Making My Yard More Functional

Posted on: 27 August 2018

Trees are a beautiful and majestic part of your landscaping design, but their large size and heavy weight means that they also represent a serious safety risk if they become damaged, since falling branches and limbs can cause serious damage to your property. Being able to identify some of the most common signs associated with a tree that poses a falling risk can help you figure out when you need to get in touch with a professional arborist to have your tree trimmed back or removed entirely before it can cause any damage.

Signs of Disease

Any sort of indication that your tree may be diseased is a clear safety risk, as a dead or dying tree will be less structurally strong and thus more likely to have individual branches and sections fall over, if not the entire tree. Signs of disease can vary, but you'll want to look out for leaves falling off of your tree out of season, fungal growth on the branches or trunk, and missing or discolored sections of bark anywhere on the tree. Catching a disease early can mean that you may be able to save the tree by simply cutting off a single branch, but in the event that the disease is widespread, your tree will likely need to be completely removed.

Physical Damage

Another clear sign that your tree may be at risk of falling over is if there are cracks, missing pieces of bark, and other indications of physical damage and stress on your tree. These signs of damage can occur due to stress, such as immediately following a storm or other weather event, but they can also indicate that your tree has grown too much for its trunk and branches to support its weight. This is especially true for younger trees that are growing too rapidly, or for older trees that may have begun to reach the end of their lifespan.

Leaning

Finally, the last indication that you may want to get an arborist to inspect your tree and determine the best course of action moving forward is if your tree has noticeably begun to lean to one side, especially if it now overhangs your roof or your driveway. This can happen due to shifts in the soil underneath the tree, root damage, or even simply through the normal growth of your tree. However, as it begins to lean to one side, it is at a much greater risk of falling over and causing damage to your property.

For more information about tree care, contact a company like Johnson's Tree Service & Stump Grinding.