Should trees stay or go?

• From the LSU AgCenter
• Published: May 31, 2009

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Hurricane season is approaching, and homeowners are eyeing their trees and wondering how safely they will weather the season.

For many homeowners, the visible impact of the destruction of trees and property during storms is enough to prompt them to engage in “chainsaw backlash,” or the unnecessary removal of good, sound trees.

But with the trees go all of the benefits they provide: cleaner air and water, soil conservation, climate moderation, higher property values, shade and beauty.

A lot of factors come into play when making the decision to remove or retain trees. Some of those include the following:

• Age
• Size
• How much damage it would do if it came down during a storm
• How much it would cost to have it removed
• How much homeowners value its amenities

Although trees can cause considerable damage when they fall, most trees do not fall during storms, and of those that do, a small number strike a target.

In fact, the Louisiana Urban Forestry Council says that it is  possible to prune a tree to make it storm ready, and trees can serve as a wind buffer to homes, providing it is structurally sound and has an intact root system.

Research from a variety of experts and scientific literature reveal that tree susceptibility to hurricane damage depends on wind speed. As wind speed increases, tree loss also increases.

There are three characteristics that give trees the ability to withstand hurricane-strength winds:

• Defoliation during storms
• High elasticity of the wood
• High modulus of rupture (how much the wood can bend before breaking)

Trees with flexible wood fare better than trees with brittle, hard wood.

Size is also a factor. Older trees are larger and have more layers of wood than younger trees. But they tend to be stiffer, more brittle and, therefore, more breakable than younger trees.

Height also is a factor. Taller trees with higher canopies sit where wind speeds are highest, while smaller trees avoid that intensity.