It is important to give immediate attention to trees that have sustained storm damage. Only professional arborists will be able to gauge the arising safety issues successfully and undertake required measures. This may include the use of chain saw for removal of potentially risky branches and more.
Here are some aspects that require immediate attention, professional examination, and implementation of preventive measures.
Identifying Hazardous Trees
Split trunks and loos branches may cause accidents and property damages, so the removal is extremely important as quickly as possible. Firmly attached yet broken branches are not immediate threats and mostly require pruning. Adequate bracing of split trunks is a difficult process and require professional intervention.
Safety of Power Lines
Branches that hangover the power lines are a big safety concern. Pruning them requires special training and should never be tackled by the homeowners.
Dealing with Leaning Trees
High winds and heavy snowfall, often tips the trees and uproot them completely. Those leaning from a broken root have a slim chance at survival. Even if it does survive, it will always pose a risk. The ideal thing to do would be there removal followed by new tree replacement. You can pullback young trees to a vertical position, to help them re-grow.
Prevent additional damaged by pressing out the air spaces and loos and soil, water twice-weekly near the root system, especially during summer, spring, or the fall. Also, cover root area using wood chip 2-4 inch mulch. Use the stake to keep it in an upright position for at least a year following the damage. During growth season use of narrow bands, wire, tie-rope, or garden wire-in hose may prove to be fatal for the tree.
Removal of Broken Branches
Immediate requirement is removal of broken branches through pruning. Use trained arborists for giving the finishing cuts. Branches away from trunk require removal from split bottom. Only remove the loose bark and not those that are still attached. Topping trees is not a recommended process. It involves indiscriminate removal of branches where lateral branches/stubs are not capable to assume the terminal role. This measure shortens the life of the tree quite dramatically.
Fertilisation Needs
Fertiliser application seldom helps the storm damage tree. In most cases, these have the opposite effect and hamper the tree growth or its natural recovery. Also, one cannot rule out negative effects. Nitrogen, for example initiates growth and leads to greenery, but on the downside, it hampers root system development.
Your tree now becomes susceptible to diseases and less resistant to drought. When planting new trees in the damage-free area, do not used fertilisers for at least 3 years. Transplanted new trees need to regenerate 90% to 95% of the root system as quickly as possible; presence of nitrogen will prevent this.
Conserve Your Tree
While tree removal of immediate threat is necessary, one should do little else unless required. In cases where delay of the removal decision is possible, it is important to go for it. As the years go by through the natural recovery process the degree of damage doesn’t seem as severe as before.
