Remove dead, dying and broken limbs before they fall.
Creative Tree & Stump LLC is a Brighton, CO-based tree removal company serving 22 communities across Adams, Weld, Jefferson, Boulder, Broomfield, and Denver counties. Shawn Brandau — an ISA Certified Arborist — has cleaned and deadwooded Front Range canopies since 1991, and the company is fully insured for work at height and over structures. Most deadwooding is straightforward, single-visit work, and it is often the most cost-effective safety improvement a homeowner can make to a large tree.
A living branch is flexible and bends in the wind; a dead one is brittle and simply snaps. Once a limb dies it begins to lose its grip on the tree, and it will fall on its own schedule — often in a gust, under a load of wet spring snow, or on a still day with no warning at all. The larger the deadwood, the more dangerous the fall, and a heavy dead limb dropping from thirty feet carries real force.
The Front Range makes this worse. High winds, heavy March and April snows that catch on brittle wood, and rapid freeze-thaw cycles all accelerate how fast dead limbs come down. In Northglenn and across the north metro, dead limbs over driveways, patios and play areas are some of the most common hazards we are called to clear — usually on otherwise healthy trees that just need their deadwood removed.
Crown cleaning targets the branches that are doing the tree no good and posing a risk: dead and dying limbs, broken and cracked branches, hanging limbs caught in the canopy (the “widow-makers” that can drop without warning), diseased wood, and damaged crossing or rubbing branches. We remove these with proper cuts at the branch collar, working from the top of the canopy down so nothing is missed. On a tall tree we climb or use a bucket to reach the upper canopy, where the most dangerous deadwood usually hides out of sight from the ground.
Deadwooding is about the limbs, not the whole tree. If a tree is mostly dead — more dead wood than live canopy — then the right service is dead and diseased tree removal rather than crown cleaning. We will tell you honestly which one your tree needs, and we will not sell you repeated deadwooding on a tree that is already failing.
Beyond safety, removing dead and diseased wood is good for the tree. Dead and broken limbs are entry points for decay fungi and insects; clearing them, and cutting diseased wood back to healthy tissue, helps stop problems from spreading into the rest of the tree. A clean canopy also lets the tree direct its energy into healthy growth instead of trying to wall off failing limbs.
Crown cleaning is also when we get our best look at a tree’s overall condition, so we can flag any structural concern — a weak union, early decay, a developing lean — before it becomes a bigger problem. We provide deadwooding and crown cleaning across all 22 of the communities we serve, with the owner on site for every job.
Shawn Brandau has cleaned and deadwooded Front Range canopies since 1991 — an ISA Certified Arborist on site, full insurance on every job, and an honest call on whether a tree needs cleaning or removal.
Build strong structure in young trees to prevent future deadwood.
Structural pruning →Dead branches have no leaves in season, brittle bark that flakes off, and snap rather than bend. A quick scratch test helps: living wood is green and moist just under the bark, while dead wood is dry and brown. We confirm during the assessment.
Yes. Dead limbs are brittle and fall unpredictably — in wind, under snow, or on their own. A large dead limb falling from height can seriously injure someone or damage property, which is why deadwooding is the top safety pruning for any large tree near a home.
No — it helps. Dead and broken limbs are already lost to the tree and serve as entry points for decay and pests. Removing them with proper cuts improves both safety and health, and it does not count against the live-canopy pruning limit. Clearing dead and diseased wood is one of the few prunings you can do generously without stressing a healthy tree.
It depends on the species and the tree’s health. Many established shade trees benefit from crown cleaning every three to five years, while a stressed or storm-prone tree may need it more often. We recommend an interval after seeing the tree. Trees over patios, driveways and play areas are worth checking more often, since the cost of a falling limb there is far higher.
Then deadwooding is not the answer — a tree with more dead than live wood should be removed for safety. We will tell you honestly when a tree has passed the point where crown cleaning makes sense and removal is the better choice.
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