Published: November 19, 2008 10:51 pm         

Tips on keeping trees alive in winter

As winter approaches, residents with trees in their yards should be aware of possible weather damage and make sure they are trimmed properly.

Steve Glazier, president of Enid Tree Board, and Sheryl Mitchell, secretary, gave some advice to tree owners this week. One important idea is to make sure limbs are trimmed away from utility wires. Trimming should be done by a professional.

The aesthetics of a tree are one of the things that make them valuable. Glazier said if branches are lost, it will affect the appearance, which is the reason they should be trimmed now to keep them from damage.

“Silver maple and Bradford pear are the most vulnerable to damage,” Mitchell said.

This is one of the best times to trim trees because you can see the shape of the tree, Glazier said. One tip when trimming a tree is to never top a tree. It cuts off a valuable food supply and interferes with the photosynthesis of the tree, he said. As a result, the tree will send out fast growing roots to compensate.

When trimming a tree, he said, never trim more than 25 percent of the foliage off a single branch, or more than 25 percent of the total tree foliage in a single year.

Among the things tree owners should avoid are:

• Wires in contact with tree branches. Trees may become energized if in contact with electric wires.

• Dead or partially attached limbs hung up in higher branches that can fall and cause injury or damage.

• Cracked stems and branch forks that could cause catastrophic failure of a tree section.

• Hollow or decayed areas on the trunk or main limbs, or mushrooms growing from the bark that indicate a decayed and weakened stem.

• Peeling bark or gaping wounds in the trunk, which also indicate structural weakness.

• Fallen or uprooted trees putting pressure on other trees beneath them.

• Tight, V-shaped forks that are much more prone to failure than open U-shaped ones.

• Heaving soil at the tree base, which is an indicator of a potentially unsound root system.

After the 2002 ice storm, lots of trees were severely topped. New growth is not attached as well, Glazier said, and is weaker and breaks more easily. These trees are susceptible to storm damage. Topping trees destroys the tree’s branch structure, gives multiple points of entry for wood decay organisms and can turn the tree into a hazard.

Glazier said Enid Tree Board is trying to make Enid a Tree City, as are a number of other Oklahoma communities, including Vance Air Force Base. Oklahoma communities that already are Tree Cities are Ada, Alva, Ardmore, Bartlesville, Bixby, Broken Arrow, Claremore, Edmond, Guthrie, Kingfisher, McAlester, Midwest City, Morrison, Muskogee, Nichols Hills, Norman, Oklahoma City, Pauls Valley, Ponca City, Shawnee, Stillwater, Tinker Air Force Base and Tulsa.