Tree Risk Assessment

Trees can get very large and very heavy. Sometimes trees fail and fall down. When a tree falls or when parts of trees fall it can pose a serious threat to people or property underneath. The failure of some trees is predictable. Boulder Tree can assess the risk of failure of trees on your property.

The first consideration is what could be hit if a tree fails? If a tree falls in the middle of a forest, it’s unlikely that anyone would be hurt. On the other extreme, if a tree failed on a school playground, the consequences could be severe. Different standards of safety have to be applied depending on the tree’s location.

The next consideration is the structural integrity of the tree. Given a violent enough storm, any tree can fail, but the benefits of trees outweigh the risk of failure in most instances. However, some trees have defects which make them much more likely to fail in lesser storms or even on a hot windless summer day. Some of those defects are cracks, decay, poor crotch structure, root problems, and overgrowth. In our 40 plus years of experience we’ve seen most of the serious tree failures in the Boulder area, and noted the defects associated with each failure.

Some trees are reputed to have a greater likelihood of failure than others. For example, cottonwoods are said to be more likely to fail than, say, oaks. Well, it’s true but not because a cottonwood is weaker than an oak. It’s because cottonwoods are more likely to have defects than oaks. Don’t think a tree needs to be removed just because it belongs to a particular species. There’s no need to remove a structurally sound tree of any species.

Stef of Boulder Tree has taught tree hazard recognition to other arborists and has taken classes from some nationally acclaimed arborists. He knows the trees and he knows the defects.

If you have concerns about the safety of a tree on your property, give us a call.