How To Know Your Trees are Storm Ready
Hurricane season is heating up! You need to know if your trees are safe. Even the wind of an average thunderstorm can push a weakened tree over the tipping point making it a real hazard to your home and family.
Check out these 6 warning signs.
- Limbs over your roof - Since there is plenty of available sunlight above your home, trees naturally grow over your roof. As the limbs grow, they become heavier and potentially dangerous. Horizontal branches and those with weak joints are more likely to cause roof damage. Our Certified Arborist can inform you how wind-resistant your trees are.
- Hollowness and Decay - A barely visible hole in the trunk can indicate large internal cavities. After we fell a hazardous tree, customers often marvel at how hollow it is, "How did it stay standing?" Even a minor wind can topple such trees.
- Leaning - A tree leaning towards your home, car, or play area is an obvious hazard, with or without a windstorm. Our Certified Arborist can determine the strength of the tree's root system and the likelihood of it falling given its particular species, angle of lean, and size of trunk and canopy.
- Proximity to Utility Lines - Preventing a power outage is a powerful motivator to trim nearby branches. According to the Tree Care Industry Association, any tree that has limbs within 10 feet of overhead lines should be considered hazardous. The International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) adds that trees or limbs falling onto lines "may cause power outages, surges, fires, and other damage. Downed lines still conducting electricity are especially dangerous. A tree with a potential to fall into a utility line is a very serious situation."
- Dead Limbs - Dead or dying limbs (or whole trees) often fall in a windstorm! I state the obvious, but oddly this is often ignored. The longer the rot continues, the more dangerous (and thus more costly) the removal becomes.
- Dense Canopy - Thinning a canopy to allow air penetration can prevent your trees from toppling in a windstorm. The physics of it is quite simple - wind passes through instead of taking a tree with it. The same pruning practice can also stimulate turf growth.
Like your own health, preventative care is less expensive and traumatic than waiting for a crisis. Our Certified Arborist can identify and treat many tree defects, including root damage, diseases, insects, and wounds from improper pruning. We're glad to help you assess the storm-readiness of your trees at no charge!
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