When should a box elder be pruned?
Wounds are an invitation on this species — box elder compartmentalizes poorly and large cuts routinely turn into decay columns, so pruning one hard is usually money spent on a tree that is going to fail anyway. If it stays, keep to small dormant-season deadwood cuts and expect a flush of water sprouts, because injured box elder sprouts vigorously from stumps and roots.
Reading box elder before you cut
Box elder rarely looks healthy, so the question is never 'is it stressed' but 'how much sound trunk is left.' Sound the base for hollowness, look for seams of included bark at the low forks and any fungal conks — a box elder with a dead top and a punky base is finished, whereas sparse cupped yellow foliage on a stressed one will often bounce back and buy several more years you probably do not want it to have.
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