What Can a Tree Service Professional Tell You About Witch Hazel?

Did you know that Connecticut is the world capital of witch hazel? Popular skincare products are made from a shrub native to New England. The first commercial astringent products were made by T.N. Dickinson in the nineteenth century. He was inspired to create this versatile product — which can clean and protect the body — by watching how Native Americans would treat skin irritations and wounds with success.

Witch hazel also does something that most Connecticut homeowners don’t hope to have: clusters of rich yellow to orange-red flowers in the bleak winter months. This plant will bloom in late fall or early spring, depending on the species.

Tree Service Advice: Plant Witch Hazel

You don’t have to set up your own distillery to convert this plant to the clear liquid that can be used to clean skin. Your arborist will tell you it makes for a great addition to your yard because it is a native plant in Connecticut.

Native plants have adapted to this area and don’t need any special care to survive and thrive here. Once established (and your favorite tree service professional can help here), native plants are almost self-sufficient, without need for additional watering or fertilizer. They also support native animals and beneficial insects such as birds and bees.

Tree Service Advice: Enjoy Witch Hazel

A witch hazel plant can grow 10 to 20 feet tall and grows well in sun or part shade. You can use this plant to screen your home for privacy as you enjoy its beauty. A little pruning can give you the exact look you want and here is where a professional arborist can quickly shape your witch hazel and keep it healthy and strong.

Witch hazel also needs little fertilizer and can thrive in a Connecticut yard, which makes this plant very attractive for many homeowners. If you’re thinking of enhancing your home with something attractive but low maintenance, then witch hazel might be just the ticket.

Of course, it’s quite the conversation starter for proud Connecticut residents!

Advice from Your Arborist: Plant Native Trees

Understanding what your plants need means having a yard that is both beautiful and easy to maintain.  We talked about how No Mow May results in a few extra hours for yourself and food for pollinators who will enrich our plants.  In this blog, we’ll talk about native trees.

You may be aware of the terms native and invasive when it comes to plants.  We all complain about weeds and how they can take over a garden but that’s not really the point here.  A weed is just any plant growing where we don’t want it to grow.  Even a blooming rosebush in the middle of a lawn is a weed because it doesn’t belong there.

An invasive plant is one that is brought into an area from somewhere else.  We find something pretty in a shop and bring it home.  The problem is, a lot of these plants don’t play nice with others and will take over in an aggressive way.  Bittersweet is pretty but can choke a tree as this vine climbs up a trunk and grows.  That kind of damage, and the associated tree service, is hard to reverse but can be avoided.

Learn the Benefits of Using Native Trees (Hint: Less Tree Service)

Native trees are those already at home in Connecticut.  They are comfortable with the weather patterns and have developed their own resistance to heat and cold, wind and water.  That makes them less fussy.

They don’t need special fertilizers and will generally save on water.  You don’t have to spend time and money making sure they have enough to drink because they like the amount of water that they expect to get in the Nutmeg state.  They also have figured out how to defend themselves from local bugs so you can skip the pesticides, which can be good for pets as well as your wallet.

Native trees are also good at controlling erosion below the soil and preserving biodiversity above it.  The birds and bees that we fed in May count on native trees to survive and we definitely benefit as we restore their habitats by offering shelter and food for wildlife and support pollinators.  (No bees = no pollination = no food.)

You may need to hire a professional tree service to prune a native tree but that work will be minimal compared to work you may need for a specimen that is struggling to survive in Connecticut’s climate.

Get Your Native Tree Advice from a Tree Service Professional

There are several native trees you can choose from: Red Maple, Black Birch, Eastern Hemlock, Sugar Maple, Northern Red Oak, Beech, Eastern White Pine, and Black Cherry.

Each can offer different ornamental value; a Sugar Maple in the autumn can present the most amazing shades of red and orange as the days grow shorter and the crisp air calls for a warm sweater.  As a setting sun provides a backlit atmosphere, you can be grateful for planting one near your home.

But, what to choose?  This is where an arborist comes in.  If you are lucky enough to be in the market for a new tree, pick the brain of your favorite tree service professional.  You can find the perfect tree for your needs: shade, privacy screening, decoration, even protection from the elements such as wind.  Someone experienced in tree service can teach you when each type of tree blooms so you’re always enjoying a beautiful show and feeding our winged friends, too!

