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Trimming your Cottonwood will promote healthy growth and vitality

The two most common types of Cottonwoods that live in Colorado are the Narrowleaf Cottonwood and the Plains Cottonwood. Cottonwoods are part of the Poplar family and in maturity are large, dense, beautiful giants that tower over our other smaller, common varieties of trees in Colorado.

These regal trees hold much of Colorado’s history and if you have one in your yard, I am sure it holds your family’s history as well. Many tree houses and tire swings have called the Cottonwood home, so caring for these trees properly will improve the trees longevity and keep your tire swing a-swingin’ for your children and their children’s children.

Hiring an ISA certified arborist for tree service involving tree trimming is always the recommended route. Proper pruning techniques will promote healthy structural growth, and vigor for the tree.

All trees especially large species benefit from periodic pruning which prolongs the tree’s lifespan. Besides prolonging the tree’s lifespan, removing the deadwood from a tree will assist the tree in being less prone to diseases.

For example, Cottonwoods are prone to a disease called Cytospora Canker, which attacks vulnerable trees and enters the tree through wounds from storm damage and deadwood. Cytospora Canker just sounds infectious, anything involving a canker has got to be bad, and it is. Cytospora canker is a fungal disease and the disease pathogens are spread through rain, wind, animals and insects. The canker develops and girdles the branches and eventually kills the tree.

By keeping your tree free from deadwood you can prevent your tree from infection. Cottonwoods are not the only trees that suffer from this disease, and being highly contagious it is common to see the disease spread to other neighboring trees. Trimming your Cottonwood will eliminate dead, dying and diseased branches, as well as crossing and interfering weak branches, allowing for more light and air movement through the foliage which also prevents disease.

With the extreme weather we have in Colorado it is normal to be worried about breakage and damage to structures and people when you have a very large Cottonwood in your yard. This worry may lead you to believe that trying to minimize the tree’s size may help the tree “weather the storm.” Any professional arborist will tell you, topping your Cottonwood tree is not a good idea and is a practice that is not promoted and is frowned upon in arboriculture.

Topping your Cottonwood to protect the large upper branches from breaking is actually going to cause the tree to produce sucker growth where the tree was topped. Sucker growth is a sure sign of a stressed tree, these fast growing shoots are very weak and will break from snow or wind and usually decay causing wood to rot. Topping creates disfigured trees that are more susceptible to insect and disease infestation. A topped Cottonwood will never regain it’s natural branching structure and will be unsightly besides being unhealthy.

Please believe your arborist when he tells you, “You just can’t make a big tree small.”

Your Cottonwood is big and beautiful, and deserves the best tree care possible. Boulder’s notable tree tour includes a Cottonwood on the university campus that was planted in 1876, this tree is 136 years old, and thanks to proper pruning techniques, and some tender loving care from a qualified arborist, it will continue to thrive for many more years.

There comes a time in every tree’s life where removal is it’s only option, especially when it’s a giant Austrian Pine that has fallen to it’s death due to harsh winter winds.  Barbara Richardson was greeted with this tradegy at 8:30 in the morning  on January 19, 2012.  Not only had this giant Pine blown over, it landed gracefully on her car.  Now in need of a highly skilled tree service to rescue her vehicle and remove this somber tree, she called Blue River Forestry & Tree Care. Barbara wrote a beautiful blog post on her tree service that day and included some great photos for all to see. The title of her blog Save the Last Dance for Tree features the tree removal ISA certified arborists Dustin Brown and Raymond Rockett with crew performed that day.

By 8 am the phone was ringing as the wind gusts the night before reached highs of 104 mph in Boulder. As highly skilled arborists and a Boulder tree service, we put all hands on deck to clean up the tree damage from Boulder’s wind storm. Two days later even as I am writing this blog the phone is ringing with a call of a tree down.  Several of the calls that came in were Evergreen related species that had blown over into cars, onto houses, blocked driveways and obstructed pathways. I even had the pleasure of speaking with a journalist from the Daily Camera ,  to help provide information on why Blue Spruces and other Coniferous trees are more prone to blow downs.  Our first call of the day started with a Austrian Pine that had blown over onto a neighbor’s vehicle.  Within two hours of doing the proposal our crew was prepped and ready with Pro Lift Crane Service by our side to assist in the removal. Crane removals are technical and every move and cut must be precise to prevent further damage to surrounding property and to prevent injury to the climber. Dustin Brown has been an ISA certified Boulder arborist for more than 10 years and technical large removals are one of his specialities.  As the day progressed Blue River Tree Care was able to help out a few more clients with jobs, including a removal of a large portion of a Blue Spruce that toppled into the porch, and another Blue Spruce that had fell over and blocked a driveway, as well as, a city walk. On day two of the aftermath of the wind storm, we received a call with another large Blue Sruce that had crashed onto a mobile home and was leaning onto the roof and porch area.  A dangerous removal no doubt, but with lots of knowledge and skill our crew was able to remove the entire tree within 2 hours of when the call first came in. You, your house, your property and your trees are important to us and we take emergency tree service seriously and always do our best to assist you quickly and efficiently using the most skilled and up to date practices in the industry.  If you have a tree care emergency whether it is trimming dangerous hanging branches or removing an entire tree,you can call us ANYTIME.

