Yes and no, starting as a young arborist I was told to never lop a tree. Lopping a tree is a
essentially choosing a new height for the tree and cutting all the limbs to that height which
is usually more that 50% of the tree. Why is this bad? Its bad because it creates large
wounds on the tree which open the window for diseases and pests as well as causing it to
stress and shoot out epicormic growth which are new shoots coming out from under the
bark rather from the cambium where it has a protected layers and these new shoots are
generally very week causing branches to snap out far easier, the tree loses its natural
integrity. When is lopping acceptable? Over the past 2 years I worked in an area that is
prone to cyclones and a lot of trees were lopped to prevent branches from falling ( now with
proper pruning focusing on wind dynamics and weight reduction, it is most definitely
plausible to keep the whole tree without worrying about limbs dropping during the cyclone)
however in an instance of wanting to achieve client satisfaction and tree maintenance I
would demonstrate lopping the tree to its main leaders and from there on pollard future
growth thus achieving client satisfaction and a tree maintenance program.