Consultations are free and the advice from a tree service professional is priceless!

What Does a Difficult Take Down Look Like?

We thought we’d share some photos from a recent take down so you could see what the process looks like.

Just click on the photos below to step through the process. Notice the many safety precautions we take, including how we tie off the trunk so that it can be gently lowered to the ground. This 120 foot pine weighed several tons. To allow it to fall free would have been irresponsible and dangerous. By using the right equipment to take down this tree, we were able to ensure the safety of the people on the ground and the homeowner’s property, not to mention the lawn. Several hundred pounds of wood falling onto grass does nothing positive for lawncare!

In this case, the tree had been infested with carpenter ants and, although it looked healthy, was dying. As it was only a few yards from the house, there was the real possibility that it could fall and severely damage the home, possibly harming those inside.

Enjoy the photos and call us to learn more if you are worried about removing a tree that is close to your home.

When a Difficult Take Down Is the Right Thing to Do For a Tree

It’s never easy for an arborist to cut a tree that appears to be healthy.  Our goal is to offer these amazing specimens everything they need to grow and thrive.

However, sometimes it’s just not possible to save a tree and, while it may seem unkind to cut that life short but cutting the tree down, it can be the wise thing to do.

Unhealthy Trees

A tree can appear to be healthy, with unblemished bark and lots of foliage or, in the case of a pine, deep green needles and lots of pinecones.  Like animals in the wild, a tree will hide illness as a form of protection.  In an earlier blog, we noted that a woodpecker had singled out what otherwise appeared to be a healthy pine tree.  The top of the 120-foot tree was thick with dark green needles and the bark was unblemished but for the holes that the woodpecker had made.

An initial diagnosis was that the woodpecker had gone after the tree for no good reason.  The homeowner was upset and began to think of ways to scare the bird off, such as plastic owls that might make the woodpecker believe there was a predator nearby.

The holes that the bird had made were four or more inches deep, mortally wounding the tree.  Given that this tall pine tree was only about 45 feet from the corner of the house, the homeowner was scared about when and how the tree would decide to fall when it finally succumbed to the bird damage.

A Challenging Take Down

Unless you’re cutting a sapling, you should always assume that cutting down a tree is going to be dangerous and difficult.  To address the situation, you need the right tools, experience, and a bit of intestinal fortitude.

We have a bucket truck and that was a great help as we limbed the tall pine tree to prepare it for the takedown.  Preparation is key as is coordination.  When an arborist is cutting so high off the ground, it’s vital that the people on the ground are not in the way of falling material.  They perform a critical job as they keep an eye on the bucket truck and the wind and other site factors, such as traffic if we’re working near the road.  Those trucks are sturdy but a good gust of wind or a speeding vehicle can turn a simple wobble into a deadly situation if you’re caught unawares with a chainsaw.

Rope is a simple tool but don’t underestimate it or assume we tie off the tree and hold on tight.  A pine tree can weigh as much as two or three tons and that’s not something you want to mess with, especially as you add momentum.

Silence Is All

People are surprised when there is no thud.  A good takedown will capture the falling portion of the tree close to the cut and allow us to gently lower it to the ground with ropes and pulleys.  There isn’t much drama there.  That’s the point.  Drama is not safe and we wouldn’t want to hurt people or damage property.

The only noises that should be heard are the machinery we use, including the chainsaw and the chipper.

A Good Outcome

At the end of the day, we want the tree down safely and either chipped or, if too large, hauled from the site.  We’ll be tired but that’s okay because it feels good to know we’ve done a good job.

We also find that nature can be a valuable ally.  The woodpecker had identified this particular tree as unwell long before any outward sign would have indicated.  When exposed, we saw the base of the tree was infested with carpenter ants, who had made significant progress in attacking the integrity of the trunk.  The tree would likely have broken from the bottom and, as it was already leaning toward the house, would have hit the house, causing severe damage if not personal injury.

The tree was a good one and the homeowner will miss it but is glad to avoid the weeks or months of home repair, insurance claims, and loss of whatever possessions that might have been crushed inside the home — assuming no one was hurt during the fall.

