Necessary To Prune Black Walnut?

[dkirkwood]

Hi All--I recently purchased a house that has a magnificent Black Walnut on the property. Pic is below--the tree between barn and house.

An arborist inspected the tree, and said it is in very healthy condition. He advised that a reduction pruning should be done, to remove 10-15% of the canopy. Is it necessary to perform such a pruning to keep the tree healthy? There is one branch directly over the barn (see pic) that I would like removed--but other than that, we like the shade of the canopy, and we are wondering if pruning it is required to maintain the health and safety of the tree--any opinions are appreciated.

 

[Brufab]

Those walnut trees are a love hate tree. The mess they make is a pain. I have a few 8-12" ones and the walnuts are the size of tennis balls and have to pick them up before cutting grass each time to avoid broken/sprained ankles.

 

[Raintree]

Absolutely not, removing 10-15% of the energy producing canopy and wounding the tree in the process is not "keeping the tree healthy"!
Pruning for safety and clearance is appropriate within standards.

 

[ATH]

Absolutely not, removing 10-15% of the energy producing canopy and wounding the tree in the process is not "keeping the tree healthy"!
Pruning for safety and clearance is appropriate within standards.

This. Mature tree pruning should be "less is more".

Find a better arborist. Sure sounds like this one is making stuff up. UNLESS they said they would prune it away from the house and remove poorly attached limbs removing no more than 10-15% of the tree. That is drastically different than saying they'll remove 15% of the tree for the sake of removing something.