Tree Huggers

Skeleton pruning is a method used on trees to maintain their structure by cutting back all shoots except the main scaffold branches and primary bole, while topping involves cutting off the entire top of a tree. Neither a skeleton prune or topping is going to be appropriate for all trees. It depends on species, context, and management goals. I would describe the prune in the picture as a skeleton prune. And for a Crepe Myrtle, its completely fine. That tree will be fine. They probably won't have to manage it again for a couple seasons, and when they come back to it in a few years, they can do basically the same prune, and it will probably be just fine.

Its aggressive, and its not pretty for a few months after it happens, but species like Crepe Myrtle, are extremely robust. Its literally why people put them in parking lots. Could you do that do an oak or a redwood? No freaking way. But this isn't an oak or a redwood. Its a fucking shit big-box store, throw-away, practically plastic Crepe Myrtle. You plant these specifically because you can management his aggressively. I

Your personal experience as an individual arborist doesn't necessarily map to how people who manage hundreds to thousands of trees need to think about these things. If you are managing a parking lot (or hundreds of parking lots), you need to not drop branches on cars or people. Its a primary consideration of the management goals. Sure they want trees, but if it came down between having trees and getting sued for having even one limb dropping on someones car, they'll pull the trees in a heartbeat. Extreme pruning, like a skeleton prune, absolutely puts the health of the tree at risk; but that's sometimes an acceptable risk to take when the alternative is not having trees at all in some environments.

You may have experience but if you were trained incorrectly that doesn’t mean much.

Man you are insufferable.