Video | How to Prepare Your Trees for Hurricanes: Tips to Protect Your Home and Property
Nora shares expert tips on how to prepare your trees to withstand storms
Hurricanes aren't just a threat to coastal communities. They can impact all of us. It's really important to prepare our trees to withstand these storms, so that we can protect our homes, our property, and even our lives.
Hi. I'm Nora. Today we're going to talk about how to prepare your trees to face these storms.
No tree can withstand every storm, but there's a lot we can do to help our trees live long, healthy lives.
One of the key things that trees need to withstand storms is the proper structure. And this includes a strong central trunk, well-spaced branches, and an undisturbed root zone.
Of course, many trees don't have great structure and have features that make them more likely to fail in storms such as multiple trunks, long over-extended branches, and messed up root zones. So you need to structurally prune your trees when they have these kind of defects. So they not only grow big, but also strong.
Leaning trees are especially concerning. And rightfully so. But a leaning tree doesn't have to be a dangerous tree. You have to ask yourself some questions. Has the tree always been leaning? Is it leaning more, or is there damage on it? Or does the root plate look like it's lifting? The most important thing to do for leaning trees is to monitor them. This is how you'll be able to tell if you just have a tree with character, or you're seeing increasing problems.
Another thing we can do for our trees is to keep them in groups. Just like in a forest. Trees together protect each other from winds, share resources, and help hold each other up. A solitary tree is a riskier tree. So keep your trees in groups the best you can and plant trees together.
Starting to improve your trees isn't something you can do overnight. It may take years of structural pruning, maintaining and monitoring the health of your trees, and having them grow in groups. If you're concerned about any of your trees, give one of our Treecologists a call or any reputable qualified arborist in your area. Together, we can help prepare your trees for the next big storm.