We’re sad to have removed the tree but happy to have given it a safe end to a long life, leaving a space for a new tree to be planted and loved.  We’ll be happy to help you, too, if you suspect anything is wrong with your trees, working our hardest to save what we can but to respectfully remove what we can’t save.

The Woodpecker: Tree Service Professional

Woody Woodpecker is Just a Cartoon

The fame of one two-dimensional woodpecker has resulted in something of a phenomenon: people will use the word pileated in conversation.

The word refers to the red crest of the bird, from the Latin pileatus, which means capped.  Pileated woodpeckers are strikingly beautiful and hard to miss.  If you don’t see that bright red, you will definitely hear the rat-a-tat of that beak drilling into a tree trunk.  A longer lower beak reduces the strain that might otherwise be put on the bird’s head.  And, a hyoid bone wraps around the woodpecker’s skull to like a seatbelt to further protect the brain.  That’s why a woodpecker can strike a tree about 20 times per second yet no one has ever seen one of these guys at the pharmacy buying aspirin.

Real woodpeckers are much more amazing, and useful, than the televised version.

What Do Woodpeckers Do?

A woodpecker is doing what the name says, drilling into wood to find its food in the form of insects and tree sap.  The work it does to survive results in useful information for homeowners.  In essence, the woodpecker is a tree service professional, providing help just like your favorite arborist.

The birds don’t necessarily kill a tree.  A healthy specimen won’t be nearly as bothered by the jackhammering as you will be.  (That sound does get on the nerves after a while.)  And while the birds will remove some bark to access a meal, a healthy tree can easily survive.

However, a woodpecker’s preference for your trees might indicate a very real problem.  Trees can appear to be in good shape, producing foliage after winter’s harsh temperatures and winds.  Bark can appear unblemished and hide a sickly or even rotting trunk.  A woodpecker might be the first sign you have that insects are deep inside, eating the weakened tree from the inside.  The next sign you receive might be that tree unable to withstand a storm, falling on your lawn or, worse, house, garage, or car.

What Should You Do When You See a Woodpecker?

Take a photo.  They’re very pretty birds and really awesome to watch for a few moments (before the sound becomes annoying).

You can also take a little inspiration from a woodpecker.  They can see value in something like a dead tree and find life within it.  Trees are wonderfully generous, giving so much throughout their long lives and for decades after that.

Then call your favorite arborist, the human version.  There are ways to tell if a tree has been singled out because of illness and if that tree can be saved but that comes with experience.  An arborist with years of tree service experience can usually tell if a tree is going to be strong and healthy for years to come — or not.  Without that know-how, the only sure way to learn the health of a tree is to cut it down and look inside.  Then, you’ll know how old it was and if you should have done that.  But, it’d be too late for a good tree.

Enjoy the birds and thank them for their service to our trees.  Call Gerry and Brian for more information.

Trees and Our Mild Winter (so far)

Let’s take a moment to celebrate the mild winter weather we’ve had so far.  After the damaging storms of the summer and fall 2020, it’s nice to hear the quiet that comes from a lack of high winds and gusts.

As you might guess, those of us in the tree service business have been busy with cleanup after these storm events.  It’s heartbreaking to see beautiful, old trees broken or literally uprooted by Mother Nature and the recent cold weather only makes some trees, like spruce, more vulnerable because the deciduous trees nearby have lost their leaves.  These evergreens are facing the brunt of winter winds at a time when they can be brittle due to extreme cold.

When the worst happens, weight is an important factor when removing material.  The weight of a tree depends on the type and height of a tree, among other factors.  In the warmer months, a tree weighs more because of leaves.  If you want to satisfy your inner geek, this is a good resource for calculating the weight of your trees.  The quick answer is that trees are usually measured in tons and not pounds, unless you’re talking about a very young specimen.

Arborists want to save a tree if at all possible while making sure that people and property are safe.  Sometimes a tree will split so that its own limbs or the limbs of neighboring trees hold dead wood aloft.  To safely remove several tons of material from a precarious position in the air takes experience, equipment, patience, and more experience.  Never walk under a hanging limb because that could go at any time.  Dial your favorite arborist as soon as possible.

Material that has made it to the ground—usually with a sickening thud—is more stable, of course, but anyone who’s been through the experience knows that trees spread on the ground are met with the phrase, “It looks so much bigger now.”  It takes time and effort to cut trees and prep them as firewood and chip less desirable wood.  Here, the right equipment can save backs and therefore lives.

