Dead wooding

Every mature tree carries some dead wood. A little in a tree at the back of a field hurts nobody. A dead limb as thick as your leg hanging over the front walk is a different thing, and it does not get stronger with time.

At a glance

• Hazard pruning is recommended at any time of year
• Planned by an ISA Certified Arborist
• 75-foot boom truck or climbers, depending on the tree
• A useful step before wind and snow season
• Free estimate

Why take dead wood out of a healthy tree?

Because dead branches fall, and nobody can say when. An old, overgrown tree can hold weak and dead branches that are susceptible to storm damage. Falling branches can damage a home and are a danger to people nearby.

Dead wooding is the least drastic kind of tree work. Nothing live is removed, the shape of the tree does not change, and what is left is the tree you had with the risky parts gone.

• Dead limbs over a roof, a deck, a driveway or parked cars
• Dead branches above a sidewalk, a play area or a patio
• Broken limbs still hanging in the crown after a storm
• Dead tops in pines and cottonwoods
• Dead lower branches that can carry fire up into the crown

When should dead wooding be done?

Any time. Our rule for pruning is simple: if a tree has dead branches or is a safety hazard, pruning is recommended at any time to remove the hazard. Live-wood pruning is the work that waits for the dormant season.

Many people book it ahead of the seasons that test trees. In our area that is the wind of spring and fall and the first wet snow of the year. After a storm, look up before you walk under your trees. Hanging limbs are covered in widow-makers and hanging limbs after a wind storm.

Why do trees here carry so much dead wood?

Water, mostly. The valley floors get less than 10 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals show 9.34 inches at Carson City, 8.38 at Sparks and 4.77 at the Fallon Experiment Station. A yard tree lives on irrigation, and when water is cut back in a dry year the tree lets branches go.

Age adds to it. In the older parts of Carson City, Reno and the Comstock, the trees went in with the houses decades ago. Old cottonwoods, elms and poplars shed dead wood as a matter of course. Pines hold dead lower limbs for years. See drought stress and dieback for the signs.

What does the arborist look for while up there?

Dead wooding puts a trained person in the crown, which is the best view of a tree anyone gets. While the dead branches come out, the crew can see things that do not show from the ground: cracks in a fork, old storm wounds, decay pockets, bark beetle signs in a pine.

If the amount of dead wood points to a bigger problem, the arborist will say so. A tree that is more dead than alive is a removal question, and our guide to telling if a tree is dead or dying explains the difference.

Is dead wooding allowed at Lake Tahoe without a permit?

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency requires a permit to remove branches from the upper two-thirds of a tree, but dead branches are one of the listed exceptions. That makes dead wooding one of the simpler jobs to plan in the Tahoe Basin. The agency decides in any unclear case.