Tag: arborist

Categories
Cottage Life

Cottage Q&A: What’s wrong with the Scots pines?

By T.W. van Urk/Shutterstock

I noticed last autumn that the Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris) near my cottage were dying off. Any idea what could have been killing them?—Melanie Foord, via email

“It is definitely hard to say without seeing the trees,” says Steve Smith, an arborist with Bartlett Tree Experts in Calgary. “There are a few fungal diseases that can attack pines. The only one I know that seems to favour Scots pine is Lophodermium needle cast.” The needles develop yellow spots, then can turn brown and eventually fall off. Unfortunately, “the fungus is hard to identify on trees because the symptoms are similar to a lot of other tree problems,” says Smith. “We often need to send samples to our lab to confirm.”

Another possible contender is Diplodia pinea, a.k.a. Sphaeropsis sapinea, says Tracy Logan of Logan Tree Experts in Lakefield, Ont. It causes tip blight: you’d see short, stunted brown needles with black specks at their bases. “All two- and three-needle pines are hosts to this disease.” 

If a fungus was the culprit, it probably wasn’t entirely to blame. “The first thing I always go towards is environmental conditions,” says Matt Logan, also with Logan Tree Experts. “Too much water; not enough water; too much wind; too cold; poor soil composition…most tree stress is cumulative.” A strong tree may be able to survive an infestation. But not a tree that’s been weakened by multiple environmental factors.

Cottage Q&A: Can I save my dying tree?

It’s also possible that what you saw was normal seasonal needle drop, says Smith. “The needles on pine trees only last so long, and as the new growth begins to shade out the interior, the tree sheds some of the unproductive needles.” It can be more pronounced in years where the trees have experienced more stress, such as long periods of drought, which we had last year, says Smith. 

Cottage Q&A: Preventative tree maintenance ahead of winter

Don’t cry too hard for these possibly fungus-filled and stressed-out Scots pines. This tree isn’t native to Canada. The Ontario government introduced it in the early 1900s to help deal with soil erosion problems after consulting with European forestry experts. (Because…Canada had no forestry experts in 1925? Seems weird, but okay, government.) As is so often the case with an introduced species, after doing its intended job, Scots pine went rogue, outcompeting native trees and disrupting sensitive ecosystems.

Are we sad when trees die? Goodness, yes. Are we sad when this tree dies? Meh.

Got a question for Cottage Q&A? Send it to answers@cottagelife.com.

This article was originally published in the September/October 2022 issue of Cottage Life.

Categories
Cottage Life

Cottage Q&A: Will this tree survive?

Photo by Bradley Reinhardt

The Cottage Life crew recently moved into a new office (in Toronto’s Liberty Village). We noticed a tree sprouting from the parking lot behind the building. We had so many questions! How is it still standing? Is it getting water? Will it die? Will it fall? We went to an arborist for the answers. 

It’s not so much the lack of water that’s the problem, says Steve Smith of Bartlett Tree Experts in Calgary. “The main issue is probably the extensive damage to the root system from the process of it getting paved over, along with how compacted the soil is now.” Sorry, Mr. Tree: “The pavement piled on top of the root system and against the trunk will likely lead to the tree’s decline, and, eventually, its death.” It’s possible that the whole tree could come down, but “the more likely scenario would be a gradual loss if vigour and tip dieback until there’s nothing left of the tree,” says Smith

There’s a right way and a wrong way to hardscape near a tree. Spoiler alert: pictured is the wrong way. The right way? “Keep outside of the dripline of the tree—the tips of the branches,” says Smith. “This will ensure that only a small portion of the root system could potentially be damaged during the work.” Significantly damaging the tree in its “critical root zone”—roughly one foot in radius for every inch of diameter of the trunk as measured at about four feet or 1.4 metres above the ground—will cause serious problems. Trees with damaged roots have a harder time staying hydrated and a harder time absorbing vital nutrients. They become more susceptible to disease and pest damage.

“I would say if people are really worried about damaging a tree’s root system it is best to have an arborist come out and give them their thoughts before beginning the project,” says Smith.

Well, it’s too late for our parking lot tree. Still, we’ll keep our fingers crossed.

Got a question for Cottage Q&A? Send it to answers@cottagelife.com.

Categories
Cottage Life

Long wait ahead for Peterborough residents needing arborists to clear trees

Photo by Nina Munteanu @AlienNextDoor/Twitter

The May 21 windstorm that ripped through Ontario left thousands across the province without power. Peterborough was one of the hardest-hit cities with trees collapsing on people’s houses, cottages, powerlines, and blocking roads. The overwhelming number of fallen trees has left local arborists scrambling to keep up with requests.

“We’ve had over 300 calls since Saturday afternoon,” says Katherine Tillaart, manager of Van Till Tree Care. “We don’t even have a full picture of how much more we’re going to have because the calls have not stopped. I thought within a few days, we would have at least heard from all of the most urgent calls such as trees on houses, but they’re still coming in.”

