Recent winter storms moving through the Northeast over the last two weeks have left many downed trees and limbs in their wake. Failure is inevitable. The damage is done, right?

Typically the image of storm damaged trees that we think of are trees splintered or uprooted and laying on drooping wires, fallen through houses or other structures, or resting quietly on top of crushed or damaged vehicles. The damage is dramatic, obvious and very unfortunate. But what about the damage that isn’t so obvious, the damage that may go unnoticed following fierce winds, or heavy snow and ice loading: the shear plane crack development high in the crown, or another structural issue such as actively separating branch unions with included bark, unusual soil heaving or horizontal cracks forming in hollow sounding limbs discovered through some other recent arboricultural treatment. The monitoring and discovery of more subtle, but still potentially dramatic, bio-mechanical issues following a severe storm may prevent a future catastrophic failure. It is a good way to stay active with clients, keep property safe and potentially land more contracts for pruning treatment and supplemental support.

Monitoring is a form of mitigation. Sometimes how we prioritize treatment, especially when structural issues are present, has much to do with the presence of a target and the accepted level of risk. That’s a given. Inspecting very specific features (included bark, calloused plane cracks, hollow sounding stems) that we find in the trees we care for should be standard practice following a winter storm that brings driving winds or mechanical loading in the form of ice or snow. This can be done in several ways, either in a level one windshield inspection, from the ground with binoculars or through a higher level aerial inspection with either a rope and saddle or drone/camera. We can also establish a culture with our clients in which they get in the routine of inspecting their own green assets after a natural event like a winter storm. Through this approach, arborists can stay busy with more pressing and dramatic clean-up contracts while our clients are doing some of the inspection legwork for us. That’s not to say we’re putting all our eggs in the clients basket. The piercing glare of a trained professional is far superior than our naive clients, many of us would argue. But they may notice red-flagging in the form of a co-dominant branch union that has separated further, or that a recently installed cable lag as pulled out and is dangling like a party favor in the early March sun, or that a tree has a little bit more lean than it did yesterday. Actively communicating with our clients after abiotic stresses like severe storms is a great safety protocol and a healthy way to sell arboriculture. Monitoring trees for subtle signs of structural damage, in this sense, can strengthen relationships with the trees we manage and the people that own them.

There is an old saying, “secrets, secrets are no fun, unless they’re shared with everyone.” I think this little jingle applies well to the monitoring agenda arborists should adopt following storm events. If there are specific structural issues involved in the trees that you manage, identify those features, remember them, and treat them with a sense of urgency following heavy weather that may test the thresholds of those bio-mechanics. Have those features been stressed or have they been further strained? Make notes and keep a date written down upon inspection, meet your clients on site or call them for a discussion of observations, options and actions. Some things, of course, will take priority over others. Hopefully there is no need for hysteria.

Using violent weather situations to raise awareness around the need to monitor trees can be a double-edged sword, no doubt.  But, if this process is shaped into a culture with our clients, we may find that structural issues that get the attention and treatment they need will survive more violent storm events in the future. The proof is in the pudding. Creating a cultural of management rather than removal could potentially stand the trial of time in which Old Man Winter or The Perfect Storm are the ultimate judge. It is an active experiment in stress vs. strain, risk vs tolerance and trees vs weather.

With a watchful eye and proactive approach there will be less secrets, higher levels of action, appropriate treatments, less anxiety and longer lived green assets.