Should I remove or save my eastern cottonwood?
Eastern Cottonwood is on the hazard list here, which shifts the odds toward removal. The other removal-first tree on this list, and the one most often standing over a house it was never meant to be near. It is the fastest-growing native tree in North America — 4 to 5 ft of height per year, sometimes more, for the first 25 to 30 years — so the little volunteer in a wet back corner is a 60-ft liability within about 15 years.
How to tell which one you've got
Cottonwood is always shedding something, so "it drops branches" is not decline by itself. What is: dead branches in the upper crown with bark already slipping off, and sunken dead bark patches from Cytospora canker on limbs. The one to act on is decay at old failure points — an included-bark union or a torn scaffold from a previous storm is where the next and larger failure originates.
The structural question
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.
Related
- How much does it cost to remove an eastern cottonwood?→
- When should an eastern cottonwood be pruned?→
- Are eastern cottonwood roots a problem for foundations or pipes?→
- Is my eastern cottonwood dying or just stressed?→
- How does an eastern cottonwood hold up in a storm?→
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