Pruning trees in the woods

Some before-and-after pictures

12 foot tall step ladder next to tree.

These trees are Black Locust and were planted in the mid-1990s.  These are the "mother" trees.

Black Locust suckers and forms clones.  The suckers tend to self prune but the mother trees tend toward heavy side limbing.

The side limbs are a bit crooked for fence posts and such, but I will use them for something, somewhere.

I don't prune very Black Locust tree.  Some of them are too close together.  I only prune the ones that I do not plan to cull in the near future.

Between the pruning and the culling a lot more light will be hitting the forest floor here.