Retrenchment for Habitat Fay 1507 Where increasing habitat for saproxylic insects is the objective, additional wounding is specified. See slides 10-11 of this excellent work by Luke Fay of Treework Environmental Practice, UK, as publicly presented to the Parliament of Europe.
“Environmental” practice in parts of the UK puts a priority on producing and promoting places for microorganisms found in old pollarded trees. If the overriding objectives instead are regenerating a more sustainable structure, cuts would be kept small, with more living, dynamic mass conserved.
Despite traditionalist efforts in the US to confuse the subject, and discredit retrenchment pruning, it does NOT involve extra wounding that is not specified. It’s all in the objective. For structure, reduction pruning with small cuts is identified by the German translation: Regenerative Pruning.
Our approach, backed up with 45 references cited or quoted, and documentation from 28 different trees, is https://meeting.psu.edu/p94y60hp9zi/
O and…how can we get the US Congress interested in tree care?