Pruning

Our knowledge of tree function and structure, combined with extensive training in climbing, rigging, and the use of aerial lifts makes Gallagher Tree Service LLC your best choice for the care of your valuable trees, whether young or old. Improper pruning can substantially damage your tree, may reduce its lifespan, or render it prematurely unsafe. Our certified arborists have taken an oath not to perform arborcultural work that is injurious to a tree.

We prune all sizes and species of trees and shrubs. Whenever possible, we perform maintenance pruning when trees are in winter dormancy. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) groups all pruning types into the following categories:

  • Cleaning: Selective pruning to remove one or more of the following parts: dead, diseased, and/or broken branches.
  • Espalier: A combination of pruning, supporting, and training branches to orient a plant in one plane.
  • Pollarding: The maintenance of a tree by making internodal cuts to reduce the size of a young tree, followed by the annual removal of shoot growth at its point of origin.
  • Raising: Selective pruning to provide vertical clearance.
  • Reduction: Selective pruning to decrease height and/or spread.
  • Restoration: Selective pruning to improve the structure, form, and appearance of trees that have been severely damaged.
  • Thinning: Selective pruning to reduce density of live branches.
  • Topping: The reduction of a tree’s size using heading cuts that shorten limbs or branches back to a predetermined crown limit. Topping is not an acceptable pruning practice. [Gallagher Tree Service LLC will not top your tree. If height or view obstruction is a concern, we use other techniques that will not set your tree up for failure.]
  • Vista pruning: Selective pruning to allow a specific view.

We do not prune just to “put a lot of brush on the ground”. We prune to meet specific goals and objectives. We remove limbs and/or branches for reasons based on tree function and structure and its influence on the landscape.

Our intention is to enhance your trees or shrubs in the landscape, so that you are struck by their health and beauty, not by the fact that they have recently been pruned. The only trace we leave behind is a healthy tree in the landscape of a satisfied client.

All pruning is performed in accordance with ANSI A300 and ANSI Z133.1 standards.