The Value and Benefits of Older Mature Trees
An older mature tree is a prized and treasured feature in a landscape, providing beauty, comfort, and value to your home. In fact, well-placed mature trees can increase the value of your house and property by as much as 15% and decrease household energy consumption by up to 25%! With their larger size, older mature trees offer increased environmental benefits and have better capacity to sequester carbon, mitigate storm water, and provide wildlife habitat. Older trees also enhance human wellness and benefit our communities - in fact, one large tree can provide a day’s supply of oxygen for up to four people! By releasing water vapor and shading homes and streets, mature trees can significantly cool city neighborhoods and residential communities by up to 10%. Mature trees also benefit human mental health by lowering stress in people and even reducing crime, littering and vandalism.
Older trees have special needs.
To reach their full growth potential, a large tree usually takes many decades to mature. A full-sized mature tree is extremely difficult - if not impossible - to replace, so giving it the proper care makes sense. For this reason and many others, caring for an older tree in your landscape is a worthwhile investment to keep it healthy and safe so that you and your family may enjoy it for many years to come.
Since an older tree has been around for a long time, we may think that it does not require special care - but, in reality, that is not the case. Much like older people, a tree in its advanced years tends to be less resilient to stress and injury response, having a slower growth rate and lower energy reserves. Older trees are also more sensitive to environmental stresses and require specialized care and attention to meet their needs – which can be quite different from younger trees. Monster Tree Service’s certified arborists understand the needs of older trees and have the expertise to recognize and address problems that may be more likely to occur, so you can give your mature tree the care it requires to stay beautiful, healthy and safe for many more years to come.
The importance of managing health in older trees: What are some signs that an older tree is stressed or in decline?
Health indicators in an older tree are not necessarily different from those of a younger tree, but warning signs of stress and decline may require more immediate attention. Because trees in later stages of life have slower growth rates and longer responses to stress and pest and disease issues, catching these problems early is especially critical to preserve the life of the tree and to prevent it from becoming a potential safety hazard. Monitoring an older tree’s health is also important to preserve its longevity and structural integrity to protect your property and personal safety. To keep your mature tree healthy and safe, proactive management and regular check-ups from your Monster arborist can be key to mitigating risks and avoiding tree health issues that can quickly become major problems.
To identify tree decline, signs of trouble to look out for may include bleeding or oozing trunk wounds, holes or cavities, and signs of insect activity that may be indicators of pest issues, disease and decay. Fruiting bodies (mushrooms) on or at the base of a tree, and dead, decaying, cracked or peeling branches, especially higher up in the canopy, can be causes of concern. Also watch for other signs of stress such early fall coloring or wilted, stunted, curling and browning leaves, and any other patterns that look unusual. These signs may be the result of pests, diseases or environmental stresses that may affect an older tree more severely. In cases of trees with very advanced age, some signs may indicate a tree is in a natural state of geriatric decline which may require more specialized pruning and care. Consulting with a Monster certified arborist can give you an accurate diagnosis and treatment options to manage your mature tree’s health issues most effectively.
Pruning for Older Trees
Any branch removal on older trees should be undertaken with caution and only out of necessity, as mature trees frequently are not as resilient as younger trees are in their healing response to wounding. While a general guideline for canopy removal is close to one third - or 30% - of live branches with younger trees, the pruning dosage allowed for many older trees is frequently reduced to 10% or less. Older trees do not respond as well as younger trees to larger pruning cuts, and larger wounds may leave a higher likelihood of disease infection and decay. This can result in future consequences that may adversely affect the health and compromise the structural stability of an older tree.
Also bear in mind that the removal of live branches decreases the leaf cover in a tree’s canopy which affects its ability to conduct photosynthesis - the vital process that provides a tree the energy it needs to heal over pruning wounds and retain its health. Your safest approach to pruning is hiring a Monster certified arborist who will exercise the best judgement in making the most strategic pruning cuts that can extend a tree’s life and ensure its safety.
Supporting Aging Trees: Cabling and Bracing
Unfortunately for many older mature trees, a long life may have gone by with little attention given to structural maintenance. After many years of neglected care and unchecked growth, limbs and branches that once were minor structural defects may have turned into major failure risks which can endanger property as well as the life of a tree. In these cases, due to the advanced age of a tree and the dangers of cutting large branches and inflicting potentially large and harmful pruning wounds, structural pruning alone may not be a good option to mitigate major failure risks. As an alternative, cabling and bracing systems are better options to give an older tree a better chance to avoid failure and increase its longevity. These installations are highly technical operations requiring specialized equipment and expertise that should only be done by trained professionals with ISA Certified Arborist qualifications.
Basic Care and Maintenance for Mature Trees: Some TLC tips you can do to keep your older tree healthy and beautiful.
