These are the general pruning guidelines that ArborPLUS vendors are required to follow:
Tree Maintenance & Care Specifications
Pruning cuts shall be in accordance with ANSI A300 pruning standards (latest edition).
Preference will be given to firms who have a least one certified arborist on their staff. Certification is through International Society of Arboriculture, Champaign, IL. An ISA certified arborist shall be on site at least once each day.
All work shall be performed by workers trained in accordance with ANSI Z133.1 safety guidelines as required by OSHA.
All debris shall be removed from the site at the throughout the job.
Only Compliance Depot approved firms are allowed to submit bids.
Violation of these procedures and techniques could result in termination of your contract without payment.
Tools and Equipment
Climbing spurs shall not be used when climbing trees, except to climb a tree to be removed or to perform aerial rescue of an injured worker.
Equipment and work practices that damage bark or cambium should be avoided.
Rope injury from loading out heavy limbs should be avoided.
Procedures and Techniques
The foliage removed shall be taken primarily from the outer edge of the canopy, not from the interior. No more that 20% of the foliage shall be removed from any tree unless otherwise specified.
Dead branches greater than 1.5 inches in diameter (measured at the base of the branch) shall be removed from the canopy of all trees that are pruned.
When removing a dead branch, the final cut shall be made outside the collar of the living woundwood tissue. If the collar has grown out along the dead branch stub, only the dead stub shall be removed; the living collar shall remain intact and uninjured regardless of its length.
Live branches less than 1.5 inch diameter should not be removed. No live branches or stems greater than 3 inches diameter should be removed from the tree unless otherwise specified.
When removing a live branch at its point of origin on the trunk or from a parent branch, the final pruning cut shall be made in branch tissue just outside the branch bark ridge and collar. No stubs shall be left. (A stub is the remaining branch tissue to the outside of the collar and branch bark ridge.)
Live crown ratio should be at least 60% when pruning is completed meaning that no more than the lower 40% of the tree shall be clear of branches.
Removal and reduction cuts shall be used, and not heading cuts.
Young trees shall be pruned primarily with reduction cuts, with the intention of developing a dominant trunk.
Tree canopies that were cold damaged or topped several years ago shall be restoration pruned in order to improve their structure and form.
Neither wound dressings nor tree paints should be applied to any pruning cuts.
Only compliance depot confirmed companies will be allowed to submit a bid.
Cut limbs shall either be removed from the canopy upon completion of the pruning or periodically at times when the tree would be left unattended or at the end of the workday.

Never top a tree. Instead prune to retain its natural shape.