Trees in a storm

[OhMyCrump]

Morning all.
Just wondering if anyone knows who checks/how trees are checked for safety if they are near houses?
I'm not particularly concerned about them, but this weather has got me thinking as I live on a tree lined street.
Every now and again you do hear of a tree crashing down on a house in a storm.
Do 'they' check them regularly or is it up to people to report them in?
Trees are down on our local railway so it's obviously bad enough weather for it.
Just wondering really.

[BleuJay]

Are the trees maintained by the Council? If so they are supposed to check them every now and then.

[OhMyCrump]

I would guess so as they're not on any private land.
Hope they do!
Actually come to think of it, a few were taken down further up the road last year which I assumed was due to safety.
As beautiful as they are, they do give me anxiety when the weather is like this!

[AChickenCalledDaal]

If they are in the street, and it's a public road, they are the responsibility of the council. And although they do monitor safety, it's obviously worth letting them know if you are concerned about a tree because it's dying/rotting/cracked etc. Given the state of council funding, they can't realistically look at every single tree all that often but are likely to be responsive to reports of potential danger.

If the trees are in private gardens, it's up to each landowner to look after their property.

[OhMyCrump]

They are in the road. In the pavements.

[LIZS]

The landowner or Highways, depending on ownership.

[MintJulia]

What kind of trees are they?

Some have deep root systems and are very strong but may shed a branch or two (oak etc). Others have shallow roots, can blow over and are not normally planted near roads (sweet chestnut and so on).

Your council arborist will be responsible for them and is expert in what is normally safe. It's a skilled job and most councils are very responsible. Not something to worry about normally.

[OhMyCrump]

I'm sure they're fine it just got me wondering as it was absolutely howling last night!
Good to know who looks after them though so thanks for the info everyone 😊

[MargaretThursday]

We're on an estate with so many trees some insurers refuse to insure. If they're bigger than a certain size then they automatically have a tree preservation order on them.

My experience is that almost always you have absolutely no idea which one will come down in a storm. All the ones I've seen down in the last 20 years have all looked totally fine and well growing until the point they come down.
Other ones that looked dodgy 20 years ago are still looking dodgy but not down yet.

I've only once seen one down that looked unhealthy, and even that wasn't that bad.

The council do go round and trim/prune/check etc though.

[MintJulia]

An oak tree has the same size of root system below ground as the size of tree above ground which is why they hardly ever blow over.

If you are worried about a particular tree, close to your house, work out what it is and look it up on-line.

Another reassuring thing is that trees fall much more easily in the summer when they have all their leaves, because they create much more wind resistance. Once all the leaves are off, they are much less likely to come down.

And after last night, none of our trees have any leaves left.

[Theunamedcat]

Are they coppiced? We have a tree lined street they have just taken all the branches off (like every year) we have never had a branch fall around the corner there are trees not coppiced that regularly lose branches right in the middle of a national speed limit road usually on a blind corner which is fabulous (if your constipated it's a sure cure because the blind corner is followed by a blind hill so you swerve into unsuspecting oncoming traffic 😀)

[PivotPivotPivottt]

I have trees right outside my house and was worrying about the same thing last night. When I was a child there was a massive tree right outside our house and I used to always worry about it blowing over but my mum would always reassure me that would never happen. I came home from school one day one day when it was windy and it had blown over! Luckily it fell backwards rather than forwards or it would have came straight through our house. The house I live in now is only a street away so the big tree in front of my house had me worrying last night as it brought back the memory.

[ftw163532]

@Theunamedcat

Are they coppiced? We have a tree lined street they have just taken all the branches off (like every year) we have never had a branch fall around the corner there are trees not coppiced that regularly lose branches right in the middle of a national speed limit road usually on a blind corner which is fabulous (if your constipated it's a sure cure because the blind corner is followed by a blind hill so you swerve into unsuspecting oncoming traffic 😀)

Pollarding or coppicing? Trying to picture it.

[Theunamedcat]

Ooh could have been pollarding actually I live right next to a coppice and confuse the two

They chop the branches off and they grow back like a dandelion clock every year

[ZZTopGuitarSolo]

My experience is that even the most well-qualified tree specialists struggle to predict which trees will come down in a storm. Years ago in the UK we lived somewhere with lots of trees. We had a bunch of trees trimmed, and sure enough one of the untrimmed trees that had been declared low-risk randomly fell down one night.

I'm now in Maine and about 5 years ago we had unpredicted strong winds in October which took out thousands of trees and caused weeks-long power cuts. Partly it was because we'd had a lot of rain and the ground was soft. Partly it was because the trees still had a lot of foliage. Partly it was because the winds blew the opposite way to the prevailing wind.

We lose trees every year in our woods, and it's often the trees you did not predict would fall.