Tree Trimming & Pruning in Fort Lauderdale, FL

Tree trimming and pruning in Fort Lauderdale is mostly about wind. UF/IFAS research on hurricane damage found that pruning gives broadleaved trees more wind resistance and treats it as an important practice. But how a tree is pruned matters as much as whether it is. The right cuts remove weak, crossing and overextended limbs and lighten the ends of heavy branches. The wrong cuts make the tree more likely to break.

What good pruning looks like

The national standard for tree pruning in the United States is ANSI A300, and Fort Lauderdale's own code says pruning must follow national standards. In practice that means cutting back to a branch union or the trunk collar instead of leaving stubs, removing no more of the live canopy than the tree can handle in one visit, and favoring a single strong central trunk on young shade trees. Structural pruning on a young live oak or mahogany now prevents the weak forks that split in storms twenty years later.

What to avoid

Hatracking, flat-cutting the top of a tree and severing its leaders, is defined as tree abuse in Fort Lauderdale's tree code. Topped trees push out a mass of weakly attached sprouts that break easily in the next storm. Over-lifting, stripping a trunk of its lower and inner branches until only a tuft remains at the end, has a similar effect; UF/IFAS extension staff warn that it increases the chance of limbs breaking in storms. For palms, removing green fronds to leave a 'hurricane cut' with only a few at the top weakens the palm and takes away the fronds it needs; generally, only dead or fully yellow fronds and fruit stalks should come off.

No permit needed, but rules still apply

The city does not require a permit to prune a tree. It does expect the work to follow pruning standards, and over-pruning that damages a tree can be cited as tree abuse. Branches near power lines are FPL's work: the utility trims main lines about every three years and neighborhood lines about every six, on average, and asks everyone else to stay at least 10 feet away.

Timing

For most shade trees, heavier pruning is worth scheduling before the storm season starts on June 1, so the work is done before the first tropical system. Coconuts and dead fronds can come off any time they start to hang over a patio or roof.