Is my bald cypress safe in a storm?
Silvics is blunt about it — the buttressed base and extensive root system make bald cypress windfirm enough that even hurricane-force winds rarely overturn one. In Indiana terms it is also the safest large tree on an ice route, because it stands bare all winter and carries almost no ice load compared with a pine or spruce of the same height.
What pruning can and can't prevent
It holds a strong single leader and self-shades its lower interior, so the only honest pruning is deadwooding and clearance; structural pruning on this species is largely money wasted. The trap is landscapers limbing it up and clipping or topping the leader — bald cypress does not rebuild a lost leader, and the pyramidal form it was planted for is then gone permanently.
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