When trees hit homes and cars, the result is miserable but a little less so when you have your ducks in a row before the storm hits.  Check that you’ve bought the right homeowner’s insurance and found a trusted arborist, someone who is skilled in tree service and carries the proper tree work insurance.  Knowing who to call, like us at Tree-Scape and Fitch, will make dealing with tree damage easier.

And here’s hoping Mother Nature will continue to be kind to us in terms of good weather.

Do Trees Talk to Each Other? Yes.

The recent warm weather is being replaced by something more autumnal but we still have the chance to enjoy a few walks in the woods before winter sets in. There’s plenty of good news with this kind of activity: exercise, fresh air, and companionship that is perfect for the restrictions on our social experiences in 2020.

As it turns out, trees are very social and will talk to each other. Now, maybe you won’t be able to understand their language but check out this informative video from National Geographic to learn how they are part of an intricate communications network that you can appreciate the next time you go outside.

Take a moment to step away from the craziness around us and appreciate a good conversation that you can’t hear but maybe can feel. We’re sure you’ll feel better after some quality time with them.

Trees and Storms

Storm damage from Tropical Storm Isaias was barely off the ground in Fairfield and Litchfield Counties before residents in Woodbury and Southbury were hit with high winds and more damage on August 27.  If you’re worried about the rest of hurricane season, then you’re in good company.  We’d much rather have gentle breezes than gusts and believe rain should not move horizontally.

But, for those moments when Mother Nature is less than ladylike, we’ve prepared a few tips that we hope will help our tree owners.

Maintain Your Friendships

Wait.  What?!  Nothing about filling the tub with water, checking batteries in the radio and flashlights?  Did we forget buying milk and bread?  Seriously, there are enough blogs out there telling you these things.  If you need a refresher, check out the FEMA guidelines here.

Our first tip is about human contact because that’s really important.  Do you know your neighbors well enough to ask for their help?  Depending on the electrical grid in your area and the availability of generators, a neighbor may have power when you don’t.  Or, the reverse may be true.  Checking in with them and family members and friends is also a good way to keep spirits up in an emergency situation.

Prepare Well Ahead of Storms

Just as utility companies do tree work in good weather, you, too, should be maintaining your trees.  Are there branches close to your house or driveway?  Are your trees healthy or do they need care?  A free consultation with a professional arborist will answer your questions and give you great peace of mind when the tracking models start appearing on your television.

Keep Your Cool

Know your tree service professionals are trying their best to get everyone back to normal as we leave our homes and families to take care of yours.  You’re welcome to watch us work from inside your homes but please don’t approach the work area.  We can work faster and safer if we can control who is in the work area.

There will be an end to the mess, just hang in there.  An emergency visit from an arborist will be to move a tree from the driveway and then we’ll leave quickly to help another person.  It’s critical to keep pathways clear in case an ambulance or fire truck needs access.  Once everyone has basic access to the outside world, we’ll return to your home chip wood, blow sawdust, and tidy the area.

Call us at 203-515-3051 before the next storm.  We’d love to help you.

How Tall Can A Tree Be?

Have you done the tourist thing and tipped your neck way back to look up at the skyscrapers in New York? Have you looked up the trunk of a tree? They’re pretty impressive, too, but it seems they can only grow so high.

Trees are like us: we’re both systems. Blood in our bodies moves nutrients to our cells and removes waste. Sap does this in trees. Phloem sap contains sugars that the tree produces in its leaves as its converts sunlight during photosynthesis. This flows down the tree. Xylem sap contains nutrients that the tree needs to grow, again like our bodies (both of us need calcium but for different reasons). Xylem sap moves up a tree to make sure it has what it needs to live and grow.

Gravity only works in one direction. So, Xylem sap has to rely on forces to make it journey, including the fact that leaves take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. As they breathe, they give off water (transpiration), which creates enough negative pressure to pull xylem sap up the trunk. A little something called capillary action helps the vertical journey as does root pressure, or the pressure created at the tree’s base where phloem sap and xylem sap meet and exchange water through something called osmosis.

We’ve found a cool video that describes the process here.

