Trees take a beating from recent winter weather
Experts advise on how to care for trees
Lake Country was hit with its first big snowstorm of the year in early December. Local school kids were thrilled to get a snow day, but the wet, heavy snow also led to broken branches and downed trees throughout the area. So what can local homeowners do to save their trees the next time we get a big snow?
Herb Rasmussen, certified arborist and owner of the Sandy Bottom Nature Center in the City of Delafield said the potential for damage to arborvitae trees such as spruces, pines and evergreens is particularly high this year because the snow has been so damp and heavy in addition to the possibility of freezing rain this week end.
He recommends that if the trees are heavily covered with snow it would be a good idea to gently brush or knock off as much as the snow as possible. Do not try to bend the limbs back to their natural shape, Mother Nature will do that when temperatures warm up he said.
"There is not much you can do with what Mother Nature throws at you," Rasmussen offered.
According to Jeff Kante, forestry superintendent for the Village of Chenequa, if tree branches begin bending under the weight of accumulated snow, it's a good idea to get outside and try to gently shake the snow off the branches, if possible. If you're not able to get out during, or just after a storm be careful not to wait too long to remove the snow from a tree's limbs.
Kante said that if the weather gets colder, water in a tree's branches can freeze and make the branches more likely to break than bend if shaken. If a branch does break off, it won't necessarily kill the tree, but a lot depends on the wound, Kante said.
It's important to get any torn material or stub pruned from the tree, but making a pruning cut flush against the tree trunk is not advised. Instead, make sure the cut is just outside the limb's branch collar, which is the slightly swollen area where a branch attaches to a tree.
No big holiday storm
The holiday weather could have been much more frightful than it ended up being.
The massive storm that dumped more than a foot of snow to the northwest, resulted in a few inches Wednesday into Thursday, some icing, lots of rain and then snow again on Saturday.
Numerous accidents were reported throughout the area Thursday morning as the Wednesday night snow became heavy and slushy with some rain. Many of the accidents were on the main highways as local police reported few or no accidents in their communities.
After the weather cleared Thursday morning, and the streets and roads became just wet, last-minute shoppers hit the stores as parking lots at shopping centers in the area were generally filled up.
The heaviest snow moved into the area late Saturday afternoon and caused I-94 from Brookfield to Madison to be ice-covered. About 3 inches of snow fell in the area Saturday.
The snow came a day after Milwaukee set the record for rainfall on Christmas Day, with 0.96 inches.
Reporter Jim Stevens and the Associated Press contributed to this story
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