Pruning Expedition

    Last week Ruth and I took advantage of the warm weather we have been having and went out to do a little extra pruning. I packed up my tools in the morning, getting the box of secateurs, small folding saws, and large hand saws, another box with safety vests, and then the long pruning pole saw and lopper combo. It’s always a bit of a comedy act watching me fit the 7 foot long pole into the cab of my 99 Toyota Camry but we make it work.

    After meeting Ruth in the office we head up into the Burncoat neighborhood to get started. We pull up onto a new street and find that the Honeylocust trees there have really taken off in the past five years since they were planted. We’ve noticed elsewhere that the Honeylocust trees are usually already very tall at the time of planting but their crown is skinny. Now they’ve gown in both height and width. Our mandate to keep our feet firmly planted on the ground will mean that we can’t reach into the highest parts of the tree, even with our pole saw extended but there’s plenty going on at ground level to keep us busy.

    At each tree we take about ten minutes. We start by evaluating what’s going on with the branch structure. Are the branches too low, reaching into the sidewalk or the road, interfering with traffic? Are there any branches crossing and rubbing against one another? How do the branch connections look? Are the connections strong, forming a kind of U shape? Or do they have included bark, forming a tight V shape? What about the density of the canopy? Is it too busy? Are their branches growing inward toward the main stem? There’s so much to consider! And in order to ensure the health and safety of each tree we need to take a close look at each one to determine the best course of action. Right now we find that most of the trees need to have their “crowns raised”, meaning their lowest branches are growing into the sidewalk or road, interfering with traffic. We want the crown of the tree to start a little higher by removing part or all of the offending branches.

    Most of the work requires the larger hand saw or the pole pruner. I prefer to take out problems at their source, treating the cause, not the symptom. For these trees that means almost every branch I’m removing is at least an inch in diameter. The pole saw requires a lot of stamina to wield, you have to use your arms and shoulders to get the tool in place, hold it at the angle you want, and then make the cut. If the saw blade gets stuck you have to wrestle with it to free the pinched blade. Then if the branch gets stuck on its way down you have to find a way to get a hold of it and pull it through the other branches to the ground. With all of these processes taking time progress is slower than usual, but the bigger trees are fun. There’s more to do and you have to trace your way through the complex web of branches to find the best cuts.

    Ruth and I have a good system going, I’m doing the pruning on the tree and she takes the removed branches and cuts them into smaller parts so we can fit them in her car. Without a truck we’re forced to use her new Honda Fit, affectionately called The Grape on account of its sort of round shape and purple color. Ruth doesn’t hesitate to lay a tarp down in the hatchback with the seats folded down so we can load it up with freshly hewn branches.

    After about an hour we’ve finished 5 trees The Grape is nearly full but the 6th tree on the street is clearly the one with the greatest need. There’s a limb at least two and a half inches thick at the base that has grown straight up into the crown of the tree, crossing several branches along the way and causing major rubbing injuries to structurally important branches. This is exactly the sort of thing we set out to prevent and the sight of it has me fired up. That branch has to go. Now.

    So we set to work. It has to come down piece by piece because it’s at lease 20 feet long. Working my way down from the top I remove the top piece and bring it down to the ground. It’s the same size as some of these trees were when they were planted in 2009. Working my way down to the next piece, with is nearly as long and almost twice as thick I know I need to be careful because I don’t want this branch coming down onto me. I used the pole saw to give me some distance from the branch and put myself in position away from the direction it would fall and set to work. 

   I had to take it down in pieces to ensure that it wouldn't get tangled up on the way down. Using the pole saw I start about 10 feet in the air and after a minute the first piece comes down safely and I bring it over for Ruth to set to work on. Seeing the size of the debris and the space left in her car she jokes that she must have done something to tick me off. It’s this  kind of rapport that I’ve come to love over the past two and a half years. Ruth and I work side by side to make sure that Worcester Tree Initiative is running smoothly, that we’re adding value to the community, that we’re sharing the love of urban forestry with others and growing a team of people who will work and stick up for the trees. And we have a lot of fun doing it, sharing laughs and lending an ear to each others stories.

    After removing a second piece most of the branch is on the ground and all that's left is a foot long stub. I set the pole saw on the ground and pull out my hand saw. I bought this saw for myself a year ago, it’s the Silky Zubat, widely regarded as one of the best saws on the market. It cuts in both directions, unlike our pole saw which only cuts on the pull stroke, and even after a year the blade is still as sharp as when I bought it. This saw will make quick work of the remaining stub. I set my angle and within thirty seconds I’m through, leaving a clean cut and the last piece of the branch triumphantly clutched in my hand. The branch had done a considerable amount of damage to the other branches it had crossed but there’s nothing we can do for them now. We’ll keep an eye on their recovery from now on with the knowledge that by stepping in we at least prevented things from getting worse.

    When we finally have The Grape filled to the roof and have put all of the tools back in my car we head off to Dodge Park to offload all of the branches. We have several places within the park to drop them, creating piles that will serve as habitat for our woodland friends and slowly decompose, feeding the land. It takes several trips carrying the branches down, we take them one armful at a time but eventually Ruth’s Grape is empty and relatively clean. It took a about two hours in total and we got 6 trees done, not bad, it's a step in the right direction. With about 250 trees done so far we're a quarter of the way to our goal.  

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    To learn more about WTI's Stewards in the Streets program click here. 

    Derek Lirange is Worcester Tree Initiative’s Community Forester. He has a degree in Urban and Community Forestry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and has trained with veteran arborists to learn how to care for trees and manage the urban forest. He uses his knowledge of trees in combination with his passion for people to instill a passion and excitement for the urban forest in adults and students.