Can I trim my canary palm trunk or is it a lost cause?

Question

Below is a canary palm in my front yard:

I had a tree trimming service some out and trim away the branches. They didn't do anything to the trunk though - I asked them to come back out, and the guy said that the trunk couldn't be trimmed because it's gotten into such a bad condition, which seemed plausible I guess. The trunk is very "sheddy", as in, I can put on gloves and grab a handful of the trunk and it just tears away. He said he could put his hand about a foot into the shedding, and if we tried to trim it, there'd be nothing but softness on the inside (and I guess not safe?).

I was probably expecting something more like this - clean and trimmed to the core:

So my question is this: Is my canary trunk a lost cause? Or was he giving me the run around? He also said to trim the green bush on the trunk, I'd have to call a landscaper not a tree trimming service. Does this all sound right?

Answer 1

If you can pull a little away at a time so that air can get in under all the burlap and left over stem material, it will start to harden off.

Once you have a ring around the base of the trunk, the rest will slowly pull down by gravity and you can tear them away when the loosen. Over a period of a couple years you can work your way upward.

Don't rush it though, that detritus is providing coolness to the interior and you'll shock the tree if suddenly in the summer it's laid bare.