Whether it’s a summer thunderstorm or a winter blizzard, Colorado experiences nasty weather throughout the year. While your home, vehicles and other personal property might make it through the storm without any significant damage, your trees aren’t always that lucky.
Fortunately, not all tree damage is as bad as it seems—sometimes, trees can be saved instead of being cut down and hauled off. Keep reading to learn a little bit more about what to do after storm damage.
Watch for power lines and falling branches
Our motto is “Safety first!” when it comes to cleaning up after a nasty storm. That means watching out for downed electrical lines that may be lying near fallen trees. Additionally, watch out for dangling tree limbs that could come crashing down at any moment.
If there are any electrical lines on your property, we recommend staying inside and calling your power company to come out and assess the situation. They’re trained in dealing with downed lines—you’re not.
Clean up fallen limbs
Before you can start repairing any damaged trees, you’ll need to clean up all of the fallen branches, leaves and other debris caused by the storm. It’s a time-consuming task, but it must be done to preserve the overall health of your grass. Additionally, cleaning everything up now will make the rest of the steps a bit easier.
If the tree storm damage is severe and there’s debris everywhere, you should consider calling a professional arborist for help. They’ll clean everything up in a hurry, so you won’t have to worry about it.
Remove broken branches
Many times, branches or limbs are broken but still attached to the trunk. Assuming that’s the case for your trees, prune the branches or limbs back to where they connect to the trunk or unbroken branch. Keep in mind that the cut needs to be clean and flush with the rest of the tree to prevent disease.
Don’t over prune
Your trees may look asymmetrical after you take care of the step above. When that’s the case, some homeowners go overboard and try to even the tree out by pruning more branches or limbs. Avoid that temptation! You’ll only make things worse in the long run.
Because pruning can be a delicate process, we recommend hiring an arborist for help with tree storm damage. You can trust them to properly prune the trees to get them back in healthy condition.
Repair torn bark
Damaged bark creates a nice hiding space for pests and can be a breeding ground for dangerous fungus. You can make repairs by carefully cleaning up the jagged edges of the damaged bark with a sharp knife. Just take care to not remove too much healthy bark in the process.
Let Rocky Mountain Tree Service handle everything
Instead of tackling all of that work by yourself, just call our team at Rocky Mountain Tree Service for storm damage cleanup. We’re an ISA-certified company, so it’s safe to say we know what to do after storm damage. Contact our team after the next storm to restore your property and trees to like-new condition.