Immediate
Care For Storm Damaged Trees
Nebraska Forest
Service Storm Damage Bulletin No. 7
November 1997
|
Many trees that were damaged by the
October snow storm will require some degree of immediate attention.
Homeowners working on their trees need to be careful, though, to
watch out for safety concerns and to consider the best approach for
dealing with the tree they are trying to save. Chain saw and other
heavy work off the ground and essentially all work on large trees
should be done only by professional arborists. This bulletin is the
first of a series that will provide information to help deal with
the problem of Storm Damaged trees.
Hazardous Trees
Loose or loosely attached branches
and split trunks are obvious safety concerns that should be taken
care of as soon as possible to avoid the possibility of injuring
someone or damaging property later when the branch or that part of
the tree falls. Broken but firmly attached branches that pose no
immediate danger of falling can be pruned whenever convenient after
the more hazardous loose branches have been removed. Trunks split
down the middle are very difficult to brace adequately, and trees
with split trunks should be removed or taken care of by a
professional arborist.
Power Lines
Branches hanging over power lines are
a major safety hazard from the standpoint of the person removing the
branches. Special training is required to prune branches over power
lines safely. Homeowners should not attempt to prune these branches
themselves. Contact your local power company or an arborist trained
in electrical line clearance to have these branches removed.
Leaning Trees
The heavy weight of snow in some
cases did not break the above ground parts of the tree but tipped
the tree over by breaking some of the roots. Trees leaning from root
breakage usually do not survive well. If a tree tips in a storm, it
often means the tree had damaged or poorly developed roots before
the storm pushed it over. If a tipped tree does survive, it often
becomes a hazard from the damage it could cause if it were to fall.
Mature trees rarely survive attempts
to pull them back into place after being tipped over by a storm.
These generally should be removed and replaced with new trees. Very
young trees may survive if the trees are gently pulled back to their
vertical positions. If this is done, avoid additional damage to the
remaining roots if possible, press out any air spaces that may have
formed in the loosened soil, water the area of the root system twice
each week in the absence of rain during the fall, spring, and
summer, cover the root area with two to four inches of wood chip
mulch, and stake the tree for the first year to prevent the tree
from falling again. Do not use rope, wire, wire in garden hose, or
any narrow band of material to tie around the tree during the
growing season. These will injure the trunk and could kill the tree
as it tries to grow. Use instead a broad strap or other fabric at
least one inch wide and inspect and adjust the location of the strap
once each week during the growing season to minimize any injury the
strap might cause to the bark.
Pruning
The only pruning that really should
be done at this time is the removal of broken branches. Leave the
fine pruning and finishing cuts until late winter or early spring.
All pruning cuts will dry out to some degree during the winter.
Dieback of the inner bark around a pruning cut can be minimized if
the final pruning is left until just before the tree begins to grow
in the spring. Have a trained arborist make the finishing cuts.
Branches that have pulled away from
the trunk should be removed at the bottom of the split. Avoid
causing any additional damage to the trunk. Remove any loose bark,
but do not cut into bark that is living and still attached.
Never top trees. Topping creates
serious hazards and dramatically shortens the life of a tree.
Never use paint or wound dressing to
cover wounds. These materials do no good for the tree and actually
interfere with the tree's wound sealing process.
Avoid Fertilizing
Fertilizers sometimes have negative
effects on trees. Nitrogen has harmful effects when it is present in
excess of what the tree needs. Excess nitrogen in the soil will
create a fast growing, very green tree, but the same tree will have
a poorly developed root system, will be more susceptible to drought
conditions, and will be more susceptible to problems from insects
and diseases. Trees generally do not need more than one pound of
actual nitrogen per 1000 sq. feet of root area per year. If you
fertilize the lawn under your tree, your tree gets plenty of
fertilizer already. Any additional fertilizer should be applied only
if you know the tree has a nitrogen deficiency problem, which you
would determine most easily from a soil analysis that indicated
nitrogen was present at a level below about ten pounds per acre.
Do not assume trees damaged from the
snow will benefit from a fertilizer application. In most cases they
will not, and the fertilizer will only inhibit the ability of the
tree to recover. If trees are removed completely and new trees are
planted, do not fertilize the new trees at all for the first three
years. Newly transplanted trees need to regenerate the 90 to 95% of
their root system they lost while being dug up. Nitrogen
applications at planting time may only slow the root regeneration
process.
Be Conservative
Do not prune or remove more than you
have to at this time. Remove any hazards, but save other decisions
on pruning and removals for later. While the damage may look severe
at this time, we need to concentrate more on how we can save trees
rather than making quick decisions on cutting them down. Many cities
across the country have lost trees to major ice storms in recent
years. Nebraska City was one that suffered tremendous damage in an
ice storm in October 1991. Even after just a few years, the damage
becomes much less noticeable.
Keep in mind why you wanted your
trees. The trees may still be able to serve that function. Don't be
too hasty to make a decision to remove a tree if you can delay that
decision to the spring or even a year from now. You may decide later
the tree was not damaged as badly as you thought.
Additional Information
For more information contact your
local University of Nebraska County Extension Office or visit the
UNL-Nebraska Forest Service Community Forestry web site (http://ianrwww.unl.edu/ianr/douglas/cfintro.htm).
|
