Arborist Service in Jacksonville, FL

When to Get a Risk Assessment on Your Tree

We rarely think to lift our gaze. We pass by the same trees every day, week after week, so that eventually we barely notice they are there at all. But all of a sudden it is the middle of the night and in the middle of a storm and you wake up to a branch the size of your forearm lying across your driveway. Then you start thinking about calling an arborist.

But what many people fail to realize is that there are usually clear signs that this will happen, sometimes a month or more ahead of time. We see this at least once a week in Jacksonville. The story from homeowners is often, "This tree just came down, it was fine last week." But the indications were usually already there.

Look for some of the following signs:

• ✓Cracks and splits in the trunk or main branches
• ✓Fungi or other growth in or around the root system
• ✓A fresh or recent lean (especially a sudden new lean after heavy rains)
• ✓Dead wood in the upper canopy
• ✓Bald spots or peeling bark, which may reveal rot

Any of these could indicate a failing tree. This is of concern if the tree is near your home or your fence. Or even the car of the guy next door, like the case of the mature live oaks in San Marco we were asked about. The trees in question were in good condition on the surface, but we saw they have poor health from the root down due to construction done several years before and their root systems are dying.

Does it sound as bad as the day you call? Some people think maybe it was nothing. They are wrong. An arborist risk assessment is a simple evaluation where our certified arborist looks at many factors including tree structure, health, canopy, roots, and lean angles.

There is another category of trees, the ones struck by lightning. It is very common for lightning to strike trees in our area since Jacksonville ranks quite high when it comes to the number of lightning strikes a city sees each year. So even if the outside looks like the tree wasn't hit at all, the interior of the wood could be damaged and begin to rot. The branches could eventually fall apart and the whole tree break down in the next big storm.

If you suspect your tree has hollow spots, or is in need of tree decay inspections, don't wait until an accident occurs. You will need far less time to perform a risk assessment than it would take to clean up afterwards, and often it is much more affordable when your tree hasn't fallen.

The Peril of Hollow and Decayed Trees in Live Oaks

One of the challenges is that oak trees can have a full canopy with lush leaves on the surface yet still be rotten all the way through from the inside. This is very common in the older sections of Jacksonville, in neighborhoods like Ortega and Avondale, that are home to many oak trees that may be over a half-century old. You may have the greenest canopy on the block, but inside the tree there's so much hollow space that you might be able to climb up into the tree via a hollowed trunk.

This is the real peril of decay. You don't see it.

Usually, decay begins at an old pruning cut, unhealed storm damage, or an infection with fungus, and eventually it reaches the heart of the tree. You probably won't discover the problem until the trunk is studded with mushrooms or large strips of bark fall down on their own. By this stage, most of the tree's internal strength is gone. A hollow tree trunk simply isn't as strong as a filled trunk can be, which means it could fall at the drop of a summer thunderstorm and destroy your roof, fence, or car.

Storm or lightning damage to trees in Jacksonville

It's a big storm in Mandarin, Southside, and you wake up in the morning and find a split oak tree hanging over the edge of your home. What you need is a certified arborist at your doorstep then. Not next week. Today. We provide arborist storm damage assessments all year round in Jacksonville. We usually get a lot more calls during the hurricane season, between June and November. No tree is safe from the power of hurricanes. Lightning will sometimes cause bark to be stripped from the trunk of a pine tree, and at times, you can't see the damage on a tree from ground level. The tree may be perfectly straight up and down but with a cracked trunk that has been completely hollowed out and full of dead wood. We've seen it many times.

What we look for after a storm

We walk the property with a checklist and assess every single damaged tree for:

• ✓crown splits, branches split but still attached
• ✓lifted root plates, cracked dirt or new leaning
• ✓lightning wounds, entry or exit points on the tree
• ✓deadwood in the canopy that could fall down at any moment

Pruning or bracing can be solutions for some of these, but not for all. We'll explain what each tree should have done for it and that info can be included in an arborist report you can then share with an insurance company or HOA.

Checking lightning damaged trees is very complicated. A bolt of lightning will go down the cambium layer of the timber and go out from the roots. In a few weeks, a tree could be starting to show signs of stress but you might not have been able to see any of the damage yet. We do hollow tree inspections to find if there's any rot in a tree which might lead to it toppling onto your car, your home or a neighbor's house.

Do you need us to have a look at a tree in your area after a storm? Give us a call (904) 322-7799.