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Prepare Trees for Summer Thunderstorms and Adverse Weather

May brings plenty of summer thunderstorms and adverse weather to Delaware and Pennsylvania. Those thunderstorms, in turn, bring plenty of risks to properties that have trees, especially fully-grown ones. If these trees are not properly prepared for powerful storms, they can significantly threaten your property and safety. As a result, homeowners need to practice proper tree trimming and pruning in their landscapes to reduce the risks of damage to their homes, nearby structures or vehicles. Below are tips on how to prepare trees for summer thunderstorms.

1. Consider Tree Risks & Get Your Trees Inspected

You should first evaluate potential risks to prepare your trees for summer thunderstorms. Your trees provide many benefits but can also become a liability if they receive inadequate care and maintenance. Some of these risks may be difficult for the average homeowner to spot and may require a trained professional to recognize.

As you prepare trees for summer thunderstorms, work with an arborist to help identify potential risks during heavy winds and storms. To ensure you enjoy a safe environment on your property, your arborist may recommend various treatments after completing a tree risk assessment. These may include:

Tree trimming and pruning

Cabling and bracing

Tree removal

Regular tree inspections are crucial for maintaining safe and healthy trees. You can identify potential risks early and take appropriate action by inspecting them for signs of decay, pest infestations, and other problematic issues. For instance, if your trees are near a structure like your home or garage, you can remove any overhanging limbs that may cause damage during a summer thunderstorm or adverse weather. A professional tree care service company, like Stein Tree Service, can help you evaluate the health of your trees and resolve issues such as overhanging branches, especially if those hazardous branches are in particularly difficult areas, like near power lines.

2. Get Your Trees Pruned or Trimmed

Pruning trees to remove dead or weak branches is especially important for two reasons.

Regular pruning helps significantly reduce wind resistance or drag on trees and prevent damage in intense storms. However, over-thinning is a risk, so work with a tree specialist to ensure proper results from tree trimming and pruning of landscapes.

The strong winds during a thunderstorm can cause weak or dead branches to break and fall, damaging nearby property or injuring people. So, pruning and trimming can be an effective aid to prepare trees for summer thunderstorms.

Pruning and trimming is also good preventive maintenance for other issues that affect trees, like pests and diseases.

3. Get Preventive Tree Care

Summer storms and adverse weather can bring lightning, strong winds, and heavy rain. Lightning, in particular, poses significant risks to trees. However, with the right preventive measures, you can minimize the risk of lightning strikes and preserve your tree’s health. Tree lightning protection strategies, for instance, can help keep your trees safe, healthy, and protected. By investing in such preventive care, you’re ensuring the long-term safety and health of your trees.

If a tree is located less than 10 feet from a structure and is struck by lightning, the strike can jump, or side-flash, to conductive materials on your house, like downspouts and gutter systems. So, by taking preventive measures to protect your tree from lightning, you can reduce the risk of damaging your home at the same time.

What to Do After a Summer Storm

Like preparing trees for summer storms, post-storm care is essential to prompt and proper tree care in Wilmington, DE. While the Southeast’s hurricanes and tropical storms dominate the national news waves, in the north, we have our notorious nor’easters and other strong thunderstorms to worry about from September to April. The following is a quick look at what professional arborists inspect and recommend following a large storm:

Begin With a Visual Inspection

Following a storm, the first thing to do is to complete a visual inspection, first at a distance, and if no large dangers are seen, do a walkthrough of your yard. Call tree care professionals such as Stein Tree Service immediately for big jobs or dangerous situations. Danger signs include:

Hanging or otherwise broken tree branches overhead

Splits in tree trunks or branches

Tree leaning

Signs of upheaval in soil at a tree’s base

Limbs falling over utility lines

Newly visible root systems

Fully uprooted or toppled tree

Start Small and Go Bigger

In areas without the above issues, a sound system for clean-up is to start small and work up

to bigger items. Small twigs, leaves, and debris can easily be picked up and put in the appropriate trash bins. Smaller and mid-sized branches may be dried out for later use during the fall as fire kindling.

Saving a Split Tree

Even if your favorite tree was split during a strong storm, the tree may be salvageable. Consult with an arborist as soon as possible following the damage.

Replacing a Leader

If a tree’s leader has been completely lost to storm damage (or disease), with good tree care in Wilmington, DE, you might be able to have training for a replacement leader. Training a replacement leader — in other words, replacing the main trunk of a tree due to situations like canopy loss or complete splitting — is a form of storm damage arborists treat. This process typically involves selecting a new branch as the main trunk and guiding its growth to ensure it develops into a strong, central leader. Encouraging a replacement requires continual monitoring, with pruning done on at least a quarterly basis. Your beloved tree may thrive once again if proper tree care is practiced.

Call Stein Tree Service for Skilled Tree Trimming and Pruning in Wilmington, DE, and Nearby Areas

Stein Tree Service can help with all tree trimming and pruning on your Wilmington, DE property. Prepare trees for summer thunderstorms and adverse weather with professional trimming and pruning. Contact us today for a free consultation.

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