How to Help Trees Recover From Severe Weather Damage

How to Help Trees Recover From Storms, Drought, Flooding and Freeze Damage

The trees in your yard are an integral part of your property. They’re beautiful to look at, and in some cases, they can add monetary value to your property. They might also act as an aesthetic shield if there’s a particular view you’re trying to block out. Depending on the layout of your property, they can even block the wind. No matter what kind of trees they are or why you prize them, they are a vital part of your property.

Unfortunately, they’re not untouchable. Just like your house, your car or anything else on your property, your trees can be damaged by any number of natural events. It might be a severe storm like a hurricane or an intense thunderstorm. It could be a drought, or it could be a flood. It could even be freeze damage caused by a long and harsh winter.

Whatever the cause of the damage might be, it can be very severe. There’s no need to worry, however, because there’s plenty you can do to give your trees some love and attention after they’ve been damaged by the weather. To help you out in this endeavor, we’ve put together a quick guide to all the ways you can help your trees heal after a severe weather incident.

General Tree-Care Guidelines

Before we get into more weather-specific concerns and what you can do about them, let’s spend some time looking at general principles of tree-care. By following these, you can help get your trees back on the road to recovery in no time:

• Make a Plan

When damage does occur to your trees, it’s important that you don’t just approach it haphazardly. Trees can be quite dangerous — especially damaged ones — and you don’t want to get hurt yourself in the process. To stay safe, make a careful assessment of all the damage that’s been done. Identify where the potential hazards and roadblocks are. Decide what order things need to be fixed in. Call up a professional and make an appointment for them to come fix anything you can’t do yourself. Once you have a plan in place, you can begin moving forward.

• Use Extreme Caution When Cutting Trees

Cutting trees doesn’t have to be dangerous work, but it can be if you’re inexperienced and aren’t sure what you’re doing. If you know how to do it, then it’s ok to do by yourself. If you don’t feel confident, however, don’t hesitate to call in a professional.

This is always a better option than someone getting hurt due to inexperience. If you live in the Northern Virginia, Maryland or D.C. area, your certified arborists here at Richard’s Tree Service would be glad to help you remove either the entire tree or just a problem limb or two.

• Inspect Your Trees

Take a walk around your property and identify any trees that look as though they’re either dead, or dying. These are the trees that will suffer the most damage during any extreme weather incidents. While the idea of getting these trees removed might not be pleasant, it’s better to do it before the inclement weather hits, and the tree becomes a real problem.

Recovering From Storm Damage

When the damage in question was caused by a storm, it’s important to realize that you’ll mostly be talking about blunt force damage. Trees may have been pulled up by the roots, snapped in half, or have limbs broken off. This means recovery for your tree will likely be mostly focused on cleaning these broken pieces out of your yard and getting what remains of the tree in its best possible health.

The following are our best tips for helping your damaged trees after a storm:

1. Assess the Damage

If a large storm has struck your property, there will almost certainly be various amounts of damage done to your trees. To best assess the damage, we recommend taking a walk around your property and noing how much damage has been done, as well as what type of damage it is. Note things as small as fallen twigs, or as large as a tree broken in half.

2. Clean up Sticks and Twigs

Low-level tree storm damage is easy to fix. Simply rid your yard of any small twigs, leaves or other debris that were blown down or broken off from your trees. You can do this by hand if your yard is small or the damage is minimal, but you may want to use a rake if the damage is more extensive or covers a larger area.

3. Prune Damaged Branches

If you notice any leaves or branches in your trees or other plants that have been damaged, it’s best to remove this section altogether. In a small plant or a young tree, this will be easy enough to do. In a mature tree, however, you will almost certainly need to call in an expert. If the tree’s or plant’s entire stem is broken, the whole thing will most likely need to be removed.

4. Mulch and Fertilize

Once this damage control has been done and all broken or harmed pieces of the tree have been removed, it’s time to help the tree toward recovery. You can do this by adding a new layer of mulch around your tree if it’s young and in a formative stage, as well as fertilizing it to help it begin a speedy and successful recovery.

Recovering From Drought Damage

Just as too much water in the form of heavy rains can be bad for your trees, so can too little water. If you live in an area that has recently experienced a drought, your tree will no doubt need some treatment as it works toward recovery.

Damage caused by drought will be different than the type of damage caused by a storm. This damage is less likely to be blunt trauma and more likely to be from the trees not receiving the water they need. This will cause the roots to dry up, and will, in turn, lead to the tree shriveling because it can’t consume the nutrients it needs to stay healthy. As such, the recovery will be geared in this direction:

• Irrigate Your Trees

To help your yard recover from a drought, you’ll need to provide deep irrigation for both trees and shrubs as soon as possible. This is particularly important in the summer and autumn following a drought. This will help the roots grow strong again and begin to take in nutrients for the tree once more.

