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Trunk cracks in half

laurel oakTrees 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)