Interview with an Arborist: Certified Arborist Ezra Morris on Las Vegas Trees

Ezra started at about 14 years old, dragging brush for his brother-in-law's tree service in 2010.

"Over time, I started climbing trees for him," he says. "I left the tree industry for a few years. Then my friend and I started trimming palm trees on summer mornings as a side business. His nickname was Red. Mine was Gator. That's where the name came from."

In 2018, Ezra made RedGator official, licensed and insured. In 2020, he became an ISA Certified Arborist. You can read more about how RedGator got started.

To become a certified arborist, you need hands-on experience and you have to pass the ISA exam. The International Society of Arboriculture requires documented experience in tree work before you can sit for the test. That's typically three years of full-time work, or a related degree plus a shorter stretch of field time.

"The test was hard for me," Ezra says. "I didn't do well in school. It took a lot of studying and a lot of time reading the book. But I got a grasp on it, I learned it, and I passed."

A certified arborist prunes with a purpose. A guy with a chainsaw usually cuts as much as he can to make as much money as he can.

"Arborists are taught rules and limits, and we're held to a standard of quality," Ezra says. "An arborist makes a judgment call for each tree. He gives the tree what it needs. The guy with the chainsaw is just trimming it for the money."

"I see it multiple times every day," Ezra says. "A few hours before this interview, I bid a job on a beautiful oak tree. It had good structure and a lot of potential. But whoever trimmed it last used climbing spikes. That left holes in the bark, which are open doors for disease and bugs."

Another common mistake is over-pruning. Ezra follows what he calls the 80/20 rule: "I want to see 80% green, to shade the tree and its bark, and 20% blue sky through the canopy." That lines up with ISA's tree owner guidance (see its Pruning Mature Trees brochure), which says to remove no more than about 25% of a crown at once, and less on mature trees.

He also sees a lot of lion's tailing, where a crew strips out the inside of a tree and leaves green only at the tips. "That makes the tree grow long and stretched out," he says. "It's not structurally sound, and it's a bad idea in a yard or near a street."

Fixing it can take years of careful pruning. Sometimes it means heading cuts, which Ezra tries to avoid. "Heading cuts push new growth, but that growth is almost always weak, and it takes a long time to attach strongly. It's much better to prune with a plan than to fix bad pruning later."

Ash and pine trees are two of the most common trees that struggle here, especially when they're watered or pruned wrong.

The valley grows a long list of trees: Chinese pistache, Chinese elm, mulberry, African sumac, mesquite, mimosa, honey locust, olive, ash, Texas mountain laurel, palms, pines, and fruit and citrus trees.

But Ezra says "heat" is only part of the story. "There's drought tolerance, there's heat tolerance, and there's radiation, which is the sun burning the bark itself."

"Ash trees are a popular pick, but they need plenty of water and correct pruning so the bark doesn't get damaged," he says. "Pines get stripped and cut back hard. That lets in too much sun and cuts how much water the tree can pull up."

Leaves are how a tree pulls water up and keeps itself cool. Ezra explains it this way (the numbers are just an example):

"Say a tree has 100 leaves, and they pull up 100 gallons of water to cool off. Cut off half the leaves, and that same big tree can only pull up 50 gallons. So we need to keep as much healthy green as we can. The leaves shade the bark and keep it from sunburning."

Sunburned bark is a real risk here. University of Nevada Extension's guide to sooty canker explains that this fungus, which shows up as a black, dusty mass of spores on limbs, gets into trees mainly through wounds in sunburned bark.

Water out at the edge of the canopy, not at the trunk, and water long enough to soak deep. Ezra sees four mistakes again and again.

This matters for the whole valley. A USGS study of trees in eight U.S. cities found they are especially effective at cooling hot, dry cities like Las Vegas, and that irrigation is crucial for keeping those cooling effects. News coverage of the study reported that trees in the Las Vegas area cool the air around them by about 7°C (about 13°F), compared with about 2°C in humid Miami.

"If we don't water our trees well, we lose our shade and the valley gets hotter," Ezra says. That's called the urban heat island effect.

