You can hardly drive down a county road without seeing a tree that has been topped. Topping is a practice of cutting through large branches leaving stubs that are unsightly, weak and eventually dangerous. I consider topping to be an assault with a chainsaw, a crime against nature, so to speak!
If topping is so bad, why do so many people think they need to top trees? I have asked many people that question, and almost universally, they say the tree is “too tall.” They think the tree should be shortened to make it safer. In my experience, topping will actually make the tree weaker and more dangerous. What they really need is to thin the tree, not top it.
When you top a tree, three bad things happen
- Just below that stub, a whole bunch of new sprouts typically emerge. These tender branches are attached to the tree at weak angles, and are prone to break off, especially in the winter.
- Those young sprouts will produce a lot more leaves than a typical branch, making the leaf canopy extra dense. That can catch more wind and cause the tree to be more vulnerable to the wind, plus the shade under the tree will be denser, and that shade will stunt the growth of the grass or flowers growing under the tree.
- The stub often begins to rot. The rot will eventually extend deep into the heart of the tree, shorting the tree’s life by decades. After a year or two, wood boring insects settle into the rotting stub. Those borers attract woodpeckers, which feed on the larva. Next, the woodpecker holes become home to starlings, sparrows and other not to pleasant birds.
What should a person do? Just realize that topping is not pruning. Owning a chainsaw, a ladder, a climbing rope and a pickup truck does not make a person a professional or an arborist.
A professional tree pruner will make a series of thinning cuts when doing size control on a tree, not just lop off branches at a certain height off the ground. The first branches they will target are those that are dead or mishappen or present a hazard. Then branches that are in competition with one another or rubbing are selectively removed. Branches will be removed at junctions, without leaving a stub. Thinning a tree will give the tree a natural appearance, not ugly stubs pointing to the sky.
Want more information? Visit https://extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/HO/HO-4-W.pdf for Purdue’s publication on proper pruning. You can also search for professional arborists who service our area at http://treesaregood.org/
Photo above: Left: A topped tree in 2022, shortly after being topped. Note the large stubs protruding into the sky, the large branches that have been lopped off.
Right: The same tree 3 winters later, in 2025. Note the many sprouts emerged from stubs. These are all attached to the tree at weak angles, making them susceptible to wind injury. You will notice at least one branch broken off near the top, left side of the tree. As time goes by, there will be many of these small branches shed from the tree. It is also likely that some of these stubs will begin to rot, 6 to 12 inches from the cut, and some of that rot will extend deep into the heart of the tree, cutting years off the tree’s life.
By Jeff Burbrink, Extension Educator, Purdue Extension LaGrange County
