After you've endured a storm at home — perhaps heavy rain and even heavier winds — you might anxiously step outside to ensure that your house hasn't suffered any damage. While it's important to check your roofing shingles and siding to assess their condition, you should also give some thought to the health of your trees. Heavy storms can threaten trees, potentially causing damage to individual branches and even to the trees themselves. If you suspect that one or more of your trees has been damaged, you shouldn't try to rectify the issue yourself, given the potential danger of doing so. A safer choice is to call a tree service, which can provide these things.
Removal Of Damaged Branches
A major storm can leave your lawn littered with twigs from the trees above. You can pick up these twigs yourself, but a tree service is best to involve if there are branches that are damaged. Heavy winds can split branches, but they won't always fall to the ground. Instead, a branch may be partially split and still attached to the trunk, while another branch may be completely broken off but suspended between other branches. Tree removal services can deal with these branches in a safe manner.
Bracing Of At-Risk Branches
If a crew from the tree service deems that there are some at-risk branches on one of your trees as a result of the storm, it doesn't necessarily have to cut these branches off. One effective way to save them is by bracing or cabling them. In this scenario, the crew will use steel cables or heavy ropes as a support mechanism. For example, a branch that is at a precarious angle may be braced at a healthier angle by running ropes from the branch to the trunk of the tree or even to a nearby tree.
Assessment Of The Scene
You can also count on the tree service to survey the scene and inform you if there are issues that could arise during future storms. For example, if your region is in the middle of a season in which storms are common, the tree service rep may be concerned about a large branch that hangs over your driveway. In high winds, this branch may potentially snap and could land on your family vehicles. The rep will then discuss the situation with you and come up with a solution, which could be to remove the branch entirely.
