Since this tree still grows vigorously, it had started callousing in around the jins. In the spring of 99, I did some serious surgery with the help of a router to prevent this. I also tried to make the middle part lighter by carving, I do think the taper looks better since. I also lowered a few of the branches with wire, they were beginning to show a tendency of reching upwards. It is easy to wire a Larch while the buds are still dormant.