"Every day I see drip lines right against the trunk," Ezra says. "They were put there when the tree was young and never moved. Water on the trunk does nothing but rot the tree and waste water."

The roots that drink are farther out. Arizona Extension agrees that trees take up water most actively at the drip line and just beyond it.

Ezra's rule of thumb: Start your drips about 3 to 4 times the trunk's width away from the trunk, and spread them out to the drip edge (the outer edge of the branches).

• A young tree with a 1-inch trunk: start about 4 inches out. Use 3 to 6 emitters in a star pattern.
• A mature tree with a 1-foot trunk: start about 3 feet out and go all the way to the drip edge.

"Mature trees need bigger emitters," Ezra says. "Trees need to drink."

He tells a story he sees all the time: "A big tree grows up in a lawn. It does great for years, with roots spread all over the grass. Then the lawn gets swapped for rock. The new drips go right on the trunk, they only put out 2 gallons an hour, and they run 10 minutes twice a day. All those roots out in the old lawn stop getting water. Then someone strips the canopy. Now you've got sunburn and drought, and the tree dies."

Short watering only wets the top few inches. "When I tested my own yard, 30 minutes twice a day only got water 4 to 6 inches deep at first," Ezra says. "The goal is at least 24 inches." Tree roots typically live in the top 18 to 36 inches of soil, according to Arizona Extension.

How long you should water depends on your soil. Sand drains fast. Packed clay holds water at the top. As a starting point for a mature tree in summer, Ezra suggests about one hour, twice a week, then adjust for your soil, your emitters, and how many you have.

He also says water "banks" over time. "Each time you water, some drains, some evaporates, and some stays. Keep at it and the soil holds moisture."

Las Vegas soil is packed tight, so water has a hard time getting down. RedGator's fix is vertical mulching: drilling holes 2 to 3 inches wide and 18 to 24 inches deep in a grid around the drip edge, then filling them with rich, organic soil.

"It's like aerating your lawn," Ezra says. "You blow out the bad soil and put in soil that holds water, so the tree can drink what it needs, when it needs it."

The first sign is usually a change in leaf color. "Most homeowners don't notice until the leaves are already brown," Ezra says. "I don't blame them. I drive around looking at trees all day. They don't. If you see even a slight color change, start watering right away and call an arborist."

Other signs Ezra looks for:

• Dead branches at the top: Usually a root or water problem.
• Cracks in the bark: Normal for many trees here. Don't panic.
• Black, sooty powder on limbs or trunk: Likely sooty canker.
• Mushrooms at the base or in the canopy: A sign of rot. That tree usually needs to come out. University of Florida Extension also notes that fungal growths around the base may indicate decay.
• A new lean: The tree needs to be restaked and pruned, or removed.

For more on that last call, see our guide to signs a tree should be removed.

Root collar excavation uncovers a tree's buried root flare so it can breathe and stop choking on its own roots. RedGator does it as part of a four-step program called EPIF.

"Every tree has a root flare, where the trunk widens out into the roots," Ezra says. "If your trunk goes straight into the ground like a telephone pole, the flare is buried."

A buried flare causes three problems:

1. Not enough air. Roots need oxygen, and roots buried too deep often don't get enough of it.
2. Rot. Wet soil sitting against the trunk rots the wood. "Wood isn't supposed to soak up water. Roots are."
3. Girdling roots. Roots grow toward soil and water, so they start circling the trunk.

"Think of the root flare as the bottleneck," Ezra says. "Everything the tree drinks passes through it. A root wrapped around it is like a necktie you never take off. Eventually it chokes you."

Here's what EPIF stands for:

• E: Excavate. We use an air spade, a high-powered air tool, to blow soil away from the flare without cutting the roots like a shovel would.
• P: Prune. We cut out the roots that are circling and choking the trunk.
• I: Irrigate. We move the drips out to the right zone.
• F: Fertilize. We feed the tree to help it recover from the work.

Ezra remembers a desert live oak that was stunted, with dying tips at the top. "I could see the root collar was buried. The tree was getting choked out by its own roots."

