Outside your door the wind is gusting wildly. Suddenly — Pop! Crash! A tree limb is down on your porch! Then! ShhhhWUMP! You watch an entire tree succumb to the wild winds. Your stomach twists, your heart jumps and then the lights go out. You’re left listening to the cracking and splitting of trees all around you.
After the storm has passed, your eyes begin to elaborate on what you’ve heard. Fir trees have broken off half-way up their trunks, an old oak tree has toppled completely over, and as for those old bigleaf maples, what a mess!
The windstorm that descended into Linn and Lane Counties a couple of weeks ago took everyone by surprise, especially the trees. Under normal circumstances, trees develop “reaction wood” (sort of the arboreal equivalent of “muscle”), to hold them up against the prevailing winds they grow up with. When winds aggressively whip around, or come forcefully from another direction, as they did during the windstorm, many trees, or tree limbs, aren’t able to withstand the sudden change.
Trees most susceptible to failure and damage in strong gusty windstorms are older trees with hidden pockets of decay in their trunks, branches, or roots. Also, trees with structural problems, and trees that never developed “reaction wood” in the first place because of being grown in a protected site are at risk of failure. Finally, trees growing in rain-saturated soils are at increased risk of being blown completely over in a strong storm.
What do you do with downed or damaged trees on your property? Here are some suggestions:
If you have a fallen tree that can be cut up as a saw log or sold as firewood, you need to contact your local Oregon Department of Forestry office to find out if Oregon Forest Practice Rules apply to your situation.
These rules often apply to any forest/tree harvest-related activity that is undertaken with the intent of making a profit or when forest products are bartered in exchange for goods and services. If the Forest Practice Rules apply to your situation, you will need to notify the Department of Forestry of your intentions by filling-out a no-fee form so the agency can track your operations and monitor your compliance with the rules.
If you want to clean-up a damaged tree, please don’t do it the way my father used to do it! Nowadays, “flush cuts” that raze the broken limb “flush” with the trunk are out! Not only is this practice definitely “uncool”, but it causes terrible damage to the tree by making an additional trunk wound that the tree has to deal with.
The best way to remove a branch stub is just to cut it off at the branch “collar” that surrounds the branch (without cutting into the collar). The branch collar often looks like a swollen base around a branch where the branch is inserted into the tree. On some trees, it may look initially like you are leaving a stub, but if done right, with this way of pruning you are actually giving the tree the best start for sealing over the lost limb and keeping out decay organisms.
(For more information on pruning contact the PNW-ISA below, or cruise over to the ODF urban forestry website at: HYPERLINK http://www.odf.state.or.us/forasst/uf/uf.htm.
If you need to hire a professional to deal with cleaning-up the broken limbs of your tree(s), I strongly recommend hiring an International Society of Arboriculture-certified arborist. You can get a list of the certified arborists near you by contacting the PNW-ISA in Silverton. Pacific Northwest Chapter ISA: Phone: (503) 874-8263, Fax: (503) 874-1509, or HYPERLINK “mailto:[email protected]”.
With all due respect to local loggers, who are knowledgeable in the proper harvesting of forested lands, certified arborists are experts in knowing how to make the best of a bad situation when it comes to dealing with damaged trees. If you have neighbors who are also in need of quality arboricultural care for their damaged trees, you may be able to band together and get a “group rate” from a certified arborist you hire to work on all of your trees. The PNW-ISA website and ODF urban forestry website also contain tips on HOW to hire an arborist.
Seeing tree limbs lying around and trees blown over is distressing to say the least. On the bright side, storms such as the one we just had have a way of identifying many (but not all) of the trees that contained hidden decay that may have led to their failure later on.
On the darker side, such storms can make some people afraid of trees. The best way to deal with medium to large trees is not to rush out and cut them down out of fear, or worse, to “top” your trees by cutting the large limbs down to stubs. It is far better to understand what makes trees weak (e.g. decay, structural problems often associated with topping, saturated soil), and to know what will give them the best chance for survival during surprise storms in the future.
A well-pruned and cared for tree is like a physically fit person, who, after a physical challenge, recovers faster and emerges stronger.
For more information, contact Kristin Ramstad, Community Assistance Forester, Oregon Dept of Forestry at 503-945-7390.