09/03/2026
Ignorance Is Profitable Until Clients Learn Better
Why South Florida’s tree care industry must be forced to evolve
For decades, much of the tree care performed across South Florida has been judged by appearance, speed and price rather than biology, biomechanics and long-term consequences. If a tree looked smaller when the crew left, the job was considered complete. If the yard was clean and the invoice was inexpensive, the work was considered acceptable.
But a tree can look neat and still be structurally damaged. A canopy can look open and still be made less stable. A large amount of foliage can be removed without improving clearance, structure or risk. The fact that a chainsaw was used efficiently does not mean the tree was pruned correctly.
This problem has survived because most property owners have never been taught how trees grow, respond to injury or manage mechanical loading. That knowledge gap has allowed unqualified and underqualified operators to sell destructive practices as professional tree care.
When clients cannot evaluate the work, appearance replaces science
Tree biology is not intuitive. Trees do not heal wounds as animals do. They compartmentalize injured tissue while continuing to grow around it. Every pruning cut creates an injury that the tree must defend. The position, diameter and number of cuts influence the tree’s response.
Tree biomechanics is equally important. Branch diameter, attachment geometry, lever-arm length, foliage distribution, crown movement and wind exposure all affect loading. Removing interior branches indiscriminately may reduce foliage temporarily, but it can also concentrate weight and sail at the ends of long limbs.
This is one reason lion tailing is so harmful. The tree may appear thinner and supposedly safer, while its remaining branches become more end-loaded and structurally disadvantaged.
Most clients cannot be expected to recognize these consequences on sight. They see a crew, a truck, ropes and chainsaws and reasonably assume they are watching trained professionals. Unfortunately, equipment is not proof of education. A business license is not proof of arboricultural competence. Even a credential displayed in an advertisement does not guarantee that qualified judgment is directing the people making the cuts.
When customers do not know what proper pruning should accomplish, poor work becomes easy to sell. Excessive thinning is called hurricane preparation. Topping is renamed reduction. Lion tailing is presented as cleaning out the canopy. Large, unnecessary cuts are treated as evidence that the customer received more work for the money.
The tree often pays for that misunderstanding years later.
Bad pruning can manufacture the very risks it claims to solve
Appropriate pruning should have a defined objective. It may establish clearance, reduce a specific load, subordinate a competing stem, improve young-tree structure or address a documented defect. The cuts should be selected to accomplish that objective while preserving as much healthy canopy as reasonably possible.
Indiscriminate cutting has no such discipline. It can remove productive foliage, create unnecessary wounds, stimulate poorly attached sprouts, alter branch movement and reduce the tree’s capacity to produce energy.
On mature trees, severe canopy loss cannot simply be dismissed with the claim that everything will grow back. Regrowth does not automatically restore the structure that was removed. Rapid sprouting is often a stress response rather than evidence of improved health.
South Florida makes these mistakes especially consequential. Our trees grow in a climate of intense sunlight, heavy rainfall, saturated soils, rapid growth and tropical-storm winds. Many properties also have restricted root zones, compacted soils, irrigation conflicts and construction damage. Tree care in this environment requires more knowledge, not less.
Yet destructive pruning remains common because its consequences are delayed. The contractor is gone before sprouts develop, decay advances or overextended limbs become a larger problem. The homeowner may never connect a later failure or decline with cuts made several seasons earlier.
That delay protects poor workmanship from accountability.
The industry changes when the client becomes informed
The most effective challenge to bad tree work is an educated property owner.
An informed client asks what defect is being addressed. They ask why a particular branch should be removed, what pruning objective has been established and how much live foliage will be retained. They understand that a properly pruned tree may not look dramatically stripped. They know that the cheapest proposal may become the most expensive if it creates defects, accelerates decline or forces premature removal.
Education changes the transaction. It prevents contractors from hiding behind vague language such as “trim it back,” “open it up” or “make it hurricane safe.” It requires the person recommending the work to explain the biology and mechanics behind the prescription.
That is the revolution I am leading.
As an ISA Board Certified Master Arborist, I do not believe my responsibility ends with diagnosing a tree or directing a pruning crew. My responsibility is also to make the client harder to mislead.
I want property owners to understand what they are purchasing, why it is appropriate and how it will affect the tree over time.
I explain structural pruning. I show clients how branch aspect ratio, codominant stems, included bark, canopy distribution and lever arms influence structural development. I explain why topping and lion tailing are not legitimate substitutes for thoughtful risk reduction.
I separate visible defects from assumptions, and I distinguish genuine mitigation from cutting performed merely to create a dramatic before-and-after photograph.
This approach threatens an old business model. Poor tree work is easiest to sell when the customer cannot question it. Once clients understand the difference between removing branches and managing tree structure, empty sales language stops working.
Better information creates better trees and a better industry
My goal is not simply to criticize bad work. It is to replace ignorance with a higher standard.
South Florida’s trees are living infrastructure. They cool properties, intercept rainfall, store carbon, support wildlife, reduce heat and contribute substantial value to our communities. They deserve management based on current arboricultural knowledge rather than habit, convenience or the visual preference of whoever happens to hold the saw.
That requires honest assessments, clearly defined objectives, appropriate pruning specifications and accountability from the people performing the work. It also requires clients who understand that proper arboriculture is not measured by how much material hits the ground.
Every time I teach a homeowner why a cut is appropriate, expose the mechanics behind a structural defect or explain why a common practice is harmful, the balance of power shifts.
The client becomes capable of demanding evidence instead of accepting salesmanship. Competent companies are rewarded. Careless operators are challenged. Trees receive better care.
That is how this industry will change. Not through louder advertising, larger equipment or cheaper bids, but through informed clients who refuse to pay for ignorance.
The revolution in South Florida tree care begins when property owners learn enough to ask one simple question:
“What is the biological and structural reason for making that cut?”
If the person holding the saw cannot answer, they should not be making it.
Stephen Davis
ISA Board Certified Master Arborist
Stephen’s Tree Service
