How to prune trees

This is some good material to read before doing trail work. You don't want to leave mutilated wounds on trees that won't heal over and invite disease. When you prune a limb off of a tree you want to cut it off at the branch collar. In other words, not completely flush, but nearly so. Pruning a limb extremely close to the trunk creates a larger wound than necessary. Leaving a big stub, in addition to looking stupid, won't heal over correctly and will probably cause disease and wood rot. Check out this link for a photo and more detail.