You probably love your trees. They are the defining feature in any yard, offering a unique kind of beauty to any landscape. Trees are often the focal point of pleasant memories in a yard, whether it’s children climbing a tree’s branches or adults enjoying their dappled shade and seeing homes for various wildlife.
So when trees show signs of aging or disease, homeowners may feel worried. Healthy trees are a stunning and vital part of your yard’s landscape, but unhealthy trees can quickly become unsafe for your property and loved ones.
If you’ve noticed signs of poor health in your trees, you should consider calling the experts (read: our team here at Clean Cut Tree Services!). You can never be too cautious when it comes to the safety of your family, and ailing trees could pose a threat to that safety.
When tree experts assess a tree for safety and health, we think about three major factors: the tree’s vitality, the tree’s structural integrity, and the risk the tree poses to people and property.
We’ll explore those terms below and the symptoms that may indicate your tree has become unsafe or unhealthy.
How to assess a tree’s vitality
A tree’s vitality can be determined by its growth, or lack thereof. If a tree is producing new branches each year and lots of green leaves in summer, it is likely a healthy tree.
If, however, you’ve noticed a decreased number of new branches, or leaves that start late in the season or wither and drop earlier than they should, your tree may be in distress.
A large number of dead limbs in the canopy of the tree can also indicate that the tree is failing.
You should always have these worrisome signs inspected by a trained arborist. Online photos of trees suffering from pests or diseases may look similar to your tree’s problems, but it’s a good idea to have an experienced tree specialist diagnose any problems and offer solutions.
How to assess a tree’s structural integrity
Assessing a tree’s structural integrity can be trickier than evaluating its vitality. Signs of decreased structural integrity may be hard to identify for the casual observer. Trees often look perfectly healthy with full foliage but can have serious internal structural issues. We can’t catch every one but our everyday experiences teach us how to spot potential future tree failures.
When we evaluate a tree for structural integrity, we consider these factors:
Heartwood decay leading to hollowed, weakened stems, especially basal rot, and cavities
Broken or split branches
Hanging limbs
Trunk/union cracks
Dead bark
Fungus growth
Reaction wood growth
Other load bearing decay
Any of these conditions can cause a tree to have trouble supporting its weight, and withstanding storm and wind loads. They can be signs of deeper issues that may make a tree too weak to save, meaning that the tree would need to be removed.
Some conditions may look serious but may not affect a tree’s structural integrity at all. Certain funguses pose no threat to a tree’s safety, and if a broken branch is not supporting a large portion of the tree, it may be safely removed without affecting the rest of the tree.
And none of these conditions alone determine a tree’s fate. Assessing a tree’s structural integrity means coming up with solutions that may be able to save the tree.
Simple, yearly tree maintenance such as pruning may extend the life of an aging tree with several dead limbs. Tree cabling can help improve a tree’s structural integrity, offering it years of life in your yard.
When to call a trained arborist
It’s hard to know when a distressed tree is diseased or damaged beyond repair. To optimize the value of your trees, you need a trained arborist to consider their function and benefit to you, their health and long-term safety. This will help inform you and to develop a plan for their future care.
Call our team of tree experts and we can help ease your mind about your trees. We’ll help you gain more familiarity with your trees, discuss inherent risks, and help you determine whether a tree needs pruning or removal, or whether, with some mild interventions, it can flourish in your yard for years to come.
