Reno 2017: Tree Canopy Maintenance

The oak tree in the front yard had a rough year in 2017. Last fall it seemed that all the dead wood and hazardous branches had been removed. However, the summer seemed particularly dry and a lot of the branches appeared to have died. They were all beyond anything I had learned in my Simcoe County days in the bush. I had done some pruning with my neighbour in the late 1980s and had a legendary neighbourhood tree professional, who went by the name of Tarzen, do some work on it the early 1990s. So we put the job out to tender.

The red oak tree is in our front yard. It was, according to a neighbour who was here at the time, planted in 1964. It was planted far too close to the house. Here are two views of the tree (2011 left and 2014 right)  from street maps pictures:

The company that we picked to do the work was Harmony Tree Service. They set up an appointment for the work on December 21. In order to facilitate work, we reserved street parking for their chipper and van by canvassing our neighbours and putting barriers up the night before. Everyone cooperated and the city parking control officers seemed to understand what we were doing.

The crew from Harmony arrived about noon. Terry, the climber, as up in the tree quickly and began pruning and lowering dead wood near the canopy. The other two crew members on the ground (Tony and Jermaine) collected the fallen branches and fed them into the chipper.

In about two hours, the work was completed and the debris disposed of. It was a pleasure to watch them at work.

The harder and trickier work was on the larger branches closer to the ground. The pruning left a better shaped canopy. Hopefully the tree will survive and prosper in the years ahead.

Terry, Jermaine and Tony pose for a photo at the end of the job.