We have two California fan palms (I think) growing at the very top of an extremely steep slope immediately behind our house located in Burbank area ( lot cut into the slope of the hills, house built in late 40's pre-dating various building codes about proximity to slopes, etc). The trees are probably over 25 ft tall and I want to remove them before they become too tall/heavy and possibly pull down the eroding slope. Can I have them cut to the ground and allow the stump of the trunk and roots to die, decompose? Removing the rootball would do immense damage to the hillside which is already rather crumbly (decomposing granite). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.