You planted that maple when your son was born. He climbed it when he was twelve and now you sit on a blanket beneath it with your grandchild. The willow was the first tree you and your spouse planted when you built your home. The stately oak was the reason you bought your property. We have so much emotion invested in our trees.
It’s hard to cut down a tree whether it’s been there seventy-five years or just seven. For some reason we feel guilty when we remove a tree.
There are many valid reasons for cutting down a tree and you need not feel remorse.
When a tree is half dead or diseased there is no point in having the eyesore in your landscape. There is also the danger of dead branches falling on your house, vehicle or friend. Cut it down.
If your tree is growing into power lines and the utility company has to come by every few years to trim it, the tree is probably growing in some grotesque unnatural shape by now. Hire someone to cut it down and replace it with a smaller tree or shrub.
Was that Alberta spruce a cute little thing in your flower bed thirty years ago when the house was built? Today it blocks the view from your dining room and is out of proportion with the rest of your landscape. Cut it down and replace it with a young Alberta spruce or choose a small shrub for the spot.
Did the person who landscaped your yard not realize that you shouldn’t plant a row of seven evergreens just ten feet apart? It seemed okay ten years ago, but now the branches are so intermeshed that you can’t tell where one tree ends and the next begins. Besides that, the inside branches are starting to die from lack of light. Cut down every other tree in the row.
Your maple tree is only ten feet from your foundation and you see big roots heaving out of the ground. Soon they’ll be pushing against your basement walls and then you’ll have real trouble. Chop that tree and plant a new maple further from the house.
You just found out that the tree you planted, perhaps a Norway maple, Russian olive, Siberian elm, white poplar or black locust, is on the list of Wisconsin invasive species. Rather than encouraging an invasive plant, cut it down and replace it with a native tree. Do you detest cleaning up all the twigs and seeds and flowers your tree produces? Cut it down and plant a cleaner tree.
Maybe you just hate that tree in your backyard for no good reason. Rather than suffering negative feelings every time you look out the window, cut the tree down and plant something you like.
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