What is the most logical next event?

How to care for trees on your property 
Remove branches that are diseased, dead, conflicting, or broken. 
Prune to increase the amount of light penetration into the crown of a tree or prune to improve structure or shape of the tree. 
Cut just outside the branch collar on the tree.
Always cut back to a lateral branch. When pruning a branch back to a lateral, the lateral branch should be no smaller than 1/3 the size of the branch being cut.