Lee’s Landscape News           Jan 18 2005    

What a winter we have had so far!  Mother nature has kept our crews busy with heavy snow and freezing rain. 

A couple weeks ago I was working on updating this site when the power went out during an ice storm. It was getting late and not all that cold out so I went to bed figuring we would have power again by morning. Thunder and lightening woke me a couple times, but then I heard something a little different. An explosive popping sound followed by what seemed to be a shower of sparks.  In my minds eye I tried to picture the cause of this sound.  An exploding power transformer with hot lines arcing around it?  There is nothing like a puzzle to keep me awake; but I didn’t want to get up and lose the warmth I had built up under the blankets.  Just drifting off again I heard the sound repeated but up the hill behind my house and more distant... more crackly sounding but still accompanied by the sparkling shattering sound my ears were now more tuned in to analyze. Suddenly realizing the impact this freezing rain was having I  shot out of bed and ran to the window. Large tree limbs were on the ground.  Major branches were bending under the cumulative weight of the ice; then noisily busting  sending thousands of 3” icicles to break with a sparkly shattering sound. 

Well those in our area know the power was out for days for many of us, and the damage to the trees and landscape is still being cleaned up. We’ve had an influx of tree company trucks working in town. Most of the local tree care, and landscape businesses had their hands full assisting their customer base. The city workers are also busy as these crews and residents move debris to the street for collection.  I believe we will be seeing the effects of this storm in our landscape for years to come.  If you have a particularly valuable tree (yes I know they are all valuable) or one you wish to save that may be a hazard down the road I would suggest you find a certified arborist.  A good first test  of their quality would be to tell them you needed your trees topped.  If they say “Sure, no problem.” move on till you find one that knows what is good for the long term health of a tree.  There are plenty of crews in town that can  carve up your trees for you; but I can’t recommend any of them, our company included,  for proper pruning of large trees.   Seems like the local ones with the equipment don’t have the knowledge and vice versa. Everyone appreciates the hardworking and practical service of the local jobber cleaning up this mess, but if you have issues with major branches of a large tree, do generations to come a favor and search out an ISA certified arborist.

The International Society of Arboriculture web page is a good place to learn the basics of what to expect from a real tree care professional.

“Good arborists will only perform accepted practices. For example, practices such as topping a tree, removing an excessive amount of live wood, using climbing spikes on trees that are not being removed, and removing or disfiguring living trees without just cause are unnecessary”. _{(from the ISA page)}
 

Making Proper Pruning Cuts _{(also from the ISA page)}

Pruning cuts should be made just outside the branch  collar. The branch collar contains trunk or parent branch tissue and should not be damaged or removed. If trunk collar has grown out on a dead limb to be removed, make the cut just beyond the collar. Do not cut the collar.

If a large limb is to be removed, its weight should first be reduced. This is done by making an  undercut about 12-18 inches from the limb's point of attachment. A second cut is made from the top, directly above or a few inches further out on the limb. This removes the limb leaving the 12-18 inch stub. The stub is removed by cutting back to the branch collar. This technique reduces  the possibility of tearing the bark.

I’ll get off my tree pruning soapbox for now.  I’ll try to cover more specific pruning techniques in the next article.

Lee