How does an eastern cottonwood hold up in a storm?
Listed as susceptible in the urban ice-storm tables and cited across multiple studies as one of the highest-risk genera, because very fast growth produces low-density brittle wood. Under ice or a summer straight-line wind it sheds limbs of a size that goes through a roof rather than just denting it, and that single fact is the reason most cottonwood quotes get written at all.
What pruning can and can't prevent
Cottonwood needs deadwood removal on a recurring cycle rather than a one-time cleanup, because it manufactures deadwood faster than anything else here. Never top it: it decays rapidly through large wounds, and a topped cottonwood regrows dense, weakly attached sprouts on a decaying stub, which is a materially worse hazard than what was there before.
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