Actually even your own, planted, managed, chosen view can be subject to unexpected change... For example, the supposedly small tree becomes a LARGE tree, a violent storm can uproot or shred years of boundary growth, or drought burns it, if your unlucky floods drown or erode it, worse people may vandalise it...

I'll start with when a tree outgrows your section.

Our site was dominated by an immense Blue Gum (Eucalyptus tereticornis). It presided over the section rather like a gigantic octopus with its tentacle like limbs spreading out towards the Eastern, and Southern boundaries. A sure sign that the prevailing wind was from the North-West! Blue Gums are NOT the "ideal" tree for a residential section... with an estimated final height of 20 to 50 metres and with a girth of up to 2 metres they grow quickly, and constantly. Add to that their propensity for unexpectedly dropping both small & LARGE branches with vigorous enthusiasm and you have a PROBLEM!

We loved the tree and enjoyed its shade, free firewood (with frequent storms comes frequently a hail of free firewood, lol) and the chorus of bird-song which swelled form its canopy. Alas, the tree had suffered a major injury many, many years earlier and the base of the trunk now housed a large, deep cavern... The tree, while still vigorous, was not a long-term prospect.

We actually kept the tree going for over twelve years. Judiciously pruning off "tentacles" to try and keep it as dynamically balanced as we could. Each limb was typically 10 to 15m long and so high in the air that dropping them in sections was not possible. Despite the danger each limb that was removed was undercut with a decent wedge so as to prevent damage to the remaining tree. Undercutting prevents the pruned branch tearing off large sections of bark AND trunk! On a gum the bark is self-shedding but trunk damage is a serious concern when pruning. 

However, cutting undercuts can be very hazardous on large diameter branches... The wedge shape of the undercut will act as a PIVOT as the limb falls. As you cut through from above, towards your previously removed wedge on the underside of the limb, gravity will over power the horizontal strength of the limb at some point and it WILL head straight down. The tip of the limb hits the ground FIRST and then... much to any onlookers horror... the sheared off end of the limb javelins BACKWARD in a last ditch attempt to knock off the weilder of the chainsaw attacking it. Then the limb thuds to the ground with a resounding thump and the earth shakes as if an explosion has gone off... The sound quite nicely matches the shower of stars the chainsaw weilder might be seeing at this point after their tree wrestling escapade. 

We were sad to drop this tree but made sure that we had replaced it with hundreds of smaller trees so that the overall biomass of plants was at least maintained, if not actually increased...