How does an american beech hold up in a storm?
Thin bark and a shallow plate make it a windthrow risk more than a limb-shedder; a beech on saturated clay tends to go over whole rather than break apart. Ice typically strips the fine outer branch structure, so the loss of a major scaffold limb in an ice storm usually means decay was already established at that union.
What pruning can and can't prevent
Prune only in the dormant season and only lightly — the bark is thin enough that heavy crown reduction exposes it to sunscald, which cracks and kills bark on the south and southwest faces. Beech responds badly to topping and large reduction cuts; if a crown genuinely needs work at that scale, the honest recommendation is usually removal rather than a prune that starts a slow decline.
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