The COVID-19 pandemic has not yet affected our ability to serve you
Storm damage on Bottle Bay Road
Things felt downright apocalyptic in Sandpoint a couple weeks ago. Just as the COVID-19 pandemic began to feel very real and frightening for all of us, a windstorm of epic proportions hit. Neighborhoods from Baldy Mountain Road to south Sandpoint and across to Sagle were devastated. Falling trees crushed houses and cars. People lost power as the temperature plummeted into the single digits. And we all began looking at our trees a little differently. What we once appreciated for shade or beauty now looks like a threat.
Add to that the threat of COVID-19, and for some of us, it feels like the world is falling apart. Governor Brad Little recently issued a stay-at-home order for Idahoans to mitigate the spread of the virus, but for those whose homes or sense of safety were compromised by the windstorm, there is no feeling of sanctuary.
Thankfully, arborist businesses like Sand Creek Tree Service are considered essential during this time of self-isolation. We can continue responding to your tree needs. Do you have a storm-compromised tree or one that could potentially pose problems in the future? We are happy to help with these needs and more.
Our focus now is not only on your safety as it pertains to trees but also relating to potential transmission of COVID-19. We are taking personal precautions, including: limiting our social contact to just our workforce, shopping only once a week, regularly washing hands and using hand sanitizer, and keeping our distance from clients. If you feel the need, we are happy to discuss your trees over the phone to maintain distance. You can also mail us a check or pay via Venmo or credit card (for a small fee) to limit interactions.
We are taking this thing seriously. And we are grateful to continue working in the midst of it. Thanks for supporting us during this difficult time. We hope to do what we can to help you—and our community—too.
For updates on Sandpoint’s COVID-19 situation, click here.
Mistletoe may be good for those desiring a kiss but not so much for your trees…
We see a lot of mistletoe around here. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that love and lingering holiday cheer are in the air, but rather, that the seeds propagating the parasite are soon to be airborne. (And watch out: Mistletoe seeds are ejected from the plant at speeds of up to 60 mph!) It’s something to be aware of as mistletoe is detrimental to the health of your trees.
Note the abnormal branch growth of the witches broom on this fir. Photo by Cephas via Wikimedia Commons
North Idaho is home to a handful of dwarf mistletoes that are specific to our native trees. Larch, Douglas fir, ponderosa and lodgepole pines are all primary host species. In our work, we have seen it most often in larch and Douglas fir.
What does mistletoe look like? It’s most easily spotted when the infection is full-blown and affected limbs have witch-broomed in response. A witches broom is a mass of chaotic branch growth that appears as a dense clump in your otherwise well-formed conifer. The witches broom is a response to the mistletoe but not the mistletoe itself.
Larch dwarf mistletoe shoots begin to sprout in the spring eventually forming clusters of shoots as seen in this plant. Photo courtesy of the USDA Forest Service Archive
Mistletoe is hard to detect early on. For several years, no outward symptoms may be apparent. This is known as a latent infection. After several years, though, scaly shoots emerge. However, since they are only two inches tall and are likely hidden in the canopy of the tree, most property owners don’t notice the early stages of mistletoe infection. Thus, we are often called in to treat more heavily infected trees that have had many years to spread the parasite to surrounding trees. This makes mistletoe eradication difficult.
Mistletoe harms trees in numerous ways. For one, as a parasite, it takes water and nutrients from the tree for its own growth, leaving the tree weaker and more susceptible to other insect and fungal invaders. Infected trees grow slowly, and heavy witch-broomed limbs are prone to breakage due to their weight. Mistletoe often leads to tree death. It also creates a fire hazard. All of this means that a mistletoe infested tree is a hazardous tree.
Our approach to mistletoe treatment is to first assess the tree to determine if the tree is a candidate for pruning or removal. If the infection isn’t too severe, pruning of witches brooms and less affected limbs will be undertaken. Healthy looking limbs adjacent to infected ones may also be removed in case infection is latent. Pruning in subsequent years may be necessary to catch future outbreaks. And pruning is best undertaken in the early spring or late fall when pollen and seeds are not being released from the mistletoe. We don’t want to inadvertently spread more infection.
One last thing to consider is that mistletoe does have its uses. Various birds and forest animals use witch-broomed limbs for cover and as nesting sites. We once found ourselves in a tree, dodging a group of flying squirrels leaping to safety. There is something to be said for leaving an infected tree alone if it is not a direct hazard to you and the health of your forest.
If you have concerns about mistletoe, give us a call for an assessment. And for more information, there are several helpful publications online:
If decayed wood is visible on your tree, is it always a hazard? How do you know if there is decayed wood that you can’t see?
As mentioned in our previous post, there are seven general problems that point to your tree being a hazard tree, and decayed wood is one of them. Hazard trees are definitely still on peoples’ minds these days with the pair of storms we sustained this summer. Many of us experienced tree loss and breakage – some with resultant property damage – and all of us (even the lucky ones who didn’t lose trees) are wondering which trees might go next. We’re only now, months after the fact, getting caught up on cleanup and precautionary tree pruning and removal related to the storms. Those wind events left major impacts on our properties and our psyches.
