Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The first round of lake effect snow has affected Western New York, resulting in some trees being damaged, especially those with leaves still on them.
Chase Tomaro of AJ's Tree Service says it's especially concerning this time of year.
"With some of these trees still having the leaves on them, and when they do have these leaves on them, it can act as a way to catch a lot of that snow and rain and precipitation, and especially on certain types of trees that it can really that extra weight can cause some issues and cause failure," explained Tomaro with WBEN.
Tomaro says he saw three or four trees.
"A weaker, softer wood is going to be more prone to breaking," said Tomaro, citing Norway maples and Bradford pears as among those susceptible. "We've probably had about seven or eight stops of cleanup, mostly down limbs that had split from weaker unions, stuff that had been damaged in the past, and now the snowfall had brought it down, but a couple smaller uprooted trees on some Bradford pears and crab apples and smaller ornamental things like that."
He says it's something he sees every year.
"The most common thing, I would say, is failure of larger limbs from bigger trees is the most common fail point with the snow long extending limbs that get that extra weight out on the end of it, and can't withhold that at the union a few uproots, but the uprooting is really more because of the wind," Tomaro said.
He says the easiest way to identify issues is to have a professional take a look for things like included bark or some tip decline, which he says may be an indication that a tree is going to fail in the near future.
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