The beautiful Dawes Arboretum in Newark, OH, lost  many trees last weekend in the high winds at the edge of Ike.  Winds up to 70 mph knocked down exposed trees, and when those trees came down, they took other trees with them.

Dawes lost 32 trees from their collection, including many sugar maples (Acer saccharum).  A 100-ft tall white oak (Quercus alba), estimated at 200 years old, cam down, taking out several Silician firs.

In areas of the arboretum where proper pruning had been completed, there was much less damage.

Links:

• 200-year-old white oak at Dawes among many trees felled in storm | newarkadvocate.com | The Newark Advocate
• Dawes Arboretum

Following up on the previous post on Hurricane Ike, it is clear that tree falls account for many deaths and much of the widespread power outages throughout the midwest and eastern US. From Houston, where damaged trees continue to threaten property and power lines, to New York, where power outages were caused by tree falls, much of the wind damage caused by Ike was a direct result of wind damage to large trees.

Large trees are very important to life in cities. Obviously, they can be dangerous, but most of the photographs I have seen of storm damage following Ike show trees with severe defects, especially decay. Although the winds in my back yard reached 50 mph on Sunday, my large, healthy white oak (44 inches diameter, 95 feet tall) suffered no damage. Of the downed trees in Lexington that I saw, 100% were in poor condition and had external signs of decay and neglect

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Unfortunately, storms like Ike convince people that large trees are dangerous. The truth is that large neglected trees are dangerous. Property owners don’t seem to see the need to spend money on maintaining trees, even while investing heavily in landscaping and home improvements.

Links:

• Houston – Residents wait for help as trees hover above their homes
• Cincinnati – Four Killed In Tri-State By Falling Trees
• Dayton, OH – 2 Killed At Houston Woods When Trees Fall On Motorcyclists
• Columbus – Prison inmates help clear trees (weather)
• Pittsburgh – High winds bring down outdoor stage, large trees
• Akron -Trees, power lines close area roads
• Northern Kentucky – Trees knock out power, impale man

Cross posted at Sustainable Kentucky and Tree Trends.

Hurricane Ike knocked down trees from Texasto Northern New York over the weekend. Here in central Kentucky, we had no rain, but strong winds up to 60 mph knocked down trees throughout the region. Falling trees knocked down power lines, leaving more than 39,000 homes without power, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

I looked at many downed trees and broken limbs this morning around Lexington. All of the downed trees that I saw had major stem defects and all of the broken limbs had significant decay. Although we often blame power outages on downed trees during storms, we really should blame downed neglected trees. In a major storm, like Ike in Houston, even healthy trees will be broken or uprooted. However, in more moderate winds, most of the trees that fall or break have major decay and other defects. The power outages and economic loss in many storm-damaged communities represents the long-term cost of deferred maintenance on city forests.

Update:  According to Governor Steve Beshear, more than 550,000 Kentuckians were without power Sunday, including 90% of northern Kentucky customers of Duke Energy.

Cross posted at Sustainable Kentucky/Green Kentucky and Tree Trends.