I have a huge monterey pine that's about 70 years old. (we live in a cold wet environment where the life span is on the longer side, i've read 100-120 yrs). We just had a branch failure, and after having studied up, I'm realizing that it was a less structurally suitable branch. This was a very large branch with several forks along it's length. It hung at a less than 30 degree pitch, was long and was very very heavy out at the tip.

The neighbor is now terrified of my tree, and I will hire an arborist to look at it, but I live in a logging town and everyone here loves cutting down trees, it's the proud and preferred business.

Here's the problem: one major branch is like a secondary trunk and extends over his rental apartments. It's massive-probably 2 foot diameter at the base and now is taller than the main trunk of the tree. It has a healthy looking U shaped crotch about half way up the tree, no cracks, no fungus, no die-off, no mounds of soil pushing up at the base of the tree. I fear that if I take this huge branch off, it will kill the tree to lose so much photosynthetic area. Question one: Can we take it down progressively over a year or two or three? Question two: is it necessary to take it down if the whole tree looks so healthy? The tree is not leaning, but it is massive. Question four: would taking this branch off imbalance the tree, would the roots pull it over in the opposite direction?

A few years ago we trimmed out all the dead wood. The tree withstood a huge storm this year that took out a good portion of the trees in town, we didn't lose a single branch.

I’m not very familiar with Monterey pines, being from the east coast. I suggest that you consider contacting a consulting arborist who will not bid on doing any recommended work. She won’t have any vested interest in making recommendations, so you can be sure you are getting good advice.

1. Progressive removal may be an option, if removal is necessary. It may not be of much help to the rest of the tree, but might help the checkbook tolerate it better.

2. The local arborist needs to make a determination on this. I know Monterey pines are rather susceptible to breakage when they get large. There may be alternatives to taking down the tree or even removing the one trunk. Perhaps the two stems can be cabled together to reduce the risk of breakage. Again, an arborist must be on site to inspect it to make this kind of determination.

3. Removing one trunk probably will not unbalance the tree enough to make it unsafe, unless there are other non visible problems such as internal decay or root problems.

You can find a consulting arborist at the American Society of Consulting Arborists. Follow the link to the Referral Directory and search in your state. It might be a good idea to have him or her talk to the concerned neighbor, too, or send you a report you can share with the neighbor.