To remove or not...?

[richyrich]

I'm not enquiring as homeowner. These 2 Beech trees are on an amenity area in a housing estate. 

They have been planted approx 20 years. Not the best photos, but on first one, where a co-dominant stem has developed- each about 4 inch diameter - is it bad practice to remove one?(about 15feet up). I'm thinking probably better to leave?

 

On the second photo think definitely leave as 2 but remove the smaller middle one? Not best place to make a pruning cut but small enough to heal well and avoid future problems with the union..?

Thanks 

 

Edited July 14, 2023 by richyrich
Information added

[Dan Maynard]

Without seeing the rest of the tree difficult to comment but one option to avoid removing a stem is suppress it (shorten one so it grows slower and the other becomes dominant).

 

Beech quite often multistemmed but also sometimes fail at forks so possibly a good idea to do something sooner.

[richyrich]

56 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

Without seeing the rest of the tree difficult to comment but one option to avoid removing a stem is suppress it (shorten one so it grows slower and the other becomes dominant).

 

Beech quite often multistemmed but also sometimes fail at forks so possibly a good idea to do something sooner.

Thanks Dan, I think that's good advice - i think it's probably the best option, thinking 20 - 30 years ahead!! By then, houses, etc would be in the target zone. 

[richyrich]

These are the 2 trees with the wee man in for scale. They've been smashed up a bit by kids, so a crown lift to 6 or 7foot is on the cards..

[Harden scott]

i think its over grown pal, to me i'll just chop it down

[Mick Dempsey]

I’d leave them be.

[skyhuck]

12 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

I’d leave them be.

Me too, slight lift and tidy and leave em be

 

[biggimmer]

Cut them out and plant a shrub or two. Think how big beech can get...easy enough to do now but a different kettle of fish in a few years. Wrong tree - wrong place imo.

[peds]

Leave them alone, keep the next generation of climbers in work. 

[peds]

In fact, scrap that, remove the beech and replace them with a dozen tightly-spaced leylandii.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Steven P]

So the members with 1000+ posts are saying leave them be, those with under 20 are saying take them out - I reckon that's your answer then, leave them be, tidy and let them mature