Our files are full of accidents involving trees. Many of these describe fatalities. Few if any should have taken place. “The Lord took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and keep it,” Genesis 2: 15 tells us. Properly cared for, trees are famously long-lived but, like the rest of the garden they require occasional specialist attention.
Arborists recommend inspections every five to seven years with canopy thinning perhaps every twenty-five. “Sometimes the trees will fall, and there was no indication,” said D. Andrew White, a certified arborist, told Toronto’s City News. “But if you see an aperture exposed on the outside so you can see a hole where a squirrel or a raccoon goes in . . . that’s really bad sign.” White estimates that there is thousands of trees across Toronto that are hollowed or rotted out and need to either be taken down or pruned thoroughly. The situation doubtlessly prevails in every other city.
The good news is that tree maintenance usually being slower over winter professionals often offer better rates for work completed during the coming colder months. A word of caution though: professional, certified arborists should only be retained to undertake such work. No others are acceptable. In every family tree, it is said, there is a sap. Don’t let that sap be you.
All this is very well, but a poor choice of tree species is nothing more than impending doom. Fast growing willows, weeping or otherwise, are notorious for their weak wood. A few weeks ago Toronto homeowner Doug Degrace discovered this the hard way. His 24-metre-tall willow crashed down into his own backyard and that of two adjacent neighbours. Worse came when he approached his insurance company. Since it was wind damage and not caused by lightning he was out of luck. Degrace was faced with a bill possibly as high as $7,500 to clear the estimated almost seven tonnes of debris.
He was luckier than another willow tree owner in the same city. An elderly woman died and four others were hospitalized when a willow fell on a garden party three years ago. The owner of the tree claimed that from the outside, there were no signs that the tree was rotten. But according to City News, City Urban Forestry officials visited the site, and deemed the tree’s remnants and other trees in the area a hazard. Many arborists do not recommend a willow tree unless there is at least an acre for it. Another poor choice is poplars, equally fast growing but notorious as “sewer hounds” whose roots frequently cause problems with water lines.
Nor is it wise to personally undertake any pruning. The general rule is that if you cannot reach it from the ground, call in a professional. Even for these experts, the risk is considerable – life insurance for those engaged in that occupation is as high as some of the trees they are called to climb into.
And the risk is always there. Consider the case of George Bernard Shaw who lived to celebrate his 94th birthday on 26 July 1950, at his home near Welwyn, Hertfordshire, England. A few weeks later he attempted to prune a tree his garden and fell, fracturing a thighbone. His recovery was complicated by a necessary operation for kidney stones, notes Charles Panati (1989). The celebrated playwright died 2nd November of that same year.
