Tree trimming and pruning in Northwest Reno and Somersett (ZIP 89523)

At about 5,432 feet, this is the highest part of Reno we serve outside the Mt. Rose Highway. Nearly half the homes in the ZIP were built in 2000 or later. Young trees, exposed slopes and real snow are a combination that rewards early pruning.

At a glance

• Reno 1.4 NNE station: 33.3 inches of snowfall a year
• About 47% of homes in ZIP 89523 built in 2000 or later
• Structural pruning and end-weight reduction before winter
• Association approval first in Somersett and similar communities

Why do young trees split in snow?

Because of how they were grown. A nursery tree is often headed at a set height so it branches into a full, round crown that sells well. That leaves several stems of equal size leaving the trunk at one point. As they thicken, bark gets pinched between them and the joint never knits.

Load that joint with wet snow while the leaves are still on, and it opens like a zipper. The tree is then half gone, with a wound down the trunk. Our page on storm and snow-load breakage shows which splits can be repaired.

How does pruning prevent it?

By choosing a leader and slowing its rivals. The arborist picks the stem that should become the trunk, then shortens the competing stems so they grow more slowly and stay smaller than the leader. Over two or three pruning visits, spaced a few years apart, the tree changes from a bouquet into a trunk with branches.

On older trees the same idea applies at the tips. Shortening the longest limbs reduces the leverage that snow and wind have on them. Crown thinning, raising and reduction explains each cut.

How much weather are we talking about?

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals give two useful readings. The Reno 3.9 W gauge, inside this ZIP, averages 10.94 inches of precipitation a year. The Reno 1.4 NNE station, about 5 miles away and about 500 feet lower than the center of this ZIP, averages 33.3 inches of snowfall. Compare that with 20.9 inches at Reno-Tahoe International Airport on the valley floor.

The ZIP is in USDA hardiness zone 7a. Winter is long enough that the late-winter pruning window for deciduous trees is generous.

What about the open slopes behind the houses?

They burn. The Verdi Fire of 2006, mapped at 5,662 acres, and the Belli Ranch Fire of 1996, mapped at 6,724 acres, are among 32 fires of 300 acres or more mapped within about 10 miles of this ZIP since 1980. For trees along a back fence that faces open ground, pruning includes lifting the lowest branches and removing dead wood. See defensible space in Northwest Reno.

Do I need approval in Somersett?

Check before you book. Somersett and several neighboring developments are governed by associations that set landscape standards, and some street and common-area trees are theirs to maintain. Parts of the ZIP are outside Reno city limits, where City tree rules do not apply.