Idaho Tree Preservation LLC

Just a few thoughts about the recent storm we had in Boise now that clean up is nearing its end.
The peak gust was clocked at 72 mph and I think we can all agree that’s some serious wind.
But to put it in context that’s 1 mph below a 12 on the Beaufort Scale. What’s that mean?
Well check out the photo here and I think it will make a little more sense.

Even with those wind speeds we didn’t get a lot of calls about failures, maybe 10 or so.
Considering that we had winds of that magnitude I’d say that’s pretty good. Great job team!

Remember too that a doubling of wind speed is a 4x increase in wind load on the tree.

I thought the description on the Beaufort 12 was particularly descriptive, “violence and destruction”.
So what do we do about this?

Well for one thing that’s a very rare occurrence, so don’t go cutting all your trees down, especially in stands where multiple trees work together to dampen wind loads.

For another thing having your trees pruned by a qualified professional with the objective of “improve structure” or “mitigate risk”. This is usually selective reduction of larger aspect ratio limbs, codominant limbs or over extended limbs. Improper pruning can absolutely make your trees more susceptible to failure under loads.

Don’t go crazy on that either, a little goes a long way.

Finally, have your trees inspected on an appropriate interval by a qualified professional. An ounce of prevention and all that.
We will see you in the trees.

That was one heck of a storm. Peak gusts of over 70 mph. At those speeds anything can happen.
Now that it’s passed here’s some advice.
Be careful!
Things can fracture in those winds but not fail right away.
Don’t worry about picking up the branches right away, give things a little time.
The best plan is to hire your local professional to do a post storm inspection of your trees. This might be as simple as a level one risk assessment looking for obvious issues.
If a tree takes done a power line stay far away and call Idaho Power or EMS. Electricity can travel through the ground and be very dangerous.
Just because part of your tree failed in a storm doesn’t mean the whole tree is compromised. Trees are shedding organisms. Have a qualified professional inspect them and if they say the whole tree must be removed because a limb failed get another opinion.
Be safe out there, and we will see you in the trees!

Greetings Treeople!

A quick update for you all, we are seeing cold damage on a few main tree species due to the low temps we had on the 16th/17th where we saw temps down to around 28 degrees.

So far we’ve seen damage in English walnut (Juglans regia), tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), catalpa (Catalpa sp.) and tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima). There may be other species we find over the next few days.

The general symptoms are darker, drooping leaves with an almost burnt or scorched appearance. It can be whole leaves or the along the edges. It is generally isolated to the youngest leaves.

For the most part these trees will push new growth using stored energy and make a full recovery. Unless a tree is dealing with other serious stressors a single night in that temperature range is not a major concern.

See you in the trees!