With winter setting in, University of Illinois horticulture teacher Chris Enroth recently gave his thoughts on the safest ways to deal with winter tree maintenance.
“Small limbs can take on hundreds of pounds of additional weight from snow and especially ice build-up, leaving them ready to snap at the slightest breeze. Avoid walking underneath trees burdened by ice and watch your step,” he said.
Enroth said using a long pole to lift a branch laden with light powdery snow is a safe way to remove the snow, from a safe distance. However, he cautioned against doing the same thing to remove ice from branches.
"Attempts to knock ice off limbs actually lead to breakage of more limbs, doing more harm than good,” he said. “Not to mention that standing underneath large ice-burdened tree branches and hitting them with a pole is incredibly unsafe. Remember, if there’s ice on the trees, there’s ice on the ground. Be careful when walking outside after an ice storm or just stay inside and drink hot cocoa.”
In bringing in new landscaping, Enroth suggested considering types of trees or varieties with growth habits and other characteristics that will stand up well to the heavy winter weight loads trees in the Champaign-Urbana area have to hold. Deep layers of heavy, organic mulches like compost, wood chips or shredded leaves around the base of a new tree can help keep it protected from the convulsions in the ground that come through cycles of freezing and thawing.
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