YOU ARE HERE: Central Kentucky Home→Collections→Limbs

Property owners must assess ice storms' impact

June 04, 2009

For many Kentucky landowners, particularly those in Western Kentucky, January's storms left behind a tangled mess of downed branches, broken trunks and splintered limbs in thousands of trees unable to withstand the weight of the ice.

Now that the winter of 2009 is over, these landowners face the task of assessing the injury sustained by their woodlands.

"There are things that will need to be done over the next several years, a kind of continuing assessment of the damage that trees have suffered," says Jeff Stringer, an Extension Service professor in the University of Kentucky's Department of Forestry.

"Depending on the severity of the damage, a tree with a broken top can often fully or partially recover, but damage to the main stem can cause long term rot that can lead to loss of timber value," Stringer says.

For many woodland property owners, the immensity of the ice storms prevented them from getting out and assessing the storms' impact, Stringer says. "The immediate concern this winter was clearing roads and restoring power."

Now that spring is about to turn into summer, the landowners need to take stock - especially if their woodlands are used for timber.

Summertime presents the best opportunity to assess which trees have sustained the most damage.

That kind of judgment may not be as easy to make when autumn causes trees to lose their leaves, he says.

Stringer says UK's forestry experts put together a Web site designed to help property owners with their assessments of tree health. The site, www.kyicedamage.net, allows visitors to print out information about the kinds of damage they may see, along with safety measures that should be observed.

For instance, Stringer notes that some trees may be bent over and pinned in a way that makes them dangerous to remove. These "spring poles" can snap dangerously and are known to have killed people.

Stringer also encourages landowners not to make snap decisions to cut down trees.

"There's a good chance the damaged tree can recover and become a quality tree. A lot of times, the landowner should take a few years and watch how the tree recovers before deciding to cut it down," Stringer said.

|

|

|