Peterborough Mayor Diane Therrien declared a local state of emergency on May 24, and provided the city with extra funding to tackle the backlog of damages on public property, such as trees blocking streets and sidewalks, and downed powerlines. But rather than city crews, residential and cottage owners have to rely on private tree removal services to clear any fallen trees from their properties.

Most arborists in the area are prioritizing emergency situations, such as trees that have fallen on someone’s home or on wires, leaving non-emergency situations, such as clean up, for a later date. According to Mike Crough, president of Treescape Certified Arborists, it’ll be about a month before his company’s able to get to non-emergency calls.

The long waitlist is due, in part, to the surge in demand, but also the tricky and time-consuming nature of some of the jobs. “It all depends on the tree,” Crough says. Bigger trees in more precarious situations, such as resting on someone’s roof or leaning against a wire, will take longer to remove. “Some jobs we have might take a half an hour or some jobs we have might take the full day and require a whole bunch of different equipment.”

For emergencies such as a fallen tree on a wire, Crough says you should make sure the tree removal service you’ve hired is trained and licensed to work around primary hydro and that it’s using dielectric equipment.

If you’re not in an emergency situation and feel it’s safe to dispose of a fallen tree yourself, Crough says City of Peterborough residents can cut up the tree and leave the wood out by their driveway to be picked up by a disaster relief truck. He recommends cutting the wood into smaller pieces so that the truck’s grapple can grab the wood and place it in the back of the truck.

If you’re in a rural area surrounding Peterborough, Crough recommends leaving the wood in longer pieces—just long enough that you can still carry it. Line the pieces of wood up along the roadside with the butts facing downstream of traffic. This makes it easier for a truck with a chipper to pull up and feed each piece individually into the chipper.

If you’re not comfortable removing the tree yourself and want to use a professional service, Tillaart suggests putting your name on several tree removal services’ lists. Just remember to cancel with the other companies once you’ve been serviced, she says.

Alternatively, if you’re dealing with an uprooted tree that’s damaged your lawn, you could try contacting a landscaping or excavating company. “They won’t be quite as bombarded as the tree companies right now,” Tillaart says. “And those stumps need to be dug up with a big excavator and taken away.”

If you do decide to hire a tree removal service, Tillaart asks for patience. “This has been really hard to work through for everybody in the industry. And we know people are dealing with it, living with a tree on their house and without power and not knowing when someone’s coming to help. People have been, for the most part, so incredibly patient,” she says. “It’s nice to see when it’s such an awful time for so many people.”

Categories
Cottage Life

Cottage Q&A: Can I save my dying tree?

By menegue/Shutterstock

At my cottage, there is a mature cedar tree standing on the shoreline. My father built the original cottage in 1961, and from old photos, I can guess that this tree was just starting to grow back then. Today it must be more than 50 feet tall. Over the past few years, the top branches have lost their foliage. It appears that these branches are dead with some moss growing on them. Is this a sign that the tree is at the end of its life? Is there anything I can do to prevent or slow this process down, for example, provide nutrients to the tree to better its health?—Eric Hintermueller, Lake Labelle, Que.

A 60-year-old cedar isn’t old, so it shouldn’t be at the end of its natural life. “Cedars can live to 200 years,” says Sylvia Greifenhagen, a research forester with the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry. “Some, even longer.”

So something’s obviously wrong, and “if there’s moss growing on the dead material, that suggests that it has been dead for some time.” That said, pruning away the dead parts of the tree could help, says Greifenhagen. “It may stimulate more buds to form on the living branchlets and produce more new foliage.” Of course, 50 feet is tall. “Pruning might not be feasible,” Greifenhagen admits.

Knowing what has caused the dieback would help you figure out how to rehab the tree. But that’s impossible to diagnose without close inspection of the tree. It could be a problem with the roots or the soil. It could be a disease. It could be a pest, which would leave cankers, exit holes, or webbing one could see “if one feels like taking out a magnifying glass,” says Leilak Anderson, an arborist in Wakefield, Que. Or it could be the weather, something as simple as a hot, dry summer. Often with trees, it’s a combination of factors that lead to demise. “A tree can become weak from a stressful environment of foot traffic and soil compaction, and then be attacked by pests, causing a quick decline,” says Anderson.

None of this information is actually helping you save your tree. You probably need an expert to investigate in person. Anderson suggests looking for an arborist near you, in your case, through the Société internationale d’arboriculture Québec. Meanwhile, try helping your cedar in the same way that you’d help any stressed tree. Give it water during times of drought—long, deep, once-a-week soaks to mimic rainfall. “Use a hose with low water pressure near the base of the tree and move it around within an hour’s time,” says Anderson. And mulch: do a layer two to four inches deep, fanned out so it’s covering the tree’s roots, not mounded around the trunk.

This article was originally published in the Winter 2021 issue of Cottage Life magazine.

Got a question for Cottage Q&A? Send it to answers@cottagelife.com.