New Castle Lawn and Landscape utilizes professional training and resources to stay up to date on the most current information for Tree Health Care. One of these accredited resources is the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA), a professional green industry organization whose mission is to promote the professional practice of arboriculture and create a worldwide awareness of the benefits of trees. ISA certifies arborists, providing the public with a source for recognizing skilled tree care professionals.
Below is an article that New Castle Lawn and Landscape was given permission to share. This informative article was sponsored by ISA and published on www.treesaregood.org
Managing Hazards and Risk
Trees provide numerous benefits to those living and working in the urban environment, which increase with tree size and age. However, older and larger trees are also more likely to drop branches or cause root conflicts on the sites they inhabit. In managing these trees, tree owners must recognize the tree benefits and risks.
Whether hazards are created by strong winds or ice-storms, or whether construction on the site may or already has negatively affected the tree, tree owners should recognize tree risk and management strategies to help ensure trees are able to provide their full complement of benefits.
Recognizing Tree Risk
Trees provide significant benefits to our homes and cities, but when trees fall and injure people or damage property, they are liabilities. Understanding and addressing the risks associated with trees makes your property safer and prolongs the life of the tree.
An arborist can help you manage the trees on your property and can provide treatments that may help reduce the risk associated with certain trees. An arborist familiar with tree risk assessment may suggest one or more of the following:
- Remove the target. While a home or a nearby power line cannot be moved, it is possible to move picnic tables, cars, landscape features, or other possible targets to prevent them from being hit by a falling tree.
- Prune the tree. Remove the defective branches of the tree. Because inappropriate pruning may weaken a tree, pruning work is best done by an ISA Certified Arborist.
- Cable and brace the tree. Provide physical support for weak branches and stems to increase their strength and stability. Such supports are not guarantees against failure.
- Provide routine care. Mature trees need routine care in the form of water, nutrients (in some cases), mulch, and pruning as dictated by the season and their structure.
- Remove the tree. Some trees with unacceptable levels of risk are best removed. If possible, plant a new tree in an appropriate place as a replacement.
Find an arborist who is ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualified.
Safe Response to Tree-Related Storm Damage
Severe weather can have a lasting impact on your home and the trees in the surrounding landscape. Tearing winds and penetrating rains work together, softening soils and overturning trees. Lightning strikes generate heath that vaporizes water within the tree, causing wood to split and bark to explode. During a storm, the failure of part or all of one mature tree may cause significant damage to personal property or utility lines.
Tree owners can follow these steps to help ensure a safe and effective response to tree-related storm damage:
- Assess the damages
- Take safety precautions
- Resist the urge to do it yourself
- Hire an ISA Certified Arborist
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