Dealing with Hurricanes

Some people assume that the men and women who cut trees for a living are happy when a hurricane takes down trees, mostly because a major storm will mean a lot of work and therefore pay.  The truth is, we become arborists because we love trees.  We hate to see trees and shrubs damaged or killed.

We also feel for homeowners who see heavy limbs fall on their roofs or cars.  That’s why we keep an eye on the weather and prep when the weather models indicate we’ll get high winds.  Preparation is key to any response in a bad situation and anyone who’s lived in Connecticut for a few years knows we’ll get a memorable hurricane before too long.

Responding to Storms

There are two ways to deal with storms.  One is to respond quickly and safely to Mother Nature’s temper tantrum.  Irene and Sandy are still fresh in our minds.

If you need help clearing a damaged or dead tree, try to remain patient.  Tree services are in high demand just after a storm and every arborist will do his or her best to take care of customers while maintaining a safe work environment.  Pushing forward through fatigue or equipment that needs some TLC will just make a bad situation dangerous.

Preparing for Storms

The other way to deal with storms is to take action while the weather is good. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  Find a good arborist when the sun is shining and you have the time to listen to more thane one, to learn what skills each offers to you and your family, and to make a considered decision when you select the arborists you want on your team as you maintain your home.  Then, if a tree falls during a storm or a large limb traps your car in the garage, you’ll know what to do and avoid adding to an already miserable time.

You can also ask a good arborist for a free consultation.  A skilled eye can evaluate how a tree has grown over time and propose ways to make it stronger or less susceptible to storm damage.  For example, a bush that is pruned on a regular basis will be healthier and stronger than one that has been left alone.  Pruning is not just for esthetic purposes nor is it just for bushes.  Thinning a canopy on a tree can allow winds to pass safely through branches, rather than pushing the trunk past its limits.  Bending branches can be scary to see from inside a house but a lot less so than a wood breaking off to become a projectile.

We’re fast approaching the end of hurricane season but that doesn’t mean we’ll never see another hurricane.  Take care of you trees so they can continue to take care of you—shading you from hot sun and offering sweet, fresh oxygen, not to mention the smiles you’ll get from seeing that beauty in your yard.  Call Tree-Scape and Fitch today!

It’s a poor workman who quarrels with his tools.

When most people think of a professional arborist at work, they picture him or her near trees.  That’s often the case but, without a lot of work in the background, that tree work is, at best, inefficient and, at worst, dangerous.

Take maintenance equipment for example.  When a storm hits an area and a tree falls across a driveway, a homeowner needs to get that area cleared as fast as possible to get back and forth to work.  That kind of damage happens to many homes at once so there is little time to deal with chain saws that stall or chippers with dull blades.  A good arborist will make sure that all equipment is in good working order and ready to go when needed, whether the need is an emergency response or scheduled maintenance.

The equipment used to bring a tree back to health or cut it down is varied and pretty serious stuff.  An aerial bucket is a great way to access branches high off the ground but an extended reach is its secondary purpose.  A bucket’s primary job is to keep the arborist safe in the work area.  When the person operating a chain saw feels confident with a perch, then there is also greater safety for those on the ground supporting the work done by quickly moving material from a drop zone.

Trees are very heavy and moving tree limbs and tree trunks can be back-breaking work.  When a tool like a winch operates smoothly, more branches can be dragged as the team remains fresher longer and can do more work in a day.  Homeowners are happier with a cleaner, more beautiful yard and families can enjoy weekends with their beloved arborist, who has the energy to lift kids and play games.

Many tools used to work with trees aren’t mechanized.  Climbing gear, including ropes and boot spikes, are vital to the safety of an arborist as he or she gains access to tree limbs that might be too far from a safe landing space to locate a bucket truck.

Speaking of trucks, even the vehicle that brings the team to a homeowner’s property must be reliable.  A professional will never want to delay or even cancel a job because the engine won’t start.  A true professional arborist will want to show up on time, work through the day on the job at hand and not the tools that should be running well all day long.  Just keeping blades sharp will mean healthier pruning cuts and better chips for property use. 

Tree care can produce a harsh environment, with sap and sawdust mixing with dirt and hard-earned sweat.  Tree-scape and Fitch wants to make life easier for everyone on the job and everyone who will enjoy the fruits of their labors as trees shade a beautiful parklike setting.

Wetlands and How to Value Them

Do you know the value of wetlands in our area? These areas act as filters to remove toxins that might otherwise ruin our environment and water supply or harm the critters who live in the area. If you’re wondering what kind of toxins, realize that most of us are overfertilizing our lawns and those chemicals have to go somewhere. When they hit wetlands, the filtering effect kicks in as if by magic.

Of course, magic has nothing to do with it and we need to make sure our wetlands not only stay where they are (no more filling them in like would happen decades ago) but stay healthy, too. If you’re planning any kind of work on your yard, it’s worth a trip to the land use office of your town or city to identify any wetlands and make sure you’re not disturbing that area.

A good arborist will work with you to make sure you’re not taking any trees down when they’re needed to do their thing in a wetlands area. There are several reasons why your tree guys will do this.

• If you remove material from a wetlands area, your Inland Wetlands Enforcement Officer may require you to replace those plants and do so at one and a half times the damage done. That means, for every tree you shouldn’t have removed, you will need to add one and a half trees. Checking with a land use office before cutting begins can save a lot of money.

• Trees do an amazing job of cleaning up after us, providing us with oxygen after we breath out carbon monoxide and, yes, filtering materials that we may not even realize are environmentally unhealthy. Even a slight increase in temperature can kill fish in nearby waterways. Trees cooling rainwater runoff can make a huge difference, whether you like to take a fishing pole to your local stream or just want to hear the happy sounds of peepers as they herald the return of spring.

• Pruning ornamental bushes may seem like a small chore with little impact but every change makes a difference and town employees are at work to help residents live a happy life in town. They’re trained to describe negative impacts before they happen and can answer your questions.

Some of us live with enough plants or trees around our property that we think a little yardwork will go unnoticed and might mow a little closer to a pond or brook. A good storm might wash away soil that had once been held tight with plants killed in favor of grass. Or, a diligent land use office will use the advancing technology available, including drones, to mark those changes.

Gerry and Brian have made it a point to establish a good working relationship with the land use offices in the towns where they work, making sure they save their customers time, money, headaches, and serious property issues. Wetlands are beneficial and, with a little proactive action, not only easy to care for but fun to learn about!

To Bee or Not to Bee, Trees are the Answer

If you enjoy snacking on guacamole or luxuriating under a refreshing avocado facial mask, then you should take care of the trees in your yard.  No, don’t rush to plant an avocado tree because it’s not likely to survive the freezing temperatures of our Connecticut winters.  However, taking care of trees that are happy to grow here will pay off by keeping the bees happy.

Think of a world without bees and realize that there would also be no grapes to eat or wine to drink.  Bees need trees to obtain nectar and pollen and trees need bees in order to produce fruit and seeds.  Locally, our native plants, trees, and shrubs rely on the 400 species of wild native bees.  When you offer a flowering tree such as a dogwood, you can support a hungry bee just coming out of hibernation.  Red maples and bushes like azalea are also good food sources in the early spring, when bees need the most energy to restart colonies yet food is still in short supply as flowers have not yet bloomed.

A queen bumble bee is a lone survivor and starts a new hive each year.  Without food, her entire colony can disappear and, without the female worker bees the queen would have produced, cranberries are unpollinated.  Imagine a summer without the gentle hum of the bumble bee on a hot, lazy afternoon and then think about a Thanksgiving table without the cranberry sauce.

Of course, a blueberry bush would be an obvious choice to feed our buzzing friends but did you know that the ash, pine, birch, and willow trees are also going to support the butterfly population?  Butterflies are also good pollinators and desperately needed as several factors act on these tiny creatures to threaten their lives and our food supply.  If you’ve cleared trees on your property in favor of a uniformly green lawn, then you’ve created what is known as a monoculture.  Creatures cannot find any nutrition there and will avoid the area.  More and more lawns mean fewer and fewer places where pollinators exist and, when we want to do something as straightforward as grow a few flowers or pick tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and cucumbers from a vegetable garden, we will be unsatisfied and confused as to why we’re not successful despite hard work and cash outlays.

Trees also provide a home for native bees that are don’t live in a hive but build individual nurseries for each of their offspring.  Cavities and stems in trees are just the right listing for these real estate hunters.  And, before you judge carpenter bees as a menace, realize that they are just doing what comes instinctively and nesting in wood.  They are vital pollinators and both you and the bees would prefer that your yard contained a nice poplar or willow tree for them to use.

If you’re wondering what you can do to help these tiny but incredibly important creatures to do what they do best and help us to enjoy the foods we love, visit www.propollinators.org to learn more about the effort to create continuous corridors of land where pollinators can feel welcome and be healthy.  Also, call your favorite arborists, Gerry or Brian, to learn how you can keep your trees in tip top shape as more than just decorative ornaments in your yard and garden.

Arborists Make the News

Time flies.  Hard to believe it’s been almost two years since we sat down with Voices Newspaper to talk about our lives as arborists and how we provide services to care for trees.  If you have a subscription to the paper, click here or download the full article here.

The paper captured our interest in making sure trees receive the best care possible and we hope to go into more detail about the benefits of using techniques like pruning to ensure the health and beauty of your trees.  Stay tuned!

Spring Cleanup and Tree Care

There may not have been a lot of snow to clean up this winter but Mother Nature did blow hard enough to leave a lot of branches on the ground. If you own property with trees, you know you have a lot of cosmetic work ahead of you but are you ignoring a less visible chore?

Look for Signs of Tree Distress

How healthy are your trees? Take a moment to enjoy the first hints of warmer weather and slowly walk around your yard. Notice the bark on each tree and the earth over the root systems. Woodpeckers are very hard workers and if you’re seeing a lot of chips around the base of a tree, then they might be tearing apart the wood to get at bugs taking advantage of a sick or dying tree. Given the very real problem of Emerald Ash Borer in our area, you might see how the birds are trying to snack on these beetles.

Maybe you don’t have an ash tree. Then, check for other signs that can impact other species. Wings or carcasses of termites might indicate a serious issue with the health of a tree. Do the fallen branches around you look like they were dead before they fell and just too weak to stand up to the pressure of ice, snow, and wind? Or, did otherwise healthy branches snap and fall?

Help Your Trees

Don’t assume that an unhealthy tree is a doomed tree. You have more options than simply cutting and you should consider factors such as expense, loss of attractive features including shade, and possible advantages such as maintaining your property’s value by saving a beautiful, mature tree.

A professional arborist is trained to evaluate the health of a tree. Just as a doctor sees many cases and becomes adept at identifying problems and applying proven solutions, a good arborist can tell you how to protect your investment. The winter of 2019 had more than one storm where temps hovered at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Maybe a tree limb didn’t break with the ice and heavy, wet snow that resulted but that same limb is sagging and might need the assistance of a cable to remain in good condition.

Enjoy Your Yard

These big, gorgeous plants filter our air and clean our planet as well as provide us with amazing summer days to remember. Imagine a glass of your favorite beverage and a tasty snack. The light dances on your patio or deck as the sun filters through leaves rustling in a warm breeze.

When you take care of your trees, they take care of you so make the time talk with an arborist to ensure that your trees remain healthy and provide you with pleasure for decades to come.