That oak in my neighbor's yard went from healthy to a hazard in under two years.

Aaron Owens · 2026-04-10T14:05:08.053446+00:00

They had a crew top it, and the flush cuts invited so much rot and weak sprouts. Now it's dropping big limbs every storm. Has anyone else seen a tree decline this fast after a bad topping job?

ivanb412mo ago

Did I mess up my own yard the same way? Yeah, regret that.

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wendygarcia5mo ago

Honestly, sometimes a topping is the only safe choice for a tree near power lines or a house.

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alice9915mo ago

Yeah, that sounds exactly like what happened to a maple on my street. The city topped it for power line clearance, and it was a mess of spindly growth within a year. We got a certified arborist out who did some careful thinning and weight reduction cuts on the new sprouts. It's not perfect, but it stabilized the tree for now. The key was finding someone who understood how to manage that kind of regrowth.

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