Still, gravity is a law and laws must be obeyed. So, trees can only reach certain heights because this really cool system can only bring water and nutrients so far. The name for this is the hydraulic limitation hypothesis. Kind of amazing when you stop to look at some of the trees in Connecticut, which were around well before a lot of landmarks we take for granted like I-84, the beautiful Saville Dam, or even the whaling concerns showcased in Mystic, which used tall trees to build ships strong enough to weather the long ocean voyages.

Naturalists Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor measured what they believe is the tallest tree in Redwood National and State Parks in Northern California, claiming it stands at 380 feet. (They climbed it to take the measurement. People who love trees often love climbing, too.) The General Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Park is recorded as the world’s largest by volume and 275 feet in height.

OK, the Empire State Building does dwarf that, standing 1,454 feet at the tip. But, as far as living things goes, a tree is pretty cool and you don’t have to be a professional arborist providing tree services to think that.

Welcome to Spring 2020!

You’ve seen a lot of messages lately, telling you how businesses are reinforcing good habits like keeping surfaces germ-free or ramping up new practices, like marking lines so people stay more than six feet apart while waiting for service.

Have you ever tried to wipe down a tree with a disinfectant cloth?

Seriously, arborists have always made safety a priority.  Tree work is in any list of top 10 most dangerous professions.  Social distancing is just something we’re adding to the many ways we keep ourselves, our clients, and their property safe.  We’re also adding our families to this list; we don’t want to spread the coronavirus to them.

Six Feet Apart

As tree climbers, we move vertically as well as horizontally. We can easily keep at least six feet of space between our team members as we work. That means, you can call us to prune your trees, remove unhealthy specimens, or chip some of the bigger limbs that have fallen as a result of winter winds. Recently, we’ve used cell phones during our free consults, walking around the yard to evaluate trees while the homeowner remains safe inside the house. Our clients trust us to work when they’re not at home but it’s been a bit of a boon to have them on site and available to share their input on the work or just admire what we do. (One client was so in awe of our ability to climb well past the second-floor window of her home office that she missed a virtual meeting!)

Keeping Plants Safe Too

Some people worry that the ground becomes too soft during spring thaws to allow for heavy equipment on site. Not so. We use thick plywood to distribute loads and ensure that your lawn will not have any marks on it when we leave. Arborists love all plants, not just trees, and we want to protect your landscaping. Limbs don’t just fall randomly when we cut. We can place material where it needs to go and chip anything to either haul it away or rake it to your specifications.

The sight of us working to clean up your yard this spring might be just the sign of hope you need now. No one can say for sure how long our new reality will last as we try to avoid the coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19. But we are doing the right thing and you should be prepared to welcome friends and family to your home for a really good time together, hopefully sooner than later.

Stay safe everyone.

What Does Tree Service Mean to Homeowners?

Tree service is often confused with landscaping services but landscapers cannot do what arborists do (and vice versa) because there are different skill sets and equipment required of each. It’s important to know when you should call a tree service professional for help.

Emergency Care

There have been some pretty memorable storms in the first two decades of this new century, including hurricanes and the tornadoes mixed into the microburst of May 2018. The latter storm caused some very impressive tree damage in upper Fairfield County, much of which can still be seen two years later. In fact, we just helped a family remove approximately 50 tons of pine from their yard. They’d managed to cut it up but noticed something that isn’t apparent until you experience it: trees will decompose but that process takes a long, long time.

Removing dead wood is important for more than aesthetic reasons. Termites will help break down the material but they don’t distinguish between a dead tree laying at the edge of your property and the wood inside your walls. Tree service in this case means preventing damage from critters as well as beautifying your property because professional tree service providers have the equipment and training to safely remove large limbs and trunks, whether they’re laying across your driveway right after your storm or an eyesore many months later.

Long Term Care

If you want your yard to look and feel like a relaxing, carefree park, you will need to put some work into it. Mother Nature is always changing. Trees grow older and drop branches. Some trees reach the end of their lives and die. Other trees compete with each other for light and water, growing in ways that may not be attractive or, worse, safe.

