This year’s snowfall appears to be the heaviest I’ve seen here in 20 plus years.
It took a heavy toll on trees of all types. I’m rethinking my planting recommendations to consider both of our seasons, Christmas, and the Fourth of July.
The mechanics of a wet snow load are different from a wind load, it is usually twofold. First, snow sticks and builds on all parts of the tree. Then a big glop of snot falls to the loaded branch below and the implosion begins! It dominoes down and next thing you know, you are making my truck payment! Or maybe the structure of the canopy “catches” a snotload it just can’t support and a sudden gust of gravity does the rest. Some trees, like river birches, have a surface texture that just grabs hold of the slop and won’t let go, not being very strong in the first place they puke eventually.
The trees that suffered the most just did not evolve in a Siskiyou cement snow environment. Our planting “zone” needs to be reconsidered to include hell-like summer heat coupled with the heaviest wet snow on Earth.
Some native trees took it in the shorts as well, but the majority of failures were “outsiders.” The Grizzly/Diane neighborhood was hit especially hard. The Ashes in those areas looked like an A-10 Warthog made a strafing run down the middle of the street. The damage can be minimized somewhat with careful pruning and maintenance done before a wet snow load but it must be done correctly and not all “treecare” outfits have the “eye” to do this kind of work without overdoing it.
Now a word of caution here: Some damage from overloading may not be obvious and failure may occur after the snow load has melted off or evaporated.
There will be thousands of cracked, split, or otherwise strained scaffold limbs all over town, and these hazards are not going to disappear on their own. If in doubt, play it safe and don’t park your Porsche under something that may be suspect, lest you FAFO…
If a tree, or part of a tree looked bent WAY more than you ever remember seeing it before, it may just be an accident waiting to happen, get it looked at by someone who knows what they are looking at, and let them make a wild assed scientific guess, there IS a big difference between stress, and strain when it comes to the strength of wood products (a tree, for example)…
This is an opportunity to mill around town and note which trees barfed and which had a low failure rate and keep a list for future planting plans.
It is especially saddening to see big beautiful trees take a digger due to heavy wet snow loading and while it doesn’t happen every winter and sometimes it happens decades apart, you must NEVER forget the one hard and fast rule.
Mother nature bats last.
But there is a contingency for that, and you know what I’m going to say next.
As always, plant high and often!