• Add Mulch

To repair the damage done to the roots, you might also layer organic mulch carefully around the base of the tree. This mulch will be filled with nutrients that help the tree heal.

• Increase Your Tree’s Drought Tolerance

Once your tree has recovered from the damage caused by the drought, it’s important to take steps to increase your trees tolerance for future droughts. One of the best ways to do this is to apply potassium phosphate. Hopefully, if another drought hits next year, your tree will be better equipped to weather it.

• Watch for Pests

While your tree is healing from the drought, it’s important that nothing else disturbs it, and it’s allowed to recover in peace. You can monitor your trees for bugs and other pests that might be injuring your tree and making it more susceptible to drought damage.

Recovering From Flooding Damage

Flood effects on trees will be different than the damage we’ve discussed so far. There may be blunt force damage, from debris being tossed around by the water. There will also likely be problems caused by the tree being underwater for too long.

Remember that if you’re working with your tree before the floodwaters have entirely gone down, it's important to protect yourself as well. Floodwaters are often hazardous, as they may be contaminated with any number of elements, such as sewer water.

Here are our best tips for dealing with flooding for trees:

• Fix Drainage Issues

Once the floodwaters have receded and you have access to your trees again, your first priority should be to improve drainage around them. This might mean digging ditches or various other means of improving the landscape to maximize your tree’s health.

• Assess the Soil Conditions

It’s also important to get an idea of the condition of the soil once the waters have gone down. Perform a basic soil test to determine the pH levels of the soil and adjust them if they’re not right for your tree. To further help your tree recover and return to its most healthy self, it might also be a good idea to add a thin layer of organic mulch around the base of the tree to provide some extra nutrients.

• Build Disease Resistance

Another concern that comes along with flooding is disease. It might not happen, but it’s always a possibility if your tree has been partially or wholly underwater for a long enough time. To help your tree build disease-resistance, purchase potassium phosphate and apply it to your tree.

• Address Erosion

With floodwaters, it’s entirely possible that some low-level erosion has occurred around the base of your tree. Mulch and dirt alike have likely been swept away or at least slightly displaced. You may need to purchase more mulch to replace it and spend some time getting the base of your tree back in order.

Recovering From Freeze Damage

In the winter, you might be safe from heavy rainstorms, floods and droughts. However, winter also brings with it its own unique set of concerns and dangers. Ice can collect along trees, causing the bark to crack and the limbs to weaken. Snow can also build up on limbs and become so heavy that it causes the limbs to actually snap and break off.

Here are our top tips for dealing with tree freeze damage:

• Sweep Snow off the Branches

This needs to be done with care. If you’re too rough, you could end up harming more than helping. Go slowly, and be sure you’re not scraping off layers of ice as well as snow. If the tree limbs are too high for you to reach, use a broom or similar tool to gently sweep the snow off the surface of the tree. It’s best to do this before the snow builds up too much and causes the branches to crack under the weight.

• Don’t Shake the Tree

This applies to shrubs as well. When you’re dealing with snow and ice that’s built up on a tree, your first instinct might be to shake it down. Resist this urge, as this may cause branches that are already weakened and cracking to come crashing down. If the snow is too high for you to reach even with a broom, leave the snow there rather than shaking the tree.

• Don’t Try to Remove Ice

In the dead of winter when lots of ice collects on the trees, you should remove it, right? Well, not really. Ice is difficult to remove from a tree and requires lots of scraping. All this scraping and shaking is often more damaging to the tree than the ice itself is in the first place. In almost every case, the better solution is to simply let the ice be and wait for it to melt when temperatures warm.

• Assess the Tree

When spring arrives and the snow and ice melt, your job will be to look at what damage has been done. Are any branches cracked and hanging by a thread? They’ll need to be removed. Has the trunk split or undergone any other damage? You may need to contact arborists for tree service. Whatever the condition of the tree, this is the time to assess and make plans for how to move forward.

Call Richard’s Tree Service for Emergency Tree Service

Has a storm, a drought or a flood passed through recently? Has winter left your trees looking worse for the wear? If so, there’s no need to worry about trying to fix it yourself. If you live in Northern Virginia, D.C. or Maryland, you can always call your local certified arborists at Richard’s Tree Service.

We offer a wide range of services so that no matter what you need help with, we’ll be here for you. Need tree pruning or trimming? We can do that. Tree removal? We can do that, too. Have you lost a tree, and you’re now just looking for help with tree stump removal? Not a problem. We offer all these services and more. If you’re not sure how to fix a tree or a tree stump, we’re always just a quick phone call away.

We also know how important it is to trust that your trees are in the hands of experts. That’s why we’re certified arborists. We have years of experience and knowledge to back up our work.

If you’re ready to get the service you need for your trees, contact us today or give us a call at 703-454-5179.