A few weeks ago we bid a tree trimming job at a commercial property in North Scottsdale. Palo verdes and mesquites all through the parking lot, most of them mature, a lot of them overdue. We didn't get the job. The landlords had a $3,000 budget and our number was over it. I told the property manager what would happen if these trees got trimmed to a budget instead of to what they needed. They went with the cheaper company anyway. I understand that. It's their money.

This week I was back in the area and drove through the lot to see how it turned out. I shot a video walking the property, and I want to walk you through what I saw, because this happens to us all the time. Someone gets three bids, picks the lowest one, and never sees what that decision costs them until the trees start breaking or dying two or three years later. This property is a perfect case study.

Mesquite in a North Scottsdale parking lot stripped of every low branch, leaving a bare trunk with a clump of foliage on top, with cut branches still piled on the ground below
Every low branch gone, a clump left on top, and the brush still on the ground two days later.
Large palo verde with long bare limbs stretching over parking spaces and cars
The big palo verde. Long bare limbs over the parking spaces, five broken scaffolds, and the cheap crew never touched it.

What the cheap trim actually looked like

The first tree that caught my eye was a mesquite near the entrance. It used to have low branches. Someone had taken low branches off it in the past, and this crew took the rest. Now the whole tree is a bare trunk with a clump of growth way up top. Several of the cuts had the bark stripped right off around them. Those cuts are not going to close over. The wood around them is going to die back.

The tree next to it was worse. Not a pretty tree, not going to grow in well. The word I used on the video was maimed. They stood under it with pole saws and cut whatever they could reach, and none of those cuts up top are going to heal.

Eric pointing at fresh cuts low on the trunk of a desert tree where the low branches were removed, leaving the bark exposed to the sun
Where the low branches used to be. This bark has never seen full sun. It will.
Eric pointing up at a torn, stripped cut high in the canopy of a palo verde
Pole saw cut from the ground. Bark stripped around it. This one will not close over.

Then the brush. Two days after the crew left there were still piles of branches on the ground under the trees, over by the sage, at the base of the big palo verde. When a company bids that low, hauling the debris is the first thing that gets skipped. Their guys ran out of time, and the property manager doesn't drive out to look, so nobody noticed.

Piles of cut mesquite branches left on the ground next to a parking lot two days after a tree trimming crew finished
Two days after the crew left.
Cut branches piled at the base of a palo verde tree next to an office building
More brush at the base of the palo verde. Hauling was the first thing cut from the budget.

The big palo verde, the largest tree on the property, hadn't been touched at all. I counted five broken scaffold limbs in it. At least one of those breaks looked fresh, so it probably happened after the trim. Nothing was reduced in the upper crown where the weight is. Nothing was done to the scaffold limbs where the failures are actually happening.

What happened here is easy to reconstruct. A crew showed up with ten foot gas pole saws, stood on the ground, and lopped off everything they could reach. That's the low stuff. The top of the tree, where the trimming actually needed to happen, is out of reach from the ground, so it didn't get done. That is what $3,000 buys on a lot with this many mature trees.

Tall leggy palo verde with bare lower trunk leaning out over a parked car
All the weight is out at the tips, right over the parking.
Tall palo verde with a bare trunk and foliage only at the top of long limbs, standing in a commercial parking lot
This is what years of ground-level trimming builds. A tree that should be low and wide is tall and hollow underneath.

Why stripping the low branches kills desert trees

Palo verdes and mesquites are not supposed to be tall trees. Out in the desert they grow low and wide, with multiple trunks and branches that start close to the ground. Those low interior branches are doing real work for the tree.

  • They shade the trunk and the big scaffold limbs. Take them off and the bark down low bakes in the sun. Sunburned bark cracks and dies, and now the tree has an open wound on its main structure.
  • They keep weight close to the trunk. Branches near the base give a limb taper and balance. Strip them and all the weight ends up out at the tips of long bare limbs.
  • They slow the tree down. Remove them and the tree responds by pushing the remaining leaders higher and longer, chasing light. Every year those leaders get longer, thinner, and heavier at the end.

Arborists call this lion's tailing. You strip the interior and lower growth and leave a tuft of foliage at the end of each limb, like the tuft on a lion's tail. It is the most common thing we see cheap crews do to desert trees, because it's fast, it can be done from the ground, and it looks cleaned up for about a season.

Then the storms come. A long bare limb with all its weight at the tip acts like a lever in the wind. It breaks, usually at an old cut or a spot where the bark has been sunburned. Now there's a limb across a row of parking spaces and someone is calling for emergency tree service.

