Taking Care of Snow Damaged Trees

The idea of getting out of the dead of winter is refreshing and comforting. While you want to take advantage of the warmer weather right away, your plants will need some help to deal with the change in temperatures. You’ll find some trees need some tender loving care due to the winter weather.

Snowstorms lead to broken limbs, leading to other tree damage. The good news is there are steps you can take to deal with the snow damaged trees to protect you, your home, and people passing by.

Always Get Someone Else to Do This

There are a lot of risks to taking down snow damaged trees. You don’t want to do this yourself. You’ll likely have a job that involves the use of ladders or the removal of large branches and even entire trees. Please seek help from a professional for safety reasons.

You may actually need to call the city to do the work. This is usually when a tree is between your property and the city’s property. Check boundaries if you’re not sure.

Watch Out for All Hazards

There are going to be some smaller elements you can do yourself. This could be dealing with the odd branch that is breaking off or a small amount of debris due to one small tree that’s fallen. Before you go in to remove it, look around at all things surrounding the trees. Power lines are one of the biggest issues, and you’ll need your power company to manage this problem to avoid electrocution risks and downed power lines.

Assess the Damage

Take a look at the level of damage that’s happened. Will you get away with just taking off a few branches, or is this something that requires the full tree to be removed? As long as the tree has most of its major limbs and 50% of the crown intact, you’ll find that the tree itself can be saved. If not, then the tree needs to be removed.

Do watch out for knocking the snow off the branches. Remove the snow gently to avoid breaking and stressing the branches even more.

Now it’s time to prune. Don’t take more branches off than you need to. The aim is to keep the tree alive and thriving after the snowstorm.

You need to protect your property and the people around it. Snow damaged trees are a risk, so you’ll need to take care of the problem as soon as possible. In many cases, it’s best to hire a professional. Not only will they know how to protect a tree while managing the damage, but they’ll also know how to do it all safely.