After EPIF? "It's fuller, it's bigger, and it's healthier. It's getting the right water and nutrients, and it's not choking itself anymore. It's doing great."

If you planted a tree five years ago and it still looks the same size, you've got a root problem.

Fall and winter are the healthiest times for heavier pruning, but which branches you cut matters more than when.

"I don't mind trimming any time of year, as long as we only take about 20%," Ezra says. "I save heavier pruning for fall and winter. The bigger mistake is trimming a tree that doesn't need it. That lets in too much sun and causes damage."

He adds that arborists still debate this. Some argue spring is better because sap is moving and trees can seal wounds faster.

He starts with three questions:

1. Has the tree been pruned well before? He checks the overall structure first.
2. What style does the owner want? Strong structure or natural shape. "Both are fine. I prefer strong and healthy, but some people like the natural look."
3. What's the goal? If it's just clearing the house and sidewalk for the HOA, he uses reduction cuts. If the goal is long-term health, he builds a plan with prescription pruning.

Prescription pruning usually takes three to four years, then the tree is maintained from there. The goal is a strong main leader and side branches that grow out more than up. Ezra follows the approach taught by Dr. Ed Gilman, professor emeritus at the University of Florida, who teaches prescriptive pruning to arborists across the country. RedGator holds a prescription pruning certificate through his program.

Suckers are our friends. Younger growth is future growth.

"Always cut bigger branches back to younger branches, not the other way around," he says.

Trim palms once a year, and the best month is August. Only remove the dead fronds and the seed pods.

"Palm trees are easy," Ezra says. "Trim out the dead and clean the seed pods. That's it."

Timing is what saves you a second visit. "We get a lot of calls in May. But if you trim too early, the seed pods still come out later in the year. I know I'm safe in August. Anywhere from May to August, it's a gamble." In some years, warm weather pushes pods out even later.

• Canary Island date palms get cut into a "pineapple" or "carrot" shape. "You'll pencil it and kill it," Ezra says. University of Florida research on palm over-pruning describes how repeated heavy pruning thins the trunk toward a pencil-like point.
• Mexican fan palms get the "hurricane cut," where almost every green frond is removed.

"People think the more they cut, the less they'll pay later. That's wrong," Ezra says. "I'll trim one palm wide and healthy, and another company over-trims the neighbor's palm. Within about two months, they look the same. You're not saving a buck. You're just asking for the palm to die sooner."

For more, read our guide on palm trimming timing.

Ask to see their certified arborist certificate, and ask for proof of workers' comp and general liability insurance.

"Customers don't like asking the hard questions," Ezra says. "But a real arborist can show you the certificate right away. I keep mine on my phone and can text or email it on the spot."

Watch the wording. "'I'm an arborist, I've been trimming trees for years' is baloney," he says. "Ask: are you a certified arborist?" You can also look people up with the ISA's Find an Arborist directory.

Insurance matters too. "A lot of companies don't carry workers' comp for their crew, or they use low-cost, unreliable insurance," Ezra says. "If you're spending more than $1,000, do your homework first." RedGator carries both workers' comp and general liability.

Tree work is dangerous, and a good crew respects that. "If you're not a little bit scared, you're not being careful enough," Ezra says.

"Watching your surroundings is only a tenth of it. You have to know what the tree has been through, and look for hazards you can't see, inside the trunk or under the ground. You have to know how much load a tree can handle when you're lowering heavy branches, or even a climber."

Crews sometimes find a big split in the trunk only after they climb. "When that happens, we stop and call the homeowner right away with our recommendations."

Ezra weighs three things:

• A good tree with strong structure: Worth saving with cabling or bolting.
• Damage that's too severe: That branch has to go.
• A tree pruned badly for years with a long road back: Removal and replanting the right way may be the better choice.

We asked Ezra what he'd tell every homeowner in the valley if he could only say one thing.

Call an arborist if you care about the future of your tree.

If you have a tree question, or you want Ezra to take a look, request an estimate. Every estimate is free and written before any work starts.