I have been visiting Japan the last week (winter) and all I can see is mutilated trees but it seems systematic and not random. What’s the idea behind it and how do trees feel about it? This is the first time I see such aggressive pruning.
by Sensitive-Concert591
4 Comments
pic 1 and 3 look like pollarding
edit: didn’t see the ones in the back in pic 2, that’s pollarded as well.
edit 2: it’s a technique where they keep pruning them back to those knubs year after year, it’s an accepted arborist technique to keep tight control on the canopy shape. certain species don’t mind it at all since they store their needed resources in the rest of the tree
They’ve been doing it for centuries
[Not pollarding](https://imgur.com/gallery/pollarding-bros-i5Fw204), except maybe the second picture if you squint hard enough and don’t think about it too much. Sure, they chopped the hell out of them hoping they’ll regrow and they can pollard them, but hope is not a plan.
Street trees are pollarded like this anually, cut back to those knuckles you see. Many even do it in gardens. Two added contextual reasons in Japan that pollarding is so widespread in urban areas which might be different to elsewhere: typhoons, and most cables and utility lines are above ground.
The vast majority of Japan’s land is forest, so it’s not like you can’t drive an hour and see trees in their more natural form outside managed urban areas.