I got a notice on my front door last year from a tree company informing me that they were in the area to trim trees that were near power lines and that my property had one of those trees. The notice stated they would be performing “directional pruning” on the trees. I wondered exactly what that meant, so I checked it out on the internet.

Directional pruning means that whole branches and limbs will be removed from the tree at the trunk, so that as the tree grows the new growth will not be in the direction of the power lines. Also, the thinking is that the after directional pruning only the strong limbs are left, and that the new growth is less sturdy and less likely to fall off of the tree.

After reading about it I realized that the electric company had directionally pruned this same tree about three years ago. They came out one day and spent a couple of hours cutting. It didn’t seem to be an exact science and none of them even wore any safety clothing. Ever since then it’s leaned to one side and looked like it is going to fall over. I met up with the tree company this afternoon around our neighborhood when I got home and I asked him if there’s any way they’ll take the tree down. I explained we’d spoken with four tree companies and none were willing to take it down. He said it wasn’t touching the wires anymore and he didn’t think so but he’d check. Man how we’d love that tree out of there.