Winter Maintenance: Why You Should Call a Certified Arborist for Your Kansas City Tree Care
Practice the Concept of “Safety First” and Get Expert Help from Arb Tech
It’s frigid outside, but you suspect your tree needs a limb removed, or you’re worried about the condition of your leafy friend in general.
Before you put on your snow pants and boots and attempt any tree care yourself, you might want to think twice about what you’re risking. Here are just a few things you might worry about if you attempt your own tree pruning or care this winter.
Limbs Can Break and Fall
A half-inch layer of ice on a tree can increase its weight by 30 times. Considering that large trees are very heavy to begin with, you can imagine how much strain ice build-up can put on limbs and branches.
The weight of snow and ice on limbs - even ones that you thought were strong and healthy - can cause breakage. And when large limbs break, they risk doing property damage or injuring a human or pet.
Calling a certified arborist when you need tree maintenance after heavy ice and snow is wise because we are trained to spot problems and stay safe when working around trees.
Ladders Can Slip
We’re betting the trees giving you the most concern this winter are those that are well-established and that would require a ladder to reach the lowest - and generally the largest - limbs.
Climbing a ladder set on uneven ground is scary on a warm, good-weather day. Add a sheet of ice or snow to the mixture, and you’re risking major slippage as you climb. Even if you designate someone to hold your ladder, they’re unlikely to be strong enough to keep the ladder upright should the base begin to slide on ice buildup or become unstable underneath the snow.
Certified arborists know how to safely climb trees to access branches and limbs, and it’s much lower risk for us than it is for you, the property owner. You don’t want to spend the rest of the winter in a cast, or worse, so call Arb Tech instead of setting up a ladder against one of your trees.
You Can Slip and Fall, Too
Not only can you tumble when your ladder falls, but if you find yourself up in a tree, you can still slip and fall from there, especially if there’s any ice build-up at all on the bark of your tree. Most people don’t have the safety equipment like what certified arborists use, including harnesses and ropes.
If one of us were to slip, we are more likely to recover and catch ourselves more safely. But without a safety harness, you’re more likely to fall to the ground.
Just like the risk associated with using a ladder, you don’t want to bear the possible consequences of falling out of a tree.
Ice-Covered Branches are Hard to Handle
Let’s say you successfully and safely made it into your tree to get closer to the branch you’re trying to remove. This means you’ve also climbed up with a chainsaw or similar tool in your arms, and you’re about to attempt to use it to cut a limb.
Ice can make it tricky to guide the limb where you want it to fall, using ropes, for example. But cutting through a layer of ice can be difficult, too. And because you’re at risk of slipping yourself, if you fall with a running chainsaw in your hands, you’re at risk of even more serious injury than before.
The Wrong Tree Care Task Can Be Harmful
Winter tree maintenance during the coldest of temperatures requires expert knowledge to perform correctly. That’s because trimming and pruning can sometimes make your tree “think” it’s time to keep growing and get out of dormancy, for example.
But there are other risks of harming your tree in the winter, like not removing snow piles around the trunk of your tree - especially if that snow came in contact with de-icing chemicals, or not keeping your root systems warm before snow starts to fall.
Improper Kansas City tree care can decrease your tree’s chances of making it through winter without disease or damage. And because well-established trees are impossible to replace, you don’t want to risk killing yours if you don’t have a green thumb.
Call Arb Tech This Winter Instead
The safest property owner is one who doesn’t opt to climb trees or attempt major pruning during the winter - or ever. Leaving it to the professionals is always wise, especially when you’re working with exceptionally large trees in your yard or on your commercial property.
As Kansas City’s tree care experts, Arb Tech is ready to help you take care of every tree or shrub on your property. All you have to do is give us a call or request an appointment on our website.