If you ignore overgrown, damaged, or leaning trees on your property, you put the landscape at risk. It does not stop there, though. By failing to address landscape issues, you compromise on the safety of your family, neighbors, parked vehicles, and neighboring buildings.
Such negligence may result in accidents and falls, roof damages, power outages, and other life-threatening and costly scenarios. You may already have a proactive approach when addressing tree care. Perhaps you already shape, trim, and prune your trees regularly, ensuring they stay in optimal health. But are you qualified enough in tree care to recognize when a tree needs emergency treatment? Maybe not.
Despite many homeowners being tree enthusiasts, they’re unable to identify signs of when a tree needs an emergency tree service. Without field-specific knowledge, they can’t recognize a critical tree-patient. How can you protect your Seattle property from the hazards of damaged trees? By knowing when to call a Seattle tree service for emergency treatment for your trees.
Here is how you can do that:
1. An Ailing Tree
Trees are living things, and just like us, they can grow sick. If you don’t address tree sickness in time, you unintentionally allow the damage to worsen. Your tree will grow unstable with each passing day and ultimately die. Hence, be vigilant for signs indicating that your tree is sick. Symptoms of a sick tree include peeling or brittle bark, yellowing leaves, uneven foliage, carpenter ants, dead branches, knotty or brittle roots, and fungus.
When any of these signs start appearing on a tree, contact a certified arborist immediately. An expert inspection will determine which treatment is necessary. If the situation is beyond repair, an arborist can arrange for tree removal to prevent potential hazards.
2. Post Heavy Rains and Storms
Although this varies by region, storms and heavy rains are inevitable in most parts of the world. Unfavorable weather conditions can cause trees to bend, topple or uproot. You must not delay contacting a tree service for an emergency check-up on your trees after torrential downpours and storms. If you experience any or more of the following situations, you must know that the situation warrants an emergency call for tree experts:
• Broken limbs and branches
• Leaning tree trunks
• Trees leaning against one another
• Trees leaning against the power lines or your home
• Root exposure
• Soil erosion
All these situations demand an emergency check-up because extreme weather conditions make trees vulnerable to uprooting or falling.
3. Visible Issues
Suppose you notice your trees creating visibility issues when you’re moving outside or navigating your vehicles around your property. Trees with uneven growth can cause such a problem. They could also block the visibility of traffic lights on adjacent streets. You must schedule emergency trimming, in this case, by a tree service. It is crucial to address visibility issues that your trees may be causing to avoid potential vehicular or trip-and-fall accidents.
4. Trees Leaning Beyond 15% Vertically
Sudden high winds may cause trees to lean, while soil changes can do the same. Roots are the anchoring system of a tree, and when they are exposed to tough winds, the tree may no longer stay vertical. All these increase the risk of toppling. One way to judge whether a tree can likely collapse is to measure how far it is leaning from a vertical position. Generally, any lean beyond 15% is dangerous, and experts remove any that lean to this extent. In some cases, the tree might be healthy but have a structure that naturally leans more, but only a certified arborist can determine that.
Even if no storm occurred, a tree leaning towards power lines or growing near them requires trimming. It’s important to remember that trees growing close to power lines could be disastrous and dangerous. An emergency call is necessary when you spot any tree with a compromising structure. This means splitting or cracking, which is most familiar due to extreme temperatures and environmental factors etc.
While most trees suffering from cracks heal naturally, you must never take any chances in this regard. In some situations, the compromised structure can be a threat to the tree’s health and your wellbeing, family, and property’s safety. It is best to consult certified arborists the moment you spot dislodging branches, splits, and cracks. You may most likely manage to remove the smaller cracked or broken components on your own, but how can you verify the extent of the damage inside? A professional will notice any large limbs loosening, any structural threats and treat them appropriately.
5. Dead or Decaying Trees
You must also never hesitate to get help from a professional arborist for emergency tree services if you suspect decay. You could also verify this with a few simple tests. To test the condition of a particular tree, try to snap some of its smaller branches. If you find no trouble snapping them off, then the tree is most likely in poor health. You could also conduct an easy scratch test. This test aims to expose the cambium of the bark, which in the inner layer. You can do this by scratching the bark’s outer layer using a sharp tool, like a pocketknife. Aim for a shallow cut in the outer layer to expose the inner one. A green color cambium is a sign of life, meaning the tree is still breathing. If you find a brown cambium instead, then your tree is dead already, most likely.
6. Insect Infestation
Trees can benefit from certain insect types, but predatory insects are very harmful. If these infest your tree, the chances are that it will succumb to damage. For example, the most harmful kinds are the boring insects for trees. You can forestall a lot of damage by inspecting the tree trunk regularly. If you detect this problem at an early stage, call for an emergency tree service to save your tree in time. To detect this issue, look closely for holes in the bark, a wilting crown of the tree, or sawdust mounds at the base of your tree. All or one of these signs relates to infestation. Similarly, sucking insects can destroy your trees too. Their honeydew production can damage the tree, especially its leaves. If these infest a particular tree, you will notice scaly formations on the branches or leaves, showing signs of sooty mold.
7. Tree Growing Close to Your Home
It is right to call for emergency tree services if you suddenly notice how a tree has grown too close to your house, or its branches are hanging over the roof. You may or may not be aware, but overgrown branches can lead to a host of safety problems. This is primarily why tree experts recommend planting trees at a distance of twenty feet from the house and six feet away for smaller trees. In case a tree grew too close to your home, contacting an expert is the best course of action if you want bracing and cabling solutions.
Final Thoughts
Routine services, along with timely emergency services, help if you avoid costly and dangerous problems. If you fail to address a tree issue in time or put off its removal, you risk exacerbating conditions. Trees can wreak havoc on your property and wellbeing, too, if they are weak and severely damaged. Any number of fatal and disastrous accidents could occur if they topple over your house, your family members, or on neighboring properties. By contacting a certified arborist like Elite Tree Care, you can address problems in the early stages and maximize tree life and health. Whether you are in an emergency situation or taking preventative action, we are your trusted source for tree, shrub, and hedge removal and pruning services in the Puget Sound.