Here is the part most people don't realize. The reason so many palo verdes and mesquites around Scottsdale are tall and leggy with limbs hanging over roofs and parking spaces is not that they grew that way naturally. It is years of exactly this kind of trimming. Every cheap trim pushes the tree taller and weaker, and the next crew has even less they can reach from the ground, so they take even more off the bottom. A tree that should be low, wide, and stable ends up tall, top heavy, and hollow underneath.

What happens to these trees next

I told the property manager this before the job went to someone else, and I'll say it again here, because the timeline is pretty predictable.

  • This year: the stripped cuts and torn bark start dying back. The newly exposed lower trunks sunburn through the summer. The tips push out even longer.
  • Next storm season: limb failures. The big palo verde already has five broken scaffolds. Each new break is an emergency call at emergency rates, plus whatever the limb landed on.
  • Two to three years out: whole leaders die back and the trees go into decline. Eventually they get removed. A mature tree removal in a commercial lot costs more than the entire trimming budget did.

Look at the empty planters in that parking lot. This property has already removed a lot of trees over the years. That is not bad luck. That is the end of the cycle I just described.

The landlords saved about two thousand dollars this year. One mature mesquite removal costs more than that. One limb across a car costs more than that. And then they are paying to replace shade trees that took twenty years to grow, on a property where the whole point of the trees is shade for tenants and their customers.

What these trees actually needed

Here is what I had in mind when I bid the job, so you can see the difference.

Eric pointing at the underside of a large mesquite where all of the low interior branches were removed
The nicest mesquite on the lot. It had low branches inside it. They did not need to come off. Now every leader will reach higher and get weaker.
Eric pointing at a lopped-off low limb on a mesquite growing over a bed of sage
The mesquite by the sage. I planned to cut a few leveraging branches off the bottom scaffold and keep the rest. They took all of them.
  • Reduce the upper crown where the weight is. Shorten the long leaders back to good lateral branches so each limb carries less lever in the wind.
  • Thin the top so wind moves through the canopy instead of pushing on it.
  • Keep the low interior branches. On the mesquite by the sage I planned to cut a few leveraging branches off the bottom scaffold and leave the rest to shade the bark and hold weight low. They took every one of them.
  • Clean cuts just outside the branch collar, with no torn bark, so the tree can close over the wound.
  • Stay under about 25 percent of the live canopy in one visit. Desert trees don't handle heavy one-time cuts well.
  • Climb the trees or use a lift. None of the above can be done from the ground with a pole saw.
  • Haul the brush the same day.

That takes climbers, time, and someone who knows what each tree needs. It costs more than $3,000 on a lot with this many mature trees. It also would have bought those trees another decade, and kept the tenants' cars out from under broken limbs. If you want more detail on how a palo verde should be pruned, we wrote up the whole process here.

How to tell a cheap bid from a good one

The price alone won't tell you. Two bids a couple thousand dollars apart can be for completely different jobs. A few questions sort it out fast.

  • Ask what they plan to do to the top of the tree. If the whole answer is about raising the canopy or cleaning out low branches, they are going to lion's tail your trees.
  • Ask whether they climb. A crew that only works from the ground can only trim what a pole saw reaches, and that is never where the problem is on a mature palo verde or mesquite.
  • Ask how much they are taking off. Anyone who says they'll open it way up, or who can't give you a number, is a red flag.
  • Ask whether hauling is included. It should be in writing.
  • Ask who is deciding the cuts. An ISA Certified Arborist on the job is looking at structure, not just reach.
  • Read the bid. Does it say what is wrong with each tree and what they plan to do about it, or is it just a price per tree?

If a lower bid answers all of that the same way we do, take it. But make sure it is the same work. On this property it wasn't even close.

If your trees already got the cheap trim

It's not always a lost cause. Go look at your palo verdes and mesquites. If the trunks and lower limbs are bare and all the foliage is bunched at the tips, they have been lion's tailed. Get an arborist out before the next storm season to reduce the long leaders and take the weight off the ends. Some of these trees can be brought back over a few years of careful trimming. Some can't, and it is worth knowing which is which before a limb decides for you.

The bottom line

Your trees don't know what your budget is. They respond to what gets cut. A cheap trim on a palo verde or mesquite doesn't save money, it just moves the bill a couple years down the road and makes it bigger.

If you own or manage property in Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, or anywhere in the Phoenix area and you're getting bids on tree trimming, call or text us at 602-806-9078 for a free estimate. I'll walk the property with you and tell you exactly what each tree needs, what can wait, and what can't. Then compare that to the other bids and decide. We'll make it work one way or another.