In order to answer lingering questions and assuage fears, we’ll cover all the different hazard tree indicators over the next few months. Today we’ll start with decayed wood. Decay is probably responsible for the largest percentage of tree failures (though, honestly, those windstorms blew a lot of conventional wisdom out the window; we saw many seemingly healthy trees simply uproot). While decay is not always visible from the outside, there are several reliable indicators of internal decay.
One indicator of decayed wood is rot fungi.
One indicator is the presence of conks, brackets or mushrooms sprouting from the tree. This is a definitive sign of internal rot and should be taken seriously, especially if the fungi appear on the trunk or visible roots. Different fungi signify different kinds of rot. White rot reduces wood’s stiffness, while brown rot (common in conifers) makes the wood more brittle. Soft rot can lead to both of these deleterious effects. All of these kinds of rot reduce a tree’s structural strength.
Open cavities also signify rot. It’s important to explore the depth of a cavity to determine the extent of decayed wood. However, it’s never advisable to fill the cavity with any kind of “strengthening” material or to excavate the decayed wood from the hole. More harm than good comes from both of these approaches. Sometimes – as with many kinds of decay – trees are able to compartmentalize the cavity, containing it and halting progress. Our interventions only hinder this process. With other kinds of decayed wood, a tree might attempt to outgrow it, adding more layers of strong, healthy wood to stabilize the weaker portions.
Carpenter ants and their resultant “sawdust” at the base of a tree are another good sign of decayed wood. Other potential signals are cracks, bulges, loosened bark, oozing, and both old and open wounds, all of which should be inspected further to determine the extent of possibly decay.
Sometimes, no sign of decayed wood is visible; even the canopy may appear full and green. However, if you have any reason to suspect there is silent decay going on inside your tree, share your concerns with us. We can talk about the history of the tree and its care and maybe even pound on the trunk from a few different places (something known as “sounding”) to get a sense for what might be gong on inside.
Decayed wood doesn’t always mean the tree must come out. Perhaps some selective pruning will mitigate dangers, or maybe a lack of targets (i.e., houses, outbuildings, landscaping, etc.) means the tree is free to live out its natural life. Ultimately, it’s up to you, the landowner, to make the final decision on the level of risk you’re comfortable with. On our own property, we live with a certain level of risk because we so value the big, beautiful trees circling our home.
If you have any concerns about decayed wood, don’t hesitate to give us a call. We’ll do our best to help inform you in your
How to tell if the tree looming over your house and in your thoughts is a hazard tree…
Let us help you determine if your tree is a hazard before it does this.
It’s big and it’s heavy, and it’s got the potential to put a major dent in your home and your finances…but is it truly a hazard tree? When should you worry? And when should you simply be grateful for the extra shade?
We at Sand Creek Tree Service are experienced in assessing hazard trees. That said, not all problem trees are readily detected. Sometimes the structural defects are hidden inside the tree or below the soil. Sometimes, a “better safe than sorry” approach is best. We’ll always discuss options with you, letting you make the final call when it comes to potential risks that are hard to quantify.
However, many hazard trees present signs of their structural weaknesses. Ultimately, a hazard tree is one in which the weight of a tree – or a part of the tree – exceeds the tree’s structural integrity (in a branch, trunk or roots). When assessing your tree for risks, we evaluate the likelihood of the tree failing, the environment that contributes to failure, and the target (the part of your property that would sustain damage).
There are seven general problems that point to your tree being a hazard tree: decayed wood, cracks, root problems, weak branch unions, cankers, poor tree structure, and dead portions of the tree. Decayed or rotting wood is often indicated by shelf mushrooms – a parasitic fungus – growing on the trunk. Cracks are often obvious and can be the result of lightning, frost, or other factors. Root problems might be evidenced by a bulging in the ground to one side of the tree, indicating that anchor roots are slowly losing their capacity to hold the tree in place. Weak branch unions can appear as a kind of seam in the bark, a sign of included bark. This means the branch is not fully connected to the rest of the tree; as the limb grows over the years and increases in weight, that union my fail. Cankers will look like a bulge or deformation in the trunk of your tree, meaning that the bark and cambium layer are dead and nutrients aren’t flowing through the tree as they should. Poor tree structure simply implies that your tree has grown in a direction or manner that makes breakage more likely. Perhaps the tree has a heavy lean, or maybe a horizontal branch has acquired too much weight. Finally, a hazard tree is most obvious when it is dying (dead top or branches) or completely dead.
Besides looking at these seven factors, we also assess the direction of prevailing winds in your area and which direction your hazard tree might fall. Another important factor to consider is the target. What will the tree damage when it falls? If you have a hazard tree without the potential to damage your property or injure anybody, we sometimes suggest letting nature takes its course. Trees that humans deem hazardous can make for important animal habitat. Think of all our local eagles and osprey that nest in snags.
If a potential hazard tree is regularly invading your thoughts, don’t hesitate to give us a call. It’s better to bring down a tree in a controlled manner – especially around people and structures – than to let your roof bear the brunt. And who knows – maybe your tree is perfectly healthy and willing to provide you and your family shade and birdsong for another fifty years. But a little peace of mind provided by a professional is always worth the effort.
