Crown reduction is the careful pruning of a tree’s upper branches back to lateral limbs to decrease overall height and spread – used when a tree has outgrown its space, encroaches on utility lines, or carries too much load on weak attachments. Done correctly, the tree keeps its natural form at a smaller scale, and no more than 10 to 20 percent of canopy volume comes off in one visit.

Crown thinning is different: it removes select interior branches to improve air circulation and light penetration and to reduce wind resistance, without changing the tree’s height or spread. Thinning improves what is already there; reduction brings an oversized canopy back into proportion.

Neither is topping – cutting limbs or the trunk to arbitrary stubs – which stresses the tree and triggers dense, weakly attached regrowth. We never top trees. The test for any bidder: ask where each major cut will be made. The right answer names a lateral branch; the wrong answer is a height.