For one client in Litchfield County, tree service in this case meant actively keeping up with what trees need to be healthy and happy. We worked to remove select trees to ensure the future of the remaining specimens. Trimming and chipping limbs not only made the yard look better, there were fewer dense leaves that could act as sail to catch a high wind and break the trunk. A good landscaper will take care of your lawn but look up and you’ll see where you need a professional tree service provider to work tens or even hundreds of feet above the ground. An arborist will also carry the correct (and frankly more expensive) insurance for that kind of dangerous work, which can be very reassuring for a homeowner worried about liability and workers compensation should someone be hurt on their property. Finally, on those days when a tree does have to come down, you can access services like stump grinding to allow for some fresh grass or a new tree that will grow in the decades to come.

So, whether you need a professional tree service to access equipment that can move serious amounts of unwanted wood off your property without damaging your lawn, well, septic, or other features or you’re thinking about proactive about tree care, call 203-515-3051 for a free consultation. We can tell you if a tree has been compromised by a storm as we did in New Haven County, where one of the hurricanes left the tree standing until months later, when it fell on a car. Thankfully, no one was injured but we’d rather spend time walking around with you and leave knowing all was safe even though there was no job to be had. We love trees and are happy to share what we know.

Low Temps and High Flames: Tips on Firewood

We’ve been asked to provide some tips and tricks for burning wood.  So here goes!

There are three kinds of firewood: green, dried, and seasoned.  Green wood is freshly cut wood and contains the most moisture.  A freshly cut log is heavy and you should not attempt to lift one unless you know what you’re doing or like to visit the chiropractor.

Dried wood is anything that was cut several months ago.  This wood is much easier to lift because the moisture has left the wood but we would recommend you wait a bit longer before you throw this material on your fire.  Seasoned wood has rested for multiple seasons, possibly a spring, summer, fall, and two winters.  Because this has the least amount of moisture, you will get the best heat from seasoned wood.

How do you know if your delivery has dried or seasoned wood in it?  Wood changes color as it loses moisture over time, getting darker and darker.  That color can go from a light tan to a dark, almost black color.  If you’ve been burning fires for several years, you’ll develop a level of experience that will help you realize if you have received good value for your money.  If you’re as green as the wood you don’t want to burn, find a trusted arborist who will give you what you expect and need.

We have a few other tips for you.

• Be sure to regularly check and clean your chimney to reduce the risk of a flue fire.

• Pallets and branches will help keep your firewood off the ground and allow air to circulate, which will add to the efficiency of your firewood.

• Grab yourself a pair of thick gloves to wear as you tend your fire.  Welding gloves should allow you to pick up a hot log if you do your research and buy a correctly rated pair.

• Make sure your smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, and carbon monoxide detectors are in good working order and never leave a fire unattended.

If you’re worried that mid-winter is too late to order firewood, fear not.  Tree-Scape and Fitch is busy taking care of trees all year round so we’re always ready to deliver pieces ready for your fireplace or wood stove.  Heck, we’ll even swing by with a load in the dog days of summer so you can enjoy s’mores and the glow of a fire as it matches the reddish hue of a late setting sun.

Connecticut's Arborist Law

Were you aware that there is a law, enacted in 1922, to ensure that trees and homeowners get the best care from those who would sell tree services? Or, that there are about 1,000 licensed arborists in Connecticut?

Thanks to the Town Times for printing an article that highlights this important law and the tree planting ceremony that will honor the passage of this legislation. If you don’t have a subscription, click here to open a PDF copy of the article.

Dealing with Hurricanes

Some people assume that the men and women who cut trees for a living are happy when a hurricane takes down trees, mostly because a major storm will mean a lot of work and therefore pay.  The truth is, we become arborists because we love trees.  We hate to see trees and shrubs damaged or killed.

We also feel for homeowners who see heavy limbs fall on their roofs or cars.  That’s why we keep an eye on the weather and prep when the weather models indicate we’ll get high winds.  Preparation is key to any response in a bad situation and anyone who’s lived in Connecticut for a few years knows we’ll get a memorable hurricane before too long.

Responding to Storms

There are two ways to deal with storms.  One is to respond quickly and safely to Mother Nature’s temper tantrum.  Irene and Sandy are still fresh in our minds.

If you need help clearing a damaged or dead tree, try to remain patient.  Tree services are in high demand just after a storm and every arborist will do his or her best to take care of customers while maintaining a safe work environment.  Pushing forward through fatigue or equipment that needs some TLC will just make a bad situation dangerous.

