Tree care

Our Citizen Pruners class got some hands-on experience today, taking down damaged and dead branches from a Japanese zelkova on Lex, a swamp white oak and a golden raintree on East 26th Street. 

It was valuable to put into practice things we'd only seen in a powerpoint slide deck - why you make three cuts when taking down a larger branch, how different the wood of different trees is, how to 

ensure the cut branch falls in a safe place, good and bad kinds of tree beds, consequences of more and less effective past prunings, the endless movements of cars and trucks - but it was also fun. As promised, passers-by stopped to enquire and admire, and some volunteered information about the travails of their own street trees.

One of my fellow students lives near me and has the gear. Once we pass our test, we're going out on our own!