A tree risk assessment evaluates the overall health of your trees, including the foliage, bark, roots, branches, and more. This is a process that you should do on your own on a regular basis – simply take a walk around your trees and look at them. After some time, you will be able to recognize when something is wrong or when something just doesn’t look right.
Then, you should call in a professional for a professional tree risk assessment.
This person is trained to look at your trees and determine anything that may pose a risk to the tree itself, other plants in the yard, structures in your yard, and more. He or she will be able to identify these problems and come up with solutions for the problems. Those solutions can be things you do yourself or things that someone else does.
If you think it is time for a professional tree risk assessment, here are some things you should know:
Should Be Carried Out By Professionals
Credit: Oregon State University
- Professionals will be able to spot things you cannot
- Professionals have the ability to create plans to fix the problems
- Make sure to check certifications
If you think something is going on with your trees and you need help, make sure that you get everything investigated by professionals. These are the people who are trained and certified to carry out tree assessments. Often, these are the people who do other tasks within a tree care company. They live and breathe trees. If something is wrong, they will be able to spot it.
Tree care professionals often have industry-standard checklists and in-house checklists that they use to determine whether or not a tree is healthy, what kinds of risks it poses, and how to fix those problems.
Now, tree care professionals will also come up with plans to help you treat and eliminate the risks a tree poses. This can include spraying trees, cutting them down, removing branches, eliminating stumps, and more. Most risks that we find are fixable in just a short amount of time – so you don’t have to be afraid it will mean the end of your tree or require lengthy treatment.
Preventing Infestations – Including EAB
Credit: takomabibelot
- Risk assessments can prevent infestations from happening
- They can also catch infestations in their infancy stages.
- Will help to make infestations less likely
If you are worried about infestations in your trees (and who isn’t?), a tree risk assessment can help to prevent those issues from emerging. Infestations are everywhere, and there are some that you can deal with (like ants) and some that can potentially bring down your tree.
A tree risk assessment evaluates whether or not your tree is at risk for an infestation. He or she will look at the different features of the tree, its location, and more to determine whether it would appeal to insects and other pests. Of course, they will also look at the type of tree.
As new infestations emerge, like the Emerald Ash Borer, tree care companies get training to look for warning signs and symptoms of these infestations so that they can be on top of the newest information. Make sure that any professionals you hire get continual training.
Preserving Trees
Credit: Nicolás Boullosa
- Risk assessments can save trees
- They give you the chance to start an action plan now
- Particularly effective for fruit trees
If you have a tree that is special to you, whether it was a tree you planted the day you moved into your new home or its a fruit tree that has been there for a long time, a tree risk assessment can help you to preserve those trees.
No one wants to plant a new tree when they’ve fallen in love with the ones that they already have – especially because big and tall trees can take years to grow. Often, you won’t see a tree reach its full potential unless you do plant it when you move into a home and you are relatively young. Even so, trees are personal. If you want to keep a tree on your property, preserving it is the best place to start. A tree risk assessment can help you to develop an action plan to take care of your tree and to predict any problems that you will have into the future.
Trees in the forest don’t always stay healthy, so you cannot expect the ones in your yard to always be healthy either. Instead, you can give them a fighting chance by bringing a doctor to them every so often.
Tree Trimming
Credit: Paul Balfe
- Determine when to trim your trees
- Better understand how to trim your trees
- Get special instructions based on the tree type
Tree trimming can save the life of your tree, but most people don’t reach out for help until it is too late. They wait until the tree branch is already dead or the symptoms are too obvious to ignore – and that means that the rest of the tree may be infected as well.
With a professional tree risk assessment, the professional will be able to spot issues and eliminate parts of your tree that will cause problems. He or she can also trim parts of the tree that may lead to an issue as a preventative measure.
Even better, the professional will be able to advise when you need a tree trim and whether or not you do at all. By having someone who knows your trees, you will be able to get the care you need when you need it – not when you think about it or when a tree care company reaches out to you.
If you are looking for a tree care professional in Southern Ontario, give Van Till Tree Care a call today at (705) 653-3777. We will help you to better understand your trees and advise you on particular issues such as green spots, pruning trouble, or soil problems. We can help you with many other issues that you might find among your trees – from the very top of the tree to the roots, no matter how old they are.
