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We are not a tree removal company. This is not how we like to define ourselves, at Ascents Tree. This isn't to say we don't have the technical know how to remove trees. In fact, we are proficient climbers, using who use the safest, most efficient, and most modern rope access and rigging techniques to remove difficult, hard to access trees. There are times, whether due to declining health, or severe structural damage, that a tree must be removed.
It is not something, however, that we will do because a client does not like to rake leaves.
Certainly in the case of the larger, older, healthy and more beautiful trees we take a hard stance against outright removal. There are so many ways to mitigate tree hazards ( to even put that danger in perspective, about 8 people are killed each year, in Canada, to falling trees, and most of these fatalities occur in forested campsites).
Which brings us to tree preservation. Tree preservation is the use of different techniques for reducing the chance of any time of tree or branch failure. It may include installing bolts where there are widening cracks, steel cable higher up in the canopy where otherwise failure is imminent, or Cobra-Style synthetic cabling where the tree is still structurally sound (but not perfect) but there is a lean or union concern that, though unlikely, the homeowner wants to protect their property.
Case in point, last week we worked with a client installing 4Tonne Cobra Cabling in a large Silver Maple. The tree was in excellent shape, but a tree service company (I would hesitate to say arborist) had installed a cable around the tree to hold it together, and the cable had girdled the bark, damaging the outer bark in some places through to the cambium. By compressing the bark, and thus compressing the cambium, nutrient and water flow is reduced, if not completely stopped. This can lead to weakness and decay which becomes a potential point of failure.
So, while I wouldn't describe the damage as 'imminent failure', it was a concern. So, by splicing in the synthetic cabling, a flexible system which allow the tree to sway and move (vs static systems) and thus continue to grow and adapt to wind forces, the tree is made much safer to the point where, even if the tree were to fail at the damage, the property would be protected.
So, rather than 'removing' a very healthy, if somewhat structurally compromised tree at tremendous expense to the homeowner, we were able to install supporting structures to keep a beautiful and valuable tree at minimal cost. In choosing this path, we are helping to maintain the Windsor Ontario tree canopy for future generations.
