Neighborhood Landscape - Beauty or Bane of the Block
No question, this year has brought a preponderance of dead and dying tree branches.
- Much of the blame may be placed on the dry winter devoid of snowfall. Surface roots desiccated and died. These roots are responsible for water and nutrient uptake. While the spring rains came, the damage had already been done leaving suffering trees and shrubs dying from a lack of water.
- The mild winter encouraged squirrels to gnaw their way through many shade tree branches – honeylocust and elms are favorites.
- Branch and stem diseases were also favored by the past winter. A warm dry fall and winter followed by a cool and wet May is the perfect storm for stem inhabiting bacteria and fungi. These diseases often get a real foothold just as the tree leafs out.
Typhoid Mary Landscapes
Dead trees, shrubs and branches are ugly. They won’t miraculously come back to life. And to boot, they often harbor insect and disease pests that spread to other plants in the landscape. A good example of this is fire blight a common disease of crabapple. Fire blight is aptly named as the affected twigs and branches turn black and curl – looking as if they have been burned. A bacterial disease, fire blight is spread from tree to tree by wind, rain, and pollinating insects.
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear does it make a sound?
In the forest, trees sprout, grow, die and fall on a daily basis. This is the biology of the forest. But most of our landscapes are not the forest and there is a standard duty of care. This is not legal advice, but in the cases where trees and tree parts fall causing damage these questions are posed.
- Did the person(s) responsible for the care of the property act in a reasonable fashion?
- Could they have foreseen this problem with their landscape?
Does this mean that managers of landscapes need to be experts in landscape? In vast majority of cases, the answer is no. But, by looking at the tree could a lay person have seen the problem and did they seek the advice of a landscape professional? Dead, broken, and hanging branches are certainly things that the lay person can recognize. Included is also tree decays. Are there obvious decays in the tree? Is there a bee’s nest or squirrels nesting in a hollow? These are signs of decay and should be investigated by a qualified arborist.
Pruning dead and dying branches are not something to delay. Owners and landscape managers may be able to tackle small jobs that can be handled from the ground. Larger jobs and certainly those that require climbing or the use of a bucket truck are always best left to tree care professionals.
