ANSI A300 (Part 1) - 2008 Pruning

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This part of the A300 standards applies to pruning and trimming operations.  Part 1 Pruning addresses:

• Pruning practices
• Pruning objectives (includes vista/view enhancement and structural enhancement)
• Pruning methods (types)
• Palm pruning
• Utility pruning 

A300 Pruning standards recognize four basic pruning methods for pruning:

• Clean: Selective pruning to remove one or more of the following parts: dead, diseased, and/or broken branches.
  
  
  

• Thin: Selective pruning to reduce density of live branches.

• Raise: Selective pruning to provide vertical clearance.
  
  

• Reduce: Selective pruning to decrease height and/or spread (consideration must be given to the ability of a species to tolerate reduction pruning).

Advisory Notice:  Topping and Lion's Tailing are not acceptable pruning practices!  Over-thinning (rooster-tailing) of palms is not an acceptable pruning practice.

Topping (PDF) - the reduction of a tree's size using heading cuts that shorten limbs or branches back to a predetermined crown limit, or Lion's Tailing (PDF) - the removal of an excessive number of inner, lateral branches from parent branches – can injure trees and not considered normal pruning practices!

Learn how to understand and write A300 pruning specs!

Download the specification writing guideline

How to write pruning specifications flow chart

Pruning specification writing guidelines and samples