Seven Signs a Tree Needs Removing (And Three That Look Worse Than They Are)

We quote a lot of trees that do not need to come down, and we tell the owner so. It is the smaller invoice, and we would rather have that conversation than remove a healthy 60-year-old tuart because someone got nervous about a lean.

Equally, we see trees people have been living under for years that should have come down two seasons ago. Here is roughly how an arborist reads it.

Seven signs a tree probably needs removing

1. The root plate is moving

Cracked or lifted soil on the opposite side to the lean, a gap opening at the base of the trunk, or the ground looking mounded near the buttress roots. This is the tree beginning to lever itself out of the ground and it does not reverse. In saturated winter soil it can go from visible to failed in one front.

2. Fungal fruiting bodies on the trunk or buttress

Shelf fungi, brackets and conks growing from the structural wood mean decay is already established inside. By the time fruiting bodies appear on the outside, the internal decay is usually well advanced. Some species tolerate a surprising amount of internal decay, which is why this needs an actual assessment rather than a panic, but it is never nothing.

3. More than about half the canopy is dead

A tree with most of its canopy gone has lost the ability to feed itself and to seal wounds. Some species will recover from significant dieback, particularly natives after drought stress. Most will not, and a dead tree becomes more dangerous and more expensive to remove every year as the timber gets brittle.

4. A major structural crack

A vertical crack running down the trunk, a split at a main union, or a seam that opens and closes as the tree moves. These are structural failures in progress. Some can be managed with cabling and bracing on a valuable tree, but for most suburban trees the sensible answer is removal.

5. The roots are into your infrastructure

Repeated blockages in the sewer, lifted slabs, cracked footings, paving that keeps moving. Root barriers and selective root pruning can sometimes solve this, but on species with aggressive root systems planted too close to the house, removal is often the only permanent fix. Ficus, poplar, willow and camphor laurel are the usual offenders.

6. It is fundamentally the wrong tree for the position

A tree that reaches 25m planted three metres from the house was a mistake in 1978 and pruning will not fix it. You can manage it for years at ongoing cost, or you can remove it and plant something appropriate that you will not be paying to control for the rest of your life. We will lay out both honestly.

7. It failed the last storm and is holding on

A tree that has already lost a major limb or partly failed is carrying load it was never designed to carry, through a structure that has already proven it can break. The remaining stems are frequently under tension in ways that are not visible from the ground.

Three things that look worse than they are

A lean

Trees lean. A tree that has grown at an angle its whole life, with an even taper, normal root plate and no soil cracking, is usually perfectly stable. What matters is whether the lean is new. A tree that has moved recently is a different problem from a tree that has always been on an angle.

Surface roots

Big roots crossing the lawn look alarming and are usually just what the tree does. In compacted Perth soils roots run shallow because that is where the oxygen and water are. They are a mowing nuisance, not a structural problem, and cutting them to tidy the lawn is one of the fastest ways to actually destabilise a tree.

A hollow

Hollows sound like the end of the world and often are not. Trees are structurally efficient hollow cylinders, and a tree can carry a surprisingly large central cavity while retaining most of its strength. What matters is the ratio of sound wood remaining in the shell, not the size of the hole. This is exactly what a proper assessment measures rather than eyeballs.

Before you remove anything, check the council

Perth local governments vary enormously in what they protect. Some have significant tree registers, some trigger on trunk diameter or height, some regulate any tree on a development site, and street trees on the verge are almost always council property regardless of who planted them. Removing a protected tree without approval can attract serious penalties.

We check your LGA's requirements as part of quoting. Where the council wants a formal report from a consulting arborist, we will tell you that up front and point you to someone who writes them.

The honest summary

Most trees people worry about are fine. Most trees that fail gave warning that somebody could have seen. The difference between those two groups is worth a free assessment, which is why ours are free. Book one and we will tell you which group you are in.