Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Six months following a deadly blizzard storm that wreaked havoc on Western New York and the City of Buffalo during Christmas time, tree services are still getting regular calls looking to assess damages left by the wicked winds and weight of heavy snow.
"Calls are still coming in on a daily basis. A lot of trees with major defects that people are finally at the point of having to do something with," said Jeremy Heim of AJ's Tree Services and Plant Care.
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"Fortunately at this point, it's been more hazard reduction pruning, taking away defects and really, people need to be careful about this because when we face a certain weather event, it's natural for people to make an emotional decision and err on the side of wanting to cut down the tree where a lot of times you don't have to do that. You can really take a systematic approach to proper pruning, just to get the tree safe, so you can enjoy it more than anything."
Heim says it's the evergreens like spruces and pines as well as the arborvitaes they take care of predominantly ever since the storm hit at the end of last year.
"[They] really had a hard time with the amount of impact due to wind and snow loads during the blizzard. A lot of them either fell, uprooted or split. Deciduous trees, there were certainly some that uprooted and got damaged."
Heim explains that when trees are under a great amount of stress during extreme hazardous conditions, it can open up trees or greenery to infection or disease. His team does a lot of bracing and cabling of trees as a result.
"We fertilize and treat over a million trees in Western New York. We've been out constantly taking care of that. When an event like the blizzard happens, it makes people more conscious and concerned about the health of their trees. Our goal is ultimately to protect the investment that the customers made into the property. It could be a mature tree, or it could be down to your basic trees and shrubs that you have on your landscaping beds."
The blizzard work started for AJ's Tree Service two days after Christmas, they tried the day after Christmas to get out but were unsuccessful in doing so. There emergency response team was working in the City of Buffalo for about two weeks straight addressing the specific hazards that were a result of the storm.
"We took care of the most pressing issues, we did have some trees on houses, vehicles, downed trees that were hazardous, that was the immediate. Throughout January is when we started taking care of a lot of the hazardous pruning. Once March hit is when all these damaged arborvitaes and still, some downed trees started kicking at that point."
Heim says in our climate, there are hundreds of different things that can affect trees and other plants. Consult a professional before you consider a replace and replant.