TREE MAINTENANCE

Trees provide many benefits to property owners that include shade, lower energy costs, improved noise reduction, improved air quality, and higher water erosion. Trees can be a huge benefit for homeowners, and a healthy, well maintained tree become stronger, and able to survive harsh weather, like annual droughts, hurricanes, ice storms, and dangerous winds. Trees are not invincible however, a tree can become diseased, or malnourished, making them weak and failing under any extreme stress. Unfortunately, to avoid storm damage from nearby trees, homeowners are often opting for removal, which will resolve any risk of property damage, it removes all the benefits that tree did provide, even lowering property value. There are trees that fail after a storm, these trees are often requested to be removed, without diagnosing the tree survival rate. Many trees have the potential of being restored and strengthen to withstand harsh weather.

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Just like Humans trees can grow stronger with the right nutrition....
With help, you can prepare your trees to thrive in harsher seasons and severe storms and preserve the many benefits you enjoy from your trees. With the help of an arborist, you can not only have a yearlong green lawn, but strong plants able to survive all types of dangerous elements.

How do I prepare my trees before storms?
Our properties, vegetation and plants need to have regular attention. This attention comes in the form of pruning, trimming, and fertilization. For the best results, having the help of a professional can improve the health of these trees with specific changes according to area. Let's review what you can do to help maintain your tree before a storm.

Removing all the dead limbs from the tree....
By removing dead, diseased, decayed, dying, or weak looking branches you remove the high risk failure branches, to reduce any damage that can occur during high winds.
Promote Strong Branch Growth with pruning and trimming....

Encourage good branch angles, removing a branch at a point of weakness, which will then split the branch into two branches close together, remove the weaker of the two.
Remove rubbing branches, excess suckers, water sprouts and decaying branches.
Don’t cut branches back to stubs, this will cause newly formed branches to grow from the edge of the stub, making weak inferior branches more likely to fail. Prune back to the branch collar.
Encourage Strong branch/ Trunk size relations ships, consulting an arborist for ideal sizes would be the best way to learn about tree branch and trunk ratios which are ideal for the type of tree in question.
Maintain a stable center of gravity by routine tree pruning to keep the tree balanced on all sides, while keeping the tree full and natural.

Tree Trimming isn’t enough
Root care is often neglected in tree maintenance. Keeping healthy soil, will greatly improve the strength of the tree branches, and resistance to disease. How does soil maintenance help? It allows tree roots to grow deeper and stronger, preventing tipping. Understanding root care can be tricky for those who have no knowledge of tree care. Employing the aid of an ISA Board Certified Master Arborist can not only provide great advice in root care and soil management, but can also show areas and options the property owner may not have been aware of.

Avoid cutting any root within a distance of 5 times the diameter of the tree trunk.
Avoid over soil filling, or excessive mulch, causing the roots to girdle (choke) the trunk.
Never dump chemicals or oils on the ground under the dripline of the tree.
If you are interested in learning about the many actions you can take in preparing for a storm, contact an expert ISA arborist and get insights that lead to healthier and stronger trees more resilient to outside elements.

This site made possible by: Northern Rockies Tree School, Mike Garvey, RCA, CA, TRAQ, ASCA, ISA and Montana Urban and Community Forestry Association