It’s important to look at the angle of attachment when selecting branches to prune. The ideal angle for a sturdy tree branch is 45 degrees, or the angle between your thumb and index finger ...

Tableau I by Piet Mondrian, 1921. [Image: Kunstmuseum Den Haag] When I saw Mondrian’s 1911 “Gray Tree,” I immediately recognized something about trees that I had struggled to describe.

For larger branches, use a three-step pruning process: Make a small undercut on the branch to unweight it and prevent the bark from stripping into the tree when the branch falls.

To remove a branch, use a three-cut method that protects both you and the tree. Making the cut this way will prevent the branch from tearing away and ripping bark from the trunk. Ripped-off bark ...

A large old tree with a complex canopy near Canberra. We used AI to extract and classify its 4,122 branches. Stanislav Roudavski / Alex Holland Trees, birds and power poles Molonglo hosts a once ...