A mature tree offers so many benefits to your home and landscape that it deserves some homegrown TLC (aka. Tree Loving Care). Here are a number of great ways you can give your older tree some love to keep it healthy and thriving.
Proper mulching
This is probably one of the most overlooked or improperly applied components of tree care that is critically important to the health of an older tree. Wood mulch protects a tree’s roots from excessive heat and cold and prevents the soil from drying out. It can also serve as a barrier and a cushion to protect older tree roots from lawnmower injury and soil compaction, as well as protect the trunk and root crown from damage that may be inflicted by other landscape equipment. In addition, wood mulch breaks down into the top layers of soil, contributing valuable organic matter, relieving soil compaction, and improving soil structure and permeability.
Depending on the canopy width, for a tall mature tree a 2-3-inch layer of wood mulch or wood chips should be put down in a large ring around the base of the tree at a width ideally between 12 and 18 feet or extending as close to the perimeter of the tree’s canopy dripline as possible. The mulch in the center of the ring should be pulled away from the base of the tree by about three inches so that the ring looks like a large donut. Avoid piling mulch on top of the base of the tree or mounding mulch against the lower trunk into what is often called a “mulch volcano”.
Proper Watering
Because they have been around a long time, it’s often assumed that older trees do not require watering. However, due to climate change and increasingly long and frequent drought periods, many older long-established trees are in need of supplemental watering during excessively long dry periods. Knowing when and how much to water your tree can be tricky, though a general guideline for mature trees is 1 inch of water per week. Timed irrigation systems can be useful but avoid watering directly onto the tree’s bark or trunk and do not wrap irrigation lines around the trunks or stems of trees.
Irrigation devices such as Tree Gators or Tree Diapers can also be helpful, but equally important to watering a tree during dry spells is to avoid overwatering during periods of excessive rain. Waterlogged soils are as harmful as soils that are too dry, depriving tree roots of oxygen and causing rot and disease problems that can harm or kill a tree. To take some of the guessing out of watering care, professional soil management options are available from Monster Tree Service that can help your tree retain more moisture from natural irrigation and even convert atmospheric humidity into soil available water. Consult with your Monster arborist to learn more about Soil Health Care programs that may benefit your older tree.
Soil Care is one of the most important ways to keep older trees healthy and prolong their lifespan.
Research has shown that at least 80% of tree decline is directly related to issues with poor soil conditions. A tree may face soil problems with compaction, lack of fertility, improper pH and lack of biological activity. While mulch applications can address some of these problems, working with a Monster Tree Service certified arborist and enrolling in a soil health care program is one of the best ways to ensure your mature tree’s needs are being met.
Scheduling soil testing can assess your tree soil’s nutrient profile without risking the dangers of overfertilization which can cause root injury and other health issues, especially in older sensitive trees. Soil tests also reduce the risks of fertilizer overloads that can endanger the environment and the safety of our water supplies. Monster Tree Service’s Soil Health Care program gives older trees the soil conditions they need to thrive and promotes biological activity that works with an older tree to naturally meet its nutrient requirements and builds a biological barrier that wards off disease attacks.
Planning Around Mature Trees in Construction and Landscaping
Many soil and tree health problems can be especially exacerbated by additional construction or landscape installations that may cause soil compaction, crush, sever or otherwise damage a tree’s roots, and cause injury to other parts of a tree. Older and mature trees frequently have expansive root systems that can extend considerable distances and are more sensitive to injury. They especially need added protection from disturbance that can occur on a wooded lot during new house construction or when building an addition to an existing home. Extensive landscaping that may involve regrading or hardscaping can also severely impact pre-existing older trees. If you are planning new construction or landscaping for your yard, contact your Monster Tree Service to schedule a consultation before you begin work. A certified arborist can work with you to draw up a Tree Protection Plan that can save your tree from damage and what could be life threatening injury.
Letting Go: When Tree Removal Is the Best Option
Tree removal is never a recommendation to be taken lightly, but conditions and situations at times do arise when a tree’s failure risk exceeds safety thresholds such that tree removal may be the safest and most reasonable option. Tree risk assessments are best made by ISA Certified Arborists with professional Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ) credentials who can work with you to make the best decision for the safety of your property and family. If you feel that your tree is at risk of failure and damage to your property and personal safety, call your Monster Tree Service for a consultation and tree risk assessment service and to discuss removal options.
Any large tree removal operation should only be performed by a trained, experienced, licensed and insured tree service employing certified arborists that follow national safety standards and industry best management practices. Though many tree services offer inexpensive removals, they may frequently lack credentials, expertise, experience, and may use improper equipment which can cause dangerous and expensive accidents in seconds. Investing in safe and qualified services by your local professional Monster Tree Service’s ISA Certified Arborists ensures that any tree removal will be performed under the strictest safety standards with the safest equipment and technical expertise to keep you, your property, and your family safe.