INFO ON DIPLODIA TIP BLIGHT

We've put up a new page on the Owen Tree Service website on Diplodia Tip Blight. This tree disease affects many pine trees used in landscaping in southeast Michigan.

You can see the new webpage at: http://www.owentree.com/Diplodia_Tip_Blight.html

Tree Removal in Flint, MI

Owen Tree Service received a call on January 29th to look at a tree for a homeowner in Flint. The home was in the area of Belsay Rd. and Carpenter Rd. The customer said that her 70 foot sugar maple was making noises and she was concerned because the tree was only 10 feet from her home.

When the Owen Tree arborist arrived at the location he inspected the tree and diagnosed the problem to be three 15 foot cracks in the 35 inch maple trunk on three different sides of the tree! The homeowner wisely decided to have Owen Tree Service remove the tree the following day before it fell on her home. This was a potential disaster waiting to happen.

Our tree removal crew quickly assessed that this would not be a normal tree removal due to the fact of not being able to have any shock load on the structure of the tree because of the weakened condition of the tree trunk. A shock load is when the weight of a tree limb or piece of wood is put on a rope that has been ran through a tree crotch or pulley that is attached to an opposite section of the tree to move the object from one side of the tree to the other. This technique is used in most cases when removing trees or tree limbs over a structure. 

                      Photo 1. One of the cracks in the tree trunk is visible on the left side of the photo.

The crew realized that the first order of business would be to stabilize the tree trunk to keep it together during the tree removal. This was done by using a 5 inch ratchet strap, a chain and binder, and large diameter rope to secure the trunk from splitting apart during the removal process. With this completed, the tree was stable and ready to be removed. The first task was to alleviate the weight in the top of the tree to lighten the stress on the three cracks that were in the lower trunk. Once this was done the crew was able to rig and rope the sections that were over the house.  

 

   

  

Photo 2 & 3. As soon as the ratchet strap was removed the tree trunk fell apart.

 

 Photo 4. The bottom of the tree trunk - looking towards the top of the tree.

This tree removal went very well thanks to the Owen Tree Service team whose experiences came together to make this job safe for everyone involved. A situation that could have been a fallen tree on a house ended up being a complicated, but uneventful, tree removal.

This particular job shows the importance of having periodic tree inspections performed by a qualified arborist. If you are concerned about the condition of any mature trees on your property contact us for a Hazardous Tree Assessment or learn more about hazardous trees at: http://www.owentree.com/Hazardous_Trees.html

TREE REMOVAL & TREE PRUNING ALONG I-75

If you have driven on I-75 between Twelve Mile and Eight Mile you may have noticed a change in scenery. This stretch of I-75 runs through Royal Oak, Madison Heights, Ferndale and Hazel Park. Owen Tree Service has teamed up with the Michigan Department of Transportation to remove dead trees and prune off low branches on the remaining trees.

What has made this a particularly difficult tree removal & tree pruning job is the fifteen foot wall that separates the service drive and expressway. The dead Ash trees and the Hawthorn trees we removed had to be lifted up and over the wall to a staging spot on the service drive. This made it as safe as possible for the tree crew doing the tree removal work to chip up the brush. We used our log truck to handle this task along with voice activated headsets so the tree crew foreman could communicate with the log truck operator on the opposite side of the wall.  This had to be done without seeing each other - it was all done by voice and code words to lift each piece safely over the wall.

The steep grade along I-75 was no fun either. It was hard on the men and equipment to get this tree removal & tree pruning project completed. Once we had removed dead trees in one area we would then start pruning off low tree branches on the remaining trees in that area. The brush and limbs from the tree pruning would be lifted up and over the wall the same way we did the trees that we removed.

This project really made a difference for the daily commuters and business owners that travel and work along the part of I-75 that passes through Royal Oak, Madison Heights, Ferndale and Hazel Park. The dead trees have been removed and the remaining trees look a lot better with the low branches removed.

TREE CONSULTING AND TREE VALUATION

If you need to know the value of your grandmother's jewelry for your insurance, you consult an appraiser. If you need to know if a family member was the victim of improper medical treatment, you consult a lawyer and medical experts. In considering the value of your landscape trees, it is just as important to consult a knowledgeable professional. An ISA Certified Arborist is who you should consult with when it comes to determining the value of your landscape trees.

           

Our arborists do perform general consulting to inspect trees that have insect or disease pests, but we also are called upon to determine the value of landscape trees or inspect trees that have been damaged, such as:

• When a contractor destroys a major portion of the root system with machinery.
• Provide valuation of trees damaged in a fire.
• When a neighbor, in removing trees from his own property, takes down one of yours as well.
• When an automobile crashes onto your property, damaging one or more of your trees.

In each of these cases, you may be able to pursue legal action, but while a lawyer will be able to advise you as to your legal options, few law schools teach anything about tree care and tree valuation. For this, you will need to consider an expert witness – an arborist who has considerable professional knowledge of trees and tree care.

           

As a part of nature, trees can often be taken for granted. This means if you find yourself in a position of needing to go to court, you cannot be certain the court will regard your trees as anything more than incidental. Even if you are only retaining a lawyer in an attempt to reach an equitable settlement, the other parties involved may look at your trees as just an object of little significance. It’s important for you to know, and be able to prove, that the value of your landscape tree (especially a mature landscape tree) could be in the thousands of dollars.

If it comes down to a court determining “damages,” you have to make sure your tree is understood to be a thing of value. To provide for this, and to insure that your case is presented as completely as possible, you need an expert witness, one who can fully explain both the inherent value of your tree, and how the matter that has caused the dispute has impacted your tree in the first place.

           

Owen Tree Service has provided tree consulting, tree valuation and expert witness services across southeast Michigan. Hopefully, you will never have need of such services, but if you should, contact us at 1-800-724-6680 to arrange for a consultation. You have too much time, effort, and money invested in your landscaping to see any part of it simply disregarded.

For more information visit our Tree Consulting webpage: http://www.owentree.com/Consulting_Services.html