Preparing for Storms

The other way to deal with storms is to take action while the weather is good. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  Find a good arborist when the sun is shining and you have the time to listen to more thane one, to learn what skills each offers to you and your family, and to make a considered decision when you select the arborists you want on your team as you maintain your home.  Then, if a tree falls during a storm or a large limb traps your car in the garage, you’ll know what to do and avoid adding to an already miserable time.

You can also ask a good arborist for a free consultation.  A skilled eye can evaluate how a tree has grown over time and propose ways to make it stronger or less susceptible to storm damage.  For example, a bush that is pruned on a regular basis will be healthier and stronger than one that has been left alone.  Pruning is not just for esthetic purposes nor is it just for bushes.  Thinning a canopy on a tree can allow winds to pass safely through branches, rather than pushing the trunk past its limits.  Bending branches can be scary to see from inside a house but a lot less so than a wood breaking off to become a projectile.

We’re fast approaching the end of hurricane season but that doesn’t mean we’ll never see another hurricane.  Take care of you trees so they can continue to take care of you—shading you from hot sun and offering sweet, fresh oxygen, not to mention the smiles you’ll get from seeing that beauty in your yard.  Call Tree-Scape and Fitch today!

It’s a poor workman who quarrels with his tools.

When most people think of a professional arborist at work, they picture him or her near trees.  That’s often the case but, without a lot of work in the background, that tree work is, at best, inefficient and, at worst, dangerous.

Take maintenance equipment for example.  When a storm hits an area and a tree falls across a driveway, a homeowner needs to get that area cleared as fast as possible to get back and forth to work.  That kind of damage happens to many homes at once so there is little time to deal with chain saws that stall or chippers with dull blades.  A good arborist will make sure that all equipment is in good working order and ready to go when needed, whether the need is an emergency response or scheduled maintenance.

The equipment used to bring a tree back to health or cut it down is varied and pretty serious stuff.  An aerial bucket is a great way to access branches high off the ground but an extended reach is its secondary purpose.  A bucket’s primary job is to keep the arborist safe in the work area.  When the person operating a chain saw feels confident with a perch, then there is also greater safety for those on the ground supporting the work done by quickly moving material from a drop zone.

Trees are very heavy and moving tree limbs and tree trunks can be back-breaking work.  When a tool like a winch operates smoothly, more branches can be dragged as the team remains fresher longer and can do more work in a day.  Homeowners are happier with a cleaner, more beautiful yard and families can enjoy weekends with their beloved arborist, who has the energy to lift kids and play games.

Many tools used to work with trees aren’t mechanized.  Climbing gear, including ropes and boot spikes, are vital to the safety of an arborist as he or she gains access to tree limbs that might be too far from a safe landing space to locate a bucket truck.

Speaking of trucks, even the vehicle that brings the team to a homeowner’s property must be reliable.  A professional will never want to delay or even cancel a job because the engine won’t start.  A true professional arborist will want to show up on time, work through the day on the job at hand and not the tools that should be running well all day long.  Just keeping blades sharp will mean healthier pruning cuts and better chips for property use. 

Tree care can produce a harsh environment, with sap and sawdust mixing with dirt and hard-earned sweat.  Tree-scape and Fitch wants to make life easier for everyone on the job and everyone who will enjoy the fruits of their labors as trees shade a beautiful parklike setting.

Wetlands and How to Value Them

Do you know the value of wetlands in our area? These areas act as filters to remove toxins that might otherwise ruin our environment and water supply or harm the critters who live in the area. If you’re wondering what kind of toxins, realize that most of us are overfertilizing our lawns and those chemicals have to go somewhere. When they hit wetlands, the filtering effect kicks in as if by magic.

Of course, magic has nothing to do with it and we need to make sure our wetlands not only stay where they are (no more filling them in like would happen decades ago) but stay healthy, too. If you’re planning any kind of work on your yard, it’s worth a trip to the land use office of your town or city to identify any wetlands and make sure you’re not disturbing that area.

A good arborist will work with you to make sure you’re not taking any trees down when they’re needed to do their thing in a wetlands area. There are several reasons why your tree guys will do this.

• If you remove material from a wetlands area, your Inland Wetlands Enforcement Officer may require you to replace those plants and do so at one and a half times the damage done. That means, for every tree you shouldn’t have removed, you will need to add one and a half trees. Checking with a land use office before cutting begins can save a lot of money.

