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Trunk cracks in half
Trees
that lose half of their canopy and are split into the trunk like this tree should
be removed. The point where the left-hand stem connects to the trunk is very
weak and likely to break soon. Remove this tree as soon as you can. In addition
to the bark inclusion, a contributing factor in this failure was removal of
the lower branches about a year or two ago as indicated by the woundwood around
the three pruning cuts. This allowed the wind to move into the canopy and break
the right hand stem. A better alternative would have been to shorten the three
lower branches instead of removing them. (Photo courtesy of Norm Easey)
