 Backyard Farming in the River Valley Podcast
January 30, 2009
Ice Storm (3:33 minutes)
Audio/Video Script:
Dustin Blakey
County Extension Agent - Agriculture[Title slide - River Valley Gardening,
Ice Storm, Dustin Blakey County Extension Agent for the University of Arkansas
Division of Agriculture]
[Dustin] Hi, this is Dustin Blakey with the Cooperative Extension Service.
We've recently had a large ice storm in the area, and people are often asking
"What should I do with my trees?" when this sort of thing happens. Well, the
first thing you'll need to do is to ensure that there are no power lines
anywhere near a tree that might fallen. [Picture of ice covered trees] Once
you're sure there aren't power lines on the ground, assess your tree damage to
see what kind of work you may need to have done.
[Dustin] If you have a small branch, maybe something about the size of your
arm or less, it's pretty easy to take care of that yourself. You can just saw it
off. [Picture showing correct location on tree to cut branches] Be sure to
remove the entire limb. You don't want to leave a stub there that's a foot or
two long. [Picture showing incorrect way on tree to cut branches] That's not
going to help anything.
[Picture of an ice damaged tree] If you have larger branches that are broken,
you may need to use a tree service. After an event like this, most of the tree
services are very busy, and it can be hard to get a hold of them; they're
working on trees are blocking roads [Picture of ice covered broken trees] or
that have fallen on houses first so if your tree is not an emergency you may not
have to do anything right away. The way you can tell if your tree needs
immediate work done is to take a look at it. [Picture of large ice covered trees
with broken tops] If it still has 4 or 5 really good limbs left on it, but the
top part of it is collapsed and fallen over, it can probably wait a while until
you get to it again. Also if your tree is leaning but it's less than 45 degrees
and the roots are still anchored to the ground, that can probably wait too.
[Picture of an ice covered pine tree leaning into a roadway] So in those 2
cases, you may want to wait it out. Wait until things calm down a bit and then
contact a tree service.
[Dustin] With tree services, when you're trying to find one, a good place to
look is the yellow pages in the phone book. I recommend that you contact them
rather than having someone come knock on your door with a pickup truck and a
chainsaw. That's a good way to make sure the work is not done right so make sure
you use a reputable firm that has workers' comp insurance, liability insurance
and that sort of thing. You'll probably want to get 2 or 3 estimates because
there is variation in price between the various services, so check that out,
too.
Now as far as what work to ask for: be sure to tell the tree companies what
you want to have done. You don't want them to come in and just top the tree.
[Pictures of trees that have been topped] That's going to make everything worse
in future years. Make sure the work they do is always a thinning cut where they
remove entire branches as opposed to aribitrarily taking say the top 20 feet of
a branch off and disposing of it and leaving about 10 feet of that branch.
[Video of Dustin standing next an ice covered tree] One of the questions I
get after every ice storm is "What does the ice actually do to the tree?" Well,
its primary damage is the added weight pulling down branches, causing things to
snap. I'm sure during the storm you heard a lot of explosion-type sounds. Those
were branches breaking. [Pictures of ice covered trees] Now on your shrubs, if
the branch is not actually broken, I wouldn't touch it. Go ahead and leave it be
and see what happens in the Spring. If you cut it now, you're guaranteed not to
have anything there, but if you leave it, I may be just fine.
[Dustin] Sometimes there's so much damage done to a tree that probably the
best thing to do is to completely remove the tree and plant a new one this
Spring. If you're going to have to do substantial cutting so that all you're
left with is a hat rack, that's not going to be an asset to your landscape. So
go ahead. Buy a new tree. Start from scratch, and you'll be happier with the
long-run results.
[Title slide] For more information on your trees, dealing with the ice storm,
or any other Horticultural issues, contact your County Extension Office
dblakey@uaex.edu.
Back to Backyard Farming in the River Valley Podcasts
|
