Tree trimming and pruning in Verdi, NV

Verdi lies in the Truckee River canyon along Interstate 80, the last Nevada community before California, at about 4,897 feet. Water and elevation make it greener than the valley to the east. Trees that grow well also grow into each other, onto roofs and toward the wildland behind the lot.

At a glance

• About 19.7 inches of precipitation a year at the Reno 9.0 W gauge
• Wildfire risk to homes higher than 98.8% of US communities
• About 1 in 8 homes built before 1960
• Nevada side only: we do not work across the state line

More water, more wood to manage

The volunteer precipitation gauge listed as Reno 9.0 W stands about a fifth of a mile from the center of Verdi and averages 19.69 inches a year in NOAA's 1991-2020 normals. Reno-Tahoe International Airport, 10 miles east, averages 7.35. A crown that gets that much more water puts on more wood each year.

Dense crowns are not a problem in themselves. They become one when interior branches die in the shade, when limbs from two trees rub, or when the weight sits far out on long branches. Crown cleaning and selective thinning take care of the first two. Reduction cuts, which shorten a limb back to a side branch, take care of the third.

Which Verdi trees need the most attention?

Verdi has homes from every period. The Census Bureau's 2020-2024 estimates put about 13% before 1960, about a quarter before 1980 and about a quarter since 2000 (a community of about 1,000 people, so the margins are wide). The oldest lots carry the largest trees, where dead wood high in the crown is the usual concern. See dead wooding.

On the newer lots the job is the opposite: small corrective cuts on young trees so they grow up with one strong leader.

Pruning with fire in mind

The USDA Forest Service rates the wildfire risk to homes in Verdi higher than 98.8% of US communities, and puts about a third of its buildings in the direct exposure zone. Perimeters mapped within about 10 miles include the Crystal Fire (1994, 7,392 acres), the Belli Ranch Fire (1996, 6,724 acres) and the Verdi Fire (2006, 5,662 acres).

Pruning is part of the answer. Limbs are raised off the ground so a grass fire has no ladder into the crown, branches are cleared back from the roof and chimney, and dead wood comes out. The Verdi defensible space page covers the rest of the lot.

Timing in a cooler canyon

Verdi runs cooler than Reno. The Verdi 2W cooperative station, 2 miles west and about 500 feet higher, records a mean annual temperature of 49.2 degrees, against 55.0 at the Reno airport. The pruning calendar still follows the tree: late winter for most deciduous trees, early spring and summer for most conifers, and any month for a dead or hazardous limb.