Thekla McDaniels wrote:
You might have. If the buds are swelling, then the sap is rising. If they are big healthy trees who sent a lot of sap underground last year, it might not hurt to lose some of that vigor, but if they are young, it might set them back more than they can recover from.
Another consideration is how much sap will run out of a fresh cut that hasn’t had time to heal.
If you have hundreds and thousands of trees, maybe you can do a little research, cut a few trees, and see how they respond