Resources
RX for Wounded Trees
RX for Wounded Trees offers guidelines on how to care for trees to keep them healthy and to protect them from wounds. It also prescribes ways to prevent, recognize, and minimize damage by decay that most often sets in after tree wounding.
Articles
Certified Arborists are tree care specialists dedicated to excellence in the field of Arboriculture. They are highly qualified in the care of your valuable trees and shrubs with knowledge of the most up-to-date advances, and proven age-old techniques.
- Drought Stress on Trees (pdf 52kb)
- Personal Protection Against Ticks (pdf 88kb)
- Bill Pollock Pruning a 300 Year Old Tree
- Enhancing Nature’s Beauty
- This Tree Lover Alleviates Stress
- Green Trees Get a Feeding
- Benefits of Trees (diagram)
- The Right Tree in the Right Place (diagram)
- Tree Care Rights and Wrongs (pdf 3MB)
- Frequently Asked Questions about Hemlock Wooly Adelgid (pdf 164kb)
- Tick Life Cycle (pdf 476kb)
- Tick Management (pdf 140kb)
- Tick Bite Prevention (pdf 172kb)
- Who Butchered My Tree? (pdf 120kb)
- Plant Health Care and Trees (pdf 16kb)
Connecticut Tree Protective Association
CTPA is a non-profit, non-partisan association, made up largely of tree care professionals from Connecticut and the surrounding states.
Snow and Woody Plants
“Snow is both friend and foe to trees and shrubs,” says Tchukki Andersen, staff arborist with the Tree Care Industry Association. “Snow causes its share of damage, as we all know, but in many cases it also protects plants and their roots against extreme fluctuations in temperature that could damage or even kill them.”
Snow does cause four kinds of damage: bending; breaking; splitting; and falling or uprooting. Whether woody plants will be damaged in one of these ways depends upon several factors. Coniferous evergreens, for instance, can bear more snow weight than broadleaf evergreens. A tree’s form can also be a factor in how well it will withstand heavy snow. Pine (low altitude), spruce and fir with spread branches are more likely to be damaged by heavy snowfall than trees with steeper angled branches.
Arborvitae is a good example of a plant that doesn’t handle heavy snow well. They tend to get tall, with multi-stemmed branches that are low to the ground.
“Snow will cause the branches to separate,” says Andersen, who doesn’t recommend planting arborvitae species in areas that get lots of heavy wet snow. She also recommends against planting them near buildings where snow can fall off the roof all at once in large piles. “Small, rounded woody-stemmed plants would be a better choice, but make certain to give them enough root space away from the structure.”
A tree’s structure is also a factor in whether it will be damaged by ice storms. A tree with good, right-angle branches will have less trouble than one with narrow crotches.
The type of snow is an important factor in potential damage to trees. Obviously, wetter snow is more damaging because it is heavier. And when the snow falls can be a factor. With a wet snow in March, when there are no leaves on the branches, the tree may be able to withstand damage pretty well. But that same snow in late spring or early fall, when the tree is filled with leaves, could add unbearable weight
On the plus side, snow moderates root temperatures and provides moisture for spring. Snow helps insulate the ground, which is beneficial for two reasons. First, snow is a poor heat conductor, so the temperature changes very slowly from the top layer of the snow to the bottom. This keeps the ground from heating and cooling as air temperatures fluctuate. Heating and cooling often cause the ground to heave, which can be damaging to roots. Keeping the ground temperature more constant is a better environment for healthy roots. A covering of snow can help keep the ground warmer. Pile eight inches of snow on the ground and soil temperature seldom falls below 23 degrees.
Finally, “a little breakage isn’t always bad,” insists Andersen. “Nature prunes trees, too. A wet snow may break off small twigs and dead branches. It does a good job of pruning that way.”
West Virginia Lightning
Storm and lightning photography including many shots of trees hit by lightning.
International Society of Arboriculture
The International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) has served the tree care industry for over seventy years as a scientific and educational organization.
Tree Care Industry Association
Established in 1938 as the National Arborist Association, today’s TCIA is a trade association of more than 2,700 commercial tree care firms and affiliated companies.
National Arbor Day Foundation
The National Arbor Day Foundation is working to help close the gap between what is known and what is practiced in the areas of tree care and environmental stewardship.
Trees and Stress
Researcher Roger S. Ulrich has repeatedly measured a relationship between human health and viewing trees. In some cases it has been the relaxing effect of tree scenes on students under the stress of final exams. In others he found that urban scenes with vegetation resulted in slower heartbeats, lower blood pressure, and more relaxed brain wave patterns. He even found that hospital patients recovering from surgery and having a view of trees through their windows had fewer complications, required fewer strong pain relievers, and left the hospital sooner than similar patients who had a view of a brick wall.
