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removing poplars?
We are in a new-to-us home (first Spring/Summer) and we have four HUGE poplars in our backyard. We've had a couple landscape guys out and a couple tree service guys come take a look. The majority of them say remove them, even though the are not diseased and seem to be healthy. The concern is the bigger they get the more dangerous they become with limbs falling and the more difficult they would be to remove. They are also destroying our yard with shallow roots and will soon be breaking up our sidewalk as well and one is threatening our neighbors house/retaining wall as it gets bigger. We are really torn. We love having the mature trees but really hate the roots because of the havoc they are creating on the yard and the danger they present to the kids and anyone walking in the backyard. We are also concerned about the safety of the trees in a high wind situation.
Our options are to remove all 4 and plant another type of tree although it would take years for them to mature. (we plan on being in this house for a long time)
remove the tree closest to our neighbor and perhaps one other (the downside to this is we couldn't remove the roots because we are told they are intertwined and could kill the trees we leave in place)
leave them all there and hope for the best (trimming large branches)
If we remove them all we can make that area of the yard much more usable with some grading but it would be a costly project.
I'm at a loss on the best option....any suggestions?
Re: removing poplars?
Get rid of them! Poplars are often planted because they are fast-growing trees (5-10 ft a year depending on the variety), so they will only get bigger and potentially more dangerous. If you remove the trees and leave the stumps, you'll have problems with suckering and root sprouts.
We had three (70-90 ft) lombardy poplars in our yard when we bought our house, and I suspect that they were less than 25 years old. We ended up taking them out because they are horribly invasive trees, their root systems are expansive, ours ran all way across our lot, sprouts popped up from the roots everywhere- the lawn, the flower beds next to the house, the neighbors' yards. Even now with the trees felled and the stumps ground out, we still find (and rip out) root sprouts. IMHO, poplars are seriously overgrown weeds.
I had three inappropriately massive trees crowded together in my TINY yard, but I left one of them because I wanted to have SOME shade left until my new (appropriately sized species) trees get big enough.
The remaining tree will be pruned to open the canopy and reduce the weight of the limbs. This will reduce risk of limb failure, and let in more sun and allow the new trees to acclimate gradually, until I can remove it, but that could be 5-7 years down the road.
I couldn't drop all three at once, so I came up with this solution, which will be carried out over time. Unfortunately, most people don't know anything about urban canopy management plans, and most of them don't stay put in the same house as long as me. Good luck, whatever you decide.
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