the math relies on some assumptions that may not apply.
Click to expand...

I hear you. To me, rotation and longevity are a legitimate Levi-Strauss-type contrast set, and a tree person can occupy any spot on the continuum between as they look at each tree or forest ecosystem.

Practically, I think you're saying that those maples can be reduced and re-trained past traditional limits, and I would genuinely like to see that.
 
Thanks for the discussion guys.

I know these trees are far from perfect. Ultimately though, we don't have a lifetime to wait for newly planted trees to grow to this size. They provide immense shade to the law below and our home. The space beneath them is also far more useable and the trees more impressive at the size they are.

Even if we plant red maples again (soil conditions are generally wet and red maples grow fast) they likely won't get to anything remotely similar in function for 15 years.

That's just not the goal at all. We have other areas of our property with forest and might take that approach in other clearings. Grow new trees and prune them appropriately.

But these provide value, as imperfect as they might be, as they stand and want them to stand as long as possible. Removal is the absolute last goal in our lifetime.

I suspect the trees are in the 50 to 70 years old range. I hope they are standing and as healthy (enough so to not be a risk anyhow) at 100+ to be honest. We would like them to last our lifetime. We hope.

The eventual goal of being retrained and more structurally sound is a nice one. I suspect it is difficult and colb alluded to that it might not be possible.

However, at worst, I imagine cabling (static?) could help where pruning and retraining these mature trees falls short?

Again thank you for the help.

Guymanor, I would love to take you up on that offer for early June! You seem very knowledgeable and you understand our goals.

Send me a message and I can give you my details so we can set something up and speak specifics?
 
I've been told they can be 100. That's general life expectancy.

I consider the next 20 years of being new owners and having children are when we really want these trees to be large and mature. So while I understand planning ahead, we prefer current enjoyment and benefit of the mature trees. The home is ~65 years old so if they are indeed 70 then I'd be plenty satisfied if the trees go another 20-30 years if we can manage it through pruning and cabling.

The other thing, we certainly can't afford to remove such large trees next to our home and replant right now.

So for now just trying to think of immediate safety concerns of broken dead and diseased branches as well as what can be done to keep them as healthy as possible to keep them strong for their golden years.

If one day we do need to cut some down, we will then have to consider an approach that hopefully involves only removing some of them at a time. But that's years to come hopefully as they don't seem to cause any immediate safety concern that can't be solved with pruning and perhaps cabling.

Thanks again and if still interested in coming by, let me know. I'll message you.
 
So by coincidence in a couple weeks I will be visiting family near this site. i'll report back here with the outcome.

One of several jobs I've gotten via the buzz. Fate moves in mysterious ways!
 
So I spent 2 hours in JayTree's yard and came up with a plan to manage 12 maples.

First, there was no reason to consider removal or replacement or planting. Highly mitigable conditions.

Here's the kind of video that I deliver as part of an assessment.
summed up a 1.6 hour walkaround into 6 minutes.
 
So I spent 2 hours in JayTree's yard and came up with a plan to manage 12 maples.

First, there was no reason to consider removal or replacement or planting. Highly mitigable conditions.

Here's the kind of video that I deliver as part of an assessment.
summed up a 1.6 hour walkaround into 6 minutes.
 
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