Emergency Tree Removal
As the winter season settles in, trees face a unique set of challenges, including cold temperatures, ice accumulation, strong winds, and limited sunlight. These environmental stressors can weaken even the healthiest trees and cause damage that may not be visible until spring. To avoid these common problems, it’s important to take the proper steps in preparing your trees for winter and caring for them throughout the season.
Our ISA-certified arborists at All About Trees will guide you through everything you need to know about winter tree care so your trees remain healthy and beautiful year-round.
Why Tree Care in the Winter Matters More Than You Think
Many homeowners assume that while trees are completely dormant during the winter, they require little attention, but that’s a misconception. Even while dormant, trees remain vulnerable to the elements, and how they’re cared for in the colder months can have a lasting impact on their long-term health.
Preventing Structural Damage
While mature, healthy trees are well-equipped to handle typical winter conditions, younger trees, stressed trees, or those with existing issues can suffer significant, sometimes irreversible, damage.
Specifically, heavy, wet snow or a crippling ice storm can put an incredible amount of weight on branches. Any dead, diseased, or weakly attached branches will snap under this load and create large wounds that are slow to heal. Not to mention, the falling branches could harm your home, property, or family. Winter care, especially structural pruning, removes these ticking time bombs before the storm hits.
Mitigating Winter Stress
It sounds strange, but trees can easily become dehydrated in winter. This is especially true for evergreens, which continue to lose moisture through their needles all season long. When the ground freezes, their roots can’t absorb new water to replace what’s lost, leading to a condition called winter desiccation, or “winter burn,” which is why you see brown needles in the spring.
Guarding Against Sunscald
On a bright, sunny winter day, the sun’s rays can heat the bark on the south or southwest side of a tree. But as soon as the sun sets, the temperature plummets, causing the bark to freeze and crack rapidly. This sunscald (or frost crack) creates a long, vertical wound that can reopen year after year and provide an easy entry point for insects and disease.
Setting the Stage for Healthy Spring Growth
A tree that emerges from winter stressed, damaged, and dehydrated will produce fewer leaves, be more susceptible to spring pests and fungal issues, and have less energy for growth. Proper winter care, on the other hand, helps the tree retain essential nutrients and moisture so that it can grow properly in the spring and have a full canopy in the summer.
Key Aspects of Winter Tree Care
So, what does winter tree care actually involve? We’re glad you asked because it’s never too early to start planning for the coldest months of the year. Here are the essential tasks we recommend for preparing and caring for your trees during the winter season:
Prune for Health and Safety
Before winter arrives, it’s important to prune away dead or damaged limbs that could become hazardous once the snow and ice settle in. By removing these limbs early, you help improve the tree’s structural integrity, reduce the chance of breakage, and encourage healthier growth when spring returns. For safety reasons, this task should be left to ISA-certified arborists.
If a winter storm does cause branch damage, our arborists can perform selective tree pruning during the season to remove broken or hanging limbs to prevent further stress.
Lay Down Mulch
Mulch is a tree’s best friend in winter. And all you need is a 2- to 3-inch layer of organic mulch (like wood chips) covering the root zone of the tree.
This mulch insulates the soil, preventing the extreme temperature swings that can damage roots. It also helps retain soil moisture, which is vital for combating winter drought, and prevents soil from heaving during freeze-thaw cycles.
Of course, you must apply mulch properly. Avoid building mulch volcanoes piled high against the trunk. This traps moisture and invites pests and rot. Instead, create a wide, flat donut around the trunk, keeping the mulch a few inches away from the tree’s base (the root flare).
Water Before the Freeze
Even though trees require less water in the winter, proper hydration before the ground freezes is crucial. A deep watering in late fall (before the temperature dips below 40 degrees Fahrenheit) helps trees store the moisture they need to survive dry winter conditions. This watering schedule can also protect evergreens from winter burn.
Be sure to apply water slowly and deeply to the root zone (out to the edge of the tree’s canopy) during a warmer part of the day so that it can soak into the soil before temperatures drop again at night.
Protect Tree Trunks
During sunny winter days followed by freezing nights, tree bark can expand and contract rapidly, causing a condition known as sunscald, which often results in cracking or peeling bark. To prevent this, wrap the trunks of young or thin-barked trees with burlap or a specialized tree wrap from late fall through early spring.
Manage the Buildup of Ice and Snow Properly
After heavy snowfall or freezing rain, it can be tempting to shake snow and ice off branches, but doing so may cause more harm than good. Instead, gently brush off soft snow using a broom, and allow ice to melt naturally. This prevents accidental breakage and protects the tree’s delicate structure.
Remove High-Risk Trees
Sometimes, the most important winter care step is acknowledging when a tree has become a liability. Late fall, before the ground freezes solid, is an opportune time to assess trees for removal. After all, if a tree is significantly diseased or dying or has major structural defects (like a severe lean or large trunk cavities), the added weight of ice and snow can be the final straw that causes catastrophic failure.
Removing a high-risk tree proactively is always safer and often less costly than dealing with an emergency removal after it has fallen on your home or property. Our arborists can help you determine if tree removal is the safest option before the winter weather arrives.
Partner With All About Trees for a Healthier Spring
The care you give your trees in the late fall and winter has a direct and powerful impact on the seasons to come. The good news is that our ISA-certified arborists at All About Trees are here to help you with these winter tree care tasks. We have the training, experience, and equipment to perform a detailed inspection, create a custom care plan, and execute professional pruning to keep your trees in peak condition.
Contact All About Trees today and let us help you tuck your trees in safely for the winter season!