Question
I have a tall (20+'# River birch growing near corner of my home. It has 3 almost separate trunks. Two of the trunks are growing fairly straight, but the third one is growing well off to the side and is oddly shaped, growing straight for about 10' and then shoots off in almost a U shape #on the main trunk#. This limb gets really stressed by ice storms. One arborist wants to charge me up to $900 to cable the tree. I'm wondering if I'm better off to just cut this third trunk and keep the remaining 2. Is cabling something that I cold do?

Answer
I would lean toward cutting the third stem off as low as you can to the ground. Without seeing the tree I can not tell if the tree will seem lopsided. You will see a loss of foliage on the side that was cut but over time the other branches will form foliage that direction--more than likely this will take a couple of spring flushed to fill in. I would do this cutting before the leaves start to bud out. The sap will flow more tin the spring and you will get a flow of water from the wound. To keep birch borers from entering the wound I treat the tree with  an insecticide called Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub Insect Control. This is applied to the soil around the tree and the roots will carry it to the foliage and branches. This will protect the tree for the growing season. Here is a web link to more information on this product. http://www.bayeradvanced.com/product/Tree-Shrub-Insect-Control/concentrate.html