Tree Lopping Gold Coast

The reality is that lopping creates many more problems than it solves:
Lopping often removes between 50-100% of the trees’ canopy. As a trees’ foliage is essential for food production, this kind of shock triggers new growth that is added to combat the massive amounts of stress that the tree suffers. This new growth is sometimes called epicormic or reaction growth.
The tree needs to produce a new crop of leaves as soon as possible in order to continue to produce enough food to survive. If a tree does not have the stored energy reserves to do this, it may die.
Trees that are stressed are vulnerable to insect and disease infestations, while large, open pruning wounds expose the sapwood and heartwood to decay fungi.

The preferred location to make a pruning cut is just beyond the branch collar at the branch’s point of attachment. The tree is biologically equipped to occlude this kind of wound over time, provided the tree has sufficient vitality, and the wound is not too large.
A cut made midway along a branch or halfway up the tree stem creates “stubs” with wounds that the tree may not be able to close. Exposed heartwood may begin to decay. Few trees can successfully defend the multiple severe wounds caused by lopping.

The survival mechanism that causes a tree to produce epicormic shoots presents further problems. The shoots develop from buds near the surface of the old branches.
Unlike normal branches that develop in a socket of overlapping wood tissues, the new shoots are anchored only in the outermost layers of the parent branches. The new shoots grow very quickly, often as much as 3-4 metres in one year in some species. Unfortunately, the shoots are prone to failure especially during windy conditions.
Ironically, while the goal was to reduce the tree’s height in order to make it safer, lopping has severely increased the risk of failure.

Branches within a tree’s crown produce thousands of leaves to absorb sunlight, when the leaves are removed, the remaining branches and trunk are suddenly exposed to high levels of light and heat, the result of which may be sunburn of the tissues beneath the bark. This can lead to the formation of cankers; bark splitting; branch failure and death of some branches.

The natural branching structure of a tree is a biological wonder. Lopping removes the ends of branches leaving ugly stubs. Lopping destroys the natural form of a tree.

The cost of lopping a tree is not limited to the initial cost:
If the tree survives, it will require pruning again within a few years i.e. epicormic growth will need to be removed in order to reduce the risk of failure. Another cost, not often perceived, is the reduction in property value. Healthy, well maintained trees can add 10-20% to the value of a property. Disfigured, lopped trees are considered an impending or ongoing expense.

Another unseen cost of lopped trees is the potential liability:
Lopped trees are prone to failure and can be hazardous: since lopping is considered to be an unacceptable pruning practice (see Australian Standard AS 4373-2007: Pruning of Amenity Trees), any damage caused by branch failure of a lopped tree may lead to a finding of negligence in a court of law.

Pruning or canopy reduction of a tree is sometimes unavoidable.There are recommended techniques for performing this work (see Australian Standard AS 4373-2007: Pruning of Amenity Trees). If a branch must be shortened, it should be cut back to a lateral that is large enough to assume the terminal role. A guideline for this is generally to cut back to a lateral branch that is at least 1/3 the diameter of the limb being removed. This method of branch reduction should ideally retain the natural form of the tree.