Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Neglected Trees have weak Roots
A walk about after the rain ceased disclosed some very interesting facts. large, very old trees must be cared for or removed. After careful examination of several downed trees, it became evident that these trees should have been removed long ago. The heavy snow and ice had weakened shallow roots damaged by insects. The shallow, insect damaged roots could not hold the massive 40' foot trees upright. The ground was too wet. Most of the trees that fell came up from the ground by the shallow roots.
A massive tree in my backyard fell one July when there was no wind, not even a gentle breeze. It did terrible damage to my neigbor's yards and houses three yards across. Luckily, it fell away from my house. There was insect damage in what I thought was one tree with three trunks. It was really 3 trees growing close together. I was concerned that the 2 remaining trees would fall on my house, so I paid the enormous amount of money it cost to remove them. It would have cost a lot more if they had fell, maybe even loss of life.
More attention should be paid to the trees that help our environment. If anyone cared to really look at the roots of the fallen trees that caused so much damage in the area, they would find what I did. The trees were sickly and should have been removed long ago. The roots were very small and insect ridden, rotted away. There was no way they could have held up against the high winds. Some of them may even have fallen without wind.
This is disturbing since there were two deaths in a neighboring town. Some of these trees fell in parks where our children play.