When I was hiking, the first one I saw I stopped to take a picture of it because of its stunning form. Only when I went up close to see what it was did I recognize it as the rough-barked Arizona Cypress of the Chisos. I have never seen any other examples of rough-barked Arizona Cypress so I cannot compare the Chisos Cypress to them. I noted every Chisos Cypress from the cabin on the Boot Canyon trail up the creek til there were no more Cypress, only Pinyon Pine. They were consistently the same, no exfoliating bark but light-colored ridged bark that clung tight to the tree. Will try to post the pictures I have this weekend. Will petition the National Park Service to make the seeds of these trees available for limited harvest and the Texas Forestry Service to add them to their list of seedlings they raise. They must be planted in other places to avoid a one forest fire wipe-out of their genetics.

interior browning is NORMAL.. no conifer.. nor evergreen holds its leaves forever ... though debatable.. i would not call the stuff in there branches ... browning is increased due to drought last year.. hard winter.. etc ... reach in and knock it off.. or leave it until it falls off itself ... brown down low.. hard to tell on that last pic.. is USUALLY a dog ... or a 6 year old boy .. lol ... ken

It's hard to tell without a close-up shot but this simply looks like a sucker branch...common to find on many plants and trees. Suckers come out on top of basically the same bud location as a previous branch and often grow as fast or faster than the original branch. That's also why it is growing out straighter. I would definitely cut the upper sucker branch out before the others begin to give it room. I think the rest of your tree will hold it's natural shape much better. JMO......mark

.......agree with this^...plus, you could begin to "normalize" their shape and appearance via just using your hand pruners for any touch-up pruning. Just clip back those branches/branchlets which deviate too far (for your tastes) from the main body of the plant, thereby gradually getting them out of their sheared condition. This all based on my earlier suggestion that all of these look like they've been sheared in the past. It reminds me of how some nurseries/garden centers think the public wants their young pines or spruce to have an unnaturally conical shape and therefor prune these plants which in the main never need pruning. What I'm saying is, it takes a few years of allowing them to grow in their natural fashion to get them out of this look. but it can be done. As for those under the windows, Embo's exactly right-you will tussle with them forever...unless you don't mind a big shrub blocking your windows! I've got a dwarf lilac which I didn't plant but which ended up right in front of one of my mother's windows. Since I refuse to take the hedge shears to it, what I'm left with is target pruning via hand pruners, but it takes perhaps a thousand individual little cuts to prune this one dumb shrub which really shouldn't even be there. Mom loves her lilacs though, so for now.........