Pruning River Birches

We don't like to prune River birches (Betula nigra), ever. We've got an 18-panel, 4.2 kW, grid-tied PV solar system, and in the summer, our very large river birch blocks it, reducing its capacity by almost 40%. We decided to remove one of the four main stems, and we followed conventional wisdom, making the cut in late January. Because the limb hung over multiple phone and power lines, we hired a tree service to remove the limb with their boom truck. Admittedly, there was no natural collar that was evident, but I was immediately concerned that the remaining stem was too long.

I had only my small 14" arborist saw in the truck and decided to fix it when I had my big saw with me. I also wanted to use a taller ladder than what I had on hand, because i didn't want to accidentally damage the adjacent trunk. Unfortunately it warmed up right away, and we missed those next to weekends at the farm. I should have found a way to do it with the small saw. As we watch the sap free-flow from the cut, we're crossing fingers hoping the tree will continue to thrive.

Normally the beginning of meteorological Spring is a time full of optimism. I don't think I'll be content until I see this tree leaf out in April.