Tree Removal vs. Trimming: How to Decide

Pruning usually solves it when

• Limbs are on the roof, gutters, or siding but the trunk is sound.
• The canopy is too dense and you are worried about wind. Thinning fixes that directly.
• There are dead limbs but the main canopy is healthy and full.
• The tree blocks a view, a driveway, or a solar panel.
• Storm broke limbs but left the trunk and root plate intact.

Removal is usually the honest answer when

• The trunk has significant decay, a large cavity, or mushrooms at the base.
• More than half the canopy is dead.
• The root plate has moved - heaved or cracked soil beside a leaning trunk.
• The species is structurally unsound and close to the house. Bradford pears in particular reach a point where splitting is a matter of when.
• Roots are actively damaging a foundation, a sewer line, or a driveway and cannot be pruned without destabilizing the tree.
• It is the wrong tree in the wrong place and will never stop being a problem.

The money argument

• Pruning a large oak costs a fraction of removing it. Removal also carries the separate stump cost, the lost shade, and the property value a mature tree contributes.
• An independent arborist assessment is the cheapest way to settle the question, and it is independent of whoever wants to sell you the removal.
• Be careful with a free assessment from a company that only earns money by removing the tree. The incentive points one way.

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