n Friday, June 12th, sometime around 4:30 p.m., Todd Keadle was
being urged to take cover in a freezer at the Schnucks on Union. He
resisted, however, and made his way through the nasty storm, tornado
sirens blaring, to his home in Vollintine-Evergreen. Keadle had made a
bet with himself. He won. He lost.
Keadle and his wife purchased their home 16 years ago, having been
sold in part by the three beautiful oak trees in the front yard. About
five years ago, one of the oaks split in two during a bad storm. The
tree took out the front porch. On Keadle’s drive home during this last
storm, he thought about the remaining two trees (the objects of his
bet). One stood. The other had halfway uprooted some 15 to 20 feet in
the air, missing the Keadles’ house this time but destroying a
neighbor’s garden and taking out a utility pole that blew out power in
the area for three days.
First, there was the ice storm in 1994, then “Hurricane Elvis” in
2003, and, now the June 12th storm — all felling trees around the
region.
Suzy Askew, a garden designer and volunteer plant coordinator in
charge of plant propagation at the Lichterman Nature Center, pinpoints
the three types of trees most vulnerable: large oaks that have reached
maturity or have been compromised by previous storms; trees that grow
too tall too quickly, such as Bradford pears; and trees that were
planted in an area too narrow, such as near a street curb, for root
systems to spread and take hold.
“It’s nature taking care of itself,” Askew says. In other words,
what will be will be.
Askew has a tree in her yard that was damaged by the 2004 storm. “I
cannot prevail,” she says. Instead, she’s planted another tree next to
it as a replacement, something she wishes others would do as well. “We
need to grow more trees,” she says.
As for keeping still-viable trees from being wiped out prematurely,
it’s best to seek professional help.
Mark Follis, the owner of Follis Tree Preservation and a Ph.D. in
agroforestry, says keep the trees trimmed. “In nature, trees are
surrounded by other trees so that they don’t take the full brunt of the
wind,” he explains. When trimmed properly, trees are better able to
take the strain. Second, occasionally fertilize the tree. Trees
need food but too much is bad a thing. Third, be careful with root
systems, taking care not to overmulch or damage them with construction
projects.
Mitch Harrison of Harrison Tree Service recommends that trees be
inspected by an International Society of Aboriculture member once a
year and says that during the summer, trees should be watered two or
three times a week for at least two or three hours. Otherwise you’re
just watering the grass.
For those now living in tree-fear and who are considering removing
trees to avoid a catastrophe, it’s probably not worth it. Taking down a
tree, particularly a large oak, is cost-prohibitive, “thousands and
thousands of dollars,” Follis says. Plus, Plato Touliatos of Trees by
Touliatos says it’s hard to know when a tree has fully aged. Removing a
tree that hasn’t reached full maturity is, he says, “like you take the
average male and you shoot him!”
Keadle is considering removing the third oak in his yard and
planting two more. He is happy about one thing. “Thankfully,” he says,
“no one was hurt.
