Tree topping involves indiscriminately cutting back a tree’s canopy with little to no regard for natural structure or proper pruning techniques.

Tree topping – when the entire top of a tree is cut off – seems to have become a preferred method of tree pruning. Beauty is certainly in the eyes of the beholder, but is it good or bad for the tree?

An unsatisfactory approach to tree maintenance or pruning is “topping” it. Topping is the indiscriminant removal of branches of a tree above an arbitrary height, leaving unnatural, grotesque stubs and ...