I have 2 very large crimson king maples on my parkway. They are beautiful.They are probably around 50 yrs old. The grass on my front lawn and also on the small parkway doesn't grow in as well and is sparse in places because of all the shade. I would like to trim . Maybe take some of the lower branches down, hoping it will let more sun on the lawn. It would also make it easier to see my house from the street better, the branches block it. My husband thinks it would kill the trees. This is the house that he grew up in. The grass would grow better and the house would be seen more. Can we prune them safely?

Barb,

I see no reason why you can't prune these trees. As always, care and proper precautions must be followed in order to ensure that proper pruning techniques are employed. Furthermore, I always advocate dormant season pruning. Some people say whenever the pruning saw is sharp is a good time to prune trees - I personally do not subscribe to that point of view.

Several excellent publications regarding pruning basics include...

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/howtos/ht_prune/prun001.htm

http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR-215.pdf

If you are not comfortable pruning these trees yourselves, then contact a local certified arborist from the yellow pages to do the work for you.

Hope this helped!