Pollarding is a technique used by tree surgeons for a number of reasons, if the tree has significant die back in the canopy and is deteriorating rapidly, pollarding would be a good option. To pollard a tree means to remove the entire crown of the tree to the main fork of the trunk, in the case of an unhealthy tree, this would give the tree a second fighting chance as that now the tree has no high canopy to pump water and nutrients into, the roots are not working as hard and the tree is significantly less stressed.

This allows the tree to throw out epicormic shoots throughout the remaining trunk.