• Trees do an amazing job of cleaning up after us, providing us with oxygen after we breath out carbon monoxide and, yes, filtering materials that we may not even realize are environmentally unhealthy. Even a slight increase in temperature can kill fish in nearby waterways. Trees cooling rainwater runoff can make a huge difference, whether you like to take a fishing pole to your local stream or just want to hear the happy sounds of peepers as they herald the return of spring.

• Pruning ornamental bushes may seem like a small chore with little impact but every change makes a difference and town employees are at work to help residents live a happy life in town. They’re trained to describe negative impacts before they happen and can answer your questions.

Some of us live with enough plants or trees around our property that we think a little yardwork will go unnoticed and might mow a little closer to a pond or brook. A good storm might wash away soil that had once been held tight with plants killed in favor of grass. Or, a diligent land use office will use the advancing technology available, including drones, to mark those changes.

Gerry and Brian have made it a point to establish a good working relationship with the land use offices in the towns where they work, making sure they save their customers time, money, headaches, and serious property issues. Wetlands are beneficial and, with a little proactive action, not only easy to care for but fun to learn about!

To Bee or Not to Bee, Trees are the Answer

If you enjoy snacking on guacamole or luxuriating under a refreshing avocado facial mask, then you should take care of the trees in your yard.  No, don’t rush to plant an avocado tree because it’s not likely to survive the freezing temperatures of our Connecticut winters.  However, taking care of trees that are happy to grow here will pay off by keeping the bees happy.

Think of a world without bees and realize that there would also be no grapes to eat or wine to drink.  Bees need trees to obtain nectar and pollen and trees need bees in order to produce fruit and seeds.  Locally, our native plants, trees, and shrubs rely on the 400 species of wild native bees.  When you offer a flowering tree such as a dogwood, you can support a hungry bee just coming out of hibernation.  Red maples and bushes like azalea are also good food sources in the early spring, when bees need the most energy to restart colonies yet food is still in short supply as flowers have not yet bloomed.

A queen bumble bee is a lone survivor and starts a new hive each year.  Without food, her entire colony can disappear and, without the female worker bees the queen would have produced, cranberries are unpollinated.  Imagine a summer without the gentle hum of the bumble bee on a hot, lazy afternoon and then think about a Thanksgiving table without the cranberry sauce.

Of course, a blueberry bush would be an obvious choice to feed our buzzing friends but did you know that the ash, pine, birch, and willow trees are also going to support the butterfly population?  Butterflies are also good pollinators and desperately needed as several factors act on these tiny creatures to threaten their lives and our food supply.  If you’ve cleared trees on your property in favor of a uniformly green lawn, then you’ve created what is known as a monoculture.  Creatures cannot find any nutrition there and will avoid the area.  More and more lawns mean fewer and fewer places where pollinators exist and, when we want to do something as straightforward as grow a few flowers or pick tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and cucumbers from a vegetable garden, we will be unsatisfied and confused as to why we’re not successful despite hard work and cash outlays.

Trees also provide a home for native bees that are don’t live in a hive but build individual nurseries for each of their offspring.  Cavities and stems in trees are just the right listing for these real estate hunters.  And, before you judge carpenter bees as a menace, realize that they are just doing what comes instinctively and nesting in wood.  They are vital pollinators and both you and the bees would prefer that your yard contained a nice poplar or willow tree for them to use.

If you’re wondering what you can do to help these tiny but incredibly important creatures to do what they do best and help us to enjoy the foods we love, visit www.propollinators.org to learn more about the effort to create continuous corridors of land where pollinators can feel welcome and be healthy.  Also, call your favorite arborists, Gerry or Brian, to learn how you can keep your trees in tip top shape as more than just decorative ornaments in your yard and garden.

Arborists Make the News

Time flies.  Hard to believe it’s been almost two years since we sat down with Voices Newspaper to talk about our lives as arborists and how we provide services to care for trees.  If you have a subscription to the paper, click here or download the full article here.

The paper captured our interest in making sure trees receive the best care possible and we hope to go into more detail about the benefits of using techniques like pruning to ensure the health and beauty of your trees.  Stay tuned!