To me, this is where the slippery slope of node trimming goes bad.
It's easy for me to agree that node trimming to maintain the skeleton and dynamic mass of a storm damaged tree is the right thing to do, but these trees have been topped.
They may have hit some nodes on some of the branches, but that does not appear to have been the trimmers goal in cut placement. Granted, we don't have the before pic to make any assessment.
To me, thats a good ole round over, with all the cuts height targeted. Sure, it could have been worse. They could have taken off 100% of the foliage instead of 75%, they could have left no laterals where they left improper ones.
Saying it's not the worst option is sort of a left handed compliment, where I feel like we should be saying that what they did was not in the top 3 options.
Trimming previously hacked trees is one of the most difficult things arborists deal with, because most of our options have already been taken away and the damage has been done. But thats part of what makes things interesting, isn't it.
Well... I might not have to do any restorative pruning because, ironically, I might remove them in a few weeks so I can dig my footing for a block wall, which the roots are blocking. (I cant see any other way to lay my footing... unless she decides on a dog ear fence instead)
It's unfortunate that the HO just spent a couple grand trimming those and a few other trees and may have to have them removed anyway. I imagine it's going to be tough grinding those hard euc stumps 2 feet down for my footing.
The trees, by the way, looked great prior to being topped (about 1/3 of the height was reduced). They just needed a little deadwooding and light pruning. Incidentally, the guy not only topped them but spiked them as well.
Here is another pic of some previously topped eucs that I tried to restore. The image quality is not great. I may have lion tailed them a little as well. I guess they look relatively normal though for trees that had once been topped. You guys probably have more experience with this than me. What do you think?
Funny thing is, MOST of my pruning is topping restoration. It's unbelievable how many licensed tree services top trees out here in socal (let alone the lawn guys). It's a wonder when I see crews with beautiful trucks and chippers butchering trees to reduce height, even at commercial properties and wealthy neighborhoods. Because it's so common, everyone thinks it's normal practice.
Even tomorrow, I am removing several trees at some apartments that had been butchered maybe 10 years ago (probably to 1/2 their size) and are now so rotten that I am terrified to climb them so my client is renting a lift for me