Prepare Your Trees for Storms
Tuesday, July 9, 2013 at 03:39PM 
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Georgia has been inundated with storms recently, and many homes have been subjected to severe winds and deluged with rain. These wet and windy conditions can lead to dangerous situations if you have trees around your home.
Healthy shade trees are a great asset, giving you a beautiful yard, increasing your property value and reducing air conditioning costs by as much as 30 percent. However, these same trees can pose serious danger during severe weather, especially if they aren’t healthy. While fully assessing tree risk requires special training and experience by a certified arborist, there are some simple things you can do to get some peace of mind and determine if you need to seek a professional assessment:
- Start with a self-survey of each of your trees to identify the obvious risks, and remove any diseased, dead or loose branches. English ivy and other invasive vines should be removed to help inspect the base of the tree for cavities and fruiting bodies, such as mushrooms, which indicate root disease.
- During sidewalk replacement, utility work, or other excavation, avoid cutting roots or keep root damage to a minimum. Without a strong and healthy root system, a tree could be uprooted during a storm and cause damage. Regular watering, mulching and ongoing tree care is important to maintaining healthy trees in your yard. Trees that are not properly maintained or are stressed can quickly become major liabilities during severe weather.
- Should you lose a tree in a storm, it is important to plant healthy new trees to provide benefits for future generations. When purchasing new trees, be sure to select trees from the nursery that appear healthy and ask a nursery employee about proper care.
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