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ST. GEORGE — As landscaping work isn't exactly viable during the winter months in northern Utah, some companies will travel to Southern Utah and go door to door offering a tree care service often referred to as "tree topping."
While the practice is sold as a way to thin and reduce the overall size of the tree, it can also harm and eventually even kill the tree.
"That's what we see this time of year," Shane Moore, the city of St. George's park and community services director, recently told St. George News.
"We see landscapers come down to try and drum up work, and they're really predatory," Moore said. "They'll go house to house, look at a tall, beautiful tree and say, 'Hey, just to let you know, we think your tree is dangerous.' And then they'll go up and top the tree … And then the homeowner's left with a tree new that's been severely damaged and sometimes never recovers."
Tree topping was a widely used practice until it began to be discouraged in the last 40-plus years as "tree science" became better understood, Moore said.