Raymond Rockett preparing for a crane removal

Dustin Brown and Raymond Rockett removing a blown down Blue Spruce

The most common procedure in arboriculture and one we like to emphasize the most is tree trimming and pruning. This procedure is done for a variety of reasons and is always adapted to the specific tree species and the conditions of the environment.

Trees in a “natural” forest setting rarely encounter a Certified Arborist, they live out their existence in what most
would consider a natural state with their own version of natural pruning. These trees will drop large limbs, crack under heavy loads and eventually fall due to decay.

This practice of natural pruning only pertains to the “natural” forest and if applied in an urban or urban-mountain
community even one as naturalistic as Boulder, can be dangerous for the community, as well as the health of the tree.

Any tree whether in the forest or in your backyard can develop structural problems. Hiring a tree service to evaluate your trees and develop a regular pruning cycle will help to eliminate these risks.

Blue River Forestry & Tree Care is licensed Boulder tree service and certified by the International Society of Arboriculture. Our arborists are trained to identify “risks” in trees, evaluate health and create tree health care plans for your property.

Improving and maintaining the health and structure of your tree is one of the many reasons to have your trees trimmed.

A crown clean is a common term used that refers to removing dead, dying, diseased, crowded, weakly attached, and low energy branches from the crown of the tree.

Another way to improve the health and structure of your trees is with a crown thin, which is the selective removal of branches to increase light penetration and air movement through the crown. This opens the foliage of the tree and reduces weight on the end of limbs.

A crown thin on your fruit trees in winter can create a beautifully structured tree for spring, that can withstand the weight of itʼs own fruit. A crown thin can also allow light penetration for underlying and surrounding plants and smaller vegetation.

Maintaining the health of your trees also includes preventative care. Preparing for heavy wet snow loads, high gusty winds and other forces of nature is important to the health of the tree, to prevent against breakage, torn bark and cracked leaders. Depending on the degree of damage, a tree may lose itʼs life to a badly cracked leader. With storms arriving in late October in the Boulder area, proper pruning will help your trees withstand the heaviest of snows.

Another reason for trimming your urban trees is hazard reduction. Trees that have limbs that are hanging over playgrounds, roofs, buildings and city walks need to be regularly evaluated and pruned to create safe zones for the surrounding environment.

Providing clearance for traffic, walkways, building and other surrounding trees and plants is important in the urban environment. A crown raise is the removal of the lower branches from a tree to provide clearance. Blue River Forestry & Tree Care is up to date on all city ordinances for uplifting and clearance heights for Boulder tree trimming, as well as, surrounding cities.

Tree trimming is not only great for a treeʼs health, but also for aesthetics. If you are selling your home or trying to increase your property value having well pruned, maintained and healthy trees will give your property value that extra boost it needs.

Please leave trimming your trees to the professionals, poorly trimmed trees not only develop weak structures and limbs, they have more risk of storm damage and less aesthetic value. Also the longevity and health of the tree is greatly compromised when a tree has endured poor pruning.

As Boulderʼs premier tree service Blue River Forestry & Tree Care provides free estimates, and health evaluations to ensure the longevity and beauty of our communityʼs trees.

Proudly providing tree service, tree removal, fire mitigation, and all related forestry services to Boulder County, CO and surrounding regions for over 15 years.

WE LOVE TREES.

We take tremendous pride in providing tree care services tailored to achieve your goals relating to tree health and management on your property throughout Boulder County, Colorado including Arvada, Lafayette, Louisville, Niwot, Erie, Golden, and beyond.

We are professionally licensed, certified, and fully insured.
Licensed in ALL local municipalities that provide licensing for Tree Service, including City of Longmont, CO

Guaranteed onsite ISA certified arborist

April is quickly approaching and as you look around you can see the freshness of
Spring starting to arise. Green baby buds are starting to form, little bugs are beginning
to grace us with their presence and if you live in Colorado, the strong fierce Spring
winds have