Tree trimming and pruning in Fernley, NV

Fernley is a young city on Interstate 80 with about 24,000 residents and a median age of about 36. Its trees are young too. Most were planted by a builder or a first owner within the last 25 years, on lots that were bare desert before.

At a glance

• Median home built in 2001
• Only about 14% of homes date from before 1980
• 7.61 inches of precipitation a year at the Fernley gauge
• About 45 miles from our Carson City yard

What goes wrong with trees in a new neighborhood?

Four things, and pruning fixes three of them. The tree was planted too close to the house or the walk. It kept its nursery shape, with a bunch of upright stems and no clear trunk. It was sheared or topped by someone with a hedge trimmer. Or it was planted too deep or watered badly, which pruning cannot fix.

The first three are structural pruning problems. The arborist chooses a leader, takes out or shortens stems that compete with it, lifts the crown over the sidewalk and driveway, and cuts back toward the house side. Where a tree has been topped, the regrowth is thinned and trained over a couple of visits. For a tree that is simply in the wrong place, we will say so and estimate removal and stump grinding instead.

How often should a young Fernley tree be pruned?

A little and regularly beats a lot at once. The International Society of Arboriculture's advice is that every cut should have a reason, and that pruning a young tree builds the framework it will carry for life. In practice, a look every few years through the first two decades is typical. The arborist puts a suggested interval for each tree in the estimate.

Fernley is in USDA hardiness zone 7a. Late winter is the window for most deciduous trees and early spring and summer for most conifers. Dead and broken branches are removed whenever they are found.

What does the climate ask of a pruned tree?

A gauge listed as Fernley 2.6 WNW, less than a mile from the city's center point, averages 7.61 inches of precipitation a year. The Wadsworth 4 N station about 6 miles away records a mean annual temperature of 52.5 degrees (NOAA 1991-2020 normals).

Hot, dry and bright. Bark that has been shaded all its life can scald when a heavy prune suddenly exposes it to afternoon sun, so we thin evenly and leave interior foliage to shade the limbs. It is one reason we do not strip trees up like poles. Good watering does the rest: see watering mature trees in the high desert.

Homeowners, landlords and associations

About 72% of Fernley homes are owner-occupied, which leaves a good share of rentals. We prune for homeowners, for landlords who want trees kept off roofs and fences between tenants, and for associations and businesses with rows of parking-lot and entry trees. One estimate can cover a whole street frontage. See questions from property managers and HOAs.

Is wildfire part of the picture?

Less than in most places we work. The Forest Service ranks Fernley's risk to homes higher than about 89% of US communities but below the middle of the Nevada list, and about 12% of buildings are in the direct exposure zone. Homes on the desert edge still benefit from raised crowns and clean evergreens.