Mature tree pruning advice sought

Harry Palmr

First tree ID - looks like a birch but dunno which type.

Second my neighbour would like me to bring it lower as its starting to dominate a bit and he gets all the filled guttering with the leaves. I'm happy enough to help as it's been starting to annoy me for it's sheer height and reach (did a fair bit of lopping to raise the canopy two winters ago). As you can see it splits into four stems which are essentially two at the front and two at the back. If I remove the two at the back that'll go along way to reducing it's looming presence and the leaf fall.

I will get in touch with a tree specialist as well but interested to hear of any comparable tree management situations here

magicbastarder

looks much more like an ash than a birch.

GreeBo

Based on your last pic I would probably drop all the trunks other than the rightmost one that splits.
it wont do much for the height but will reduce the size.

That, or leave the middle trunk from your first picture.
You can then start removing the tallest branches each year to reduce the height without making it look like it has been scalped.

*Dont* allow someone to crown it, it will look terrible and grow back twice as dense and high next year.

tabby aspreme

It looks to have ash dieback from the pictures, if it has, there is no point in spending money on pruning it, cut it down

GreeBo

GreeBo wrote: »

Based on your last pic I would probably drop all the trunks other than the rightmost one that splits.
it wont do much for the height but will reduce the size.

That, or leave the middle trunk from your first picture.
You can then start removing the tallest branches each year to reduce the height without making it look like it has been scalped.

*Dont* allow someone to crown it, it will look terrible and grow back twice as dense and high next year.

Agree with this. It's an Ash alright. I don't see any dieback; that's usually very obvious, but that disease is spreading rapidly alas.

tabby aspreme

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Agree with this. It's an Ash alright. I don't see any dieback; that's usually very obvious, but that disease is spreading rapidly alas.

The leaves seem to be missing from some of the outermost branches, one of the early signs.

Harry Palmr

Thanks for the replies so far, I'm not toppling it unless it's certainly got Die-back!

jaffa20

I don't see any ash dieback signs. I have a large ash tree in my garden too and it lost some of the outer leaves in those very strong storms during the summer. I had mine pollarded recently because neighbour was complaining about possible damage to their house. Didn't really want to cut it back but it's done now. Looks like a bit strange but hopefully will grow back nicely over next few years.

I would say a tree surgeon would probably cut your tree back to the height of the boundary wall and it will regrow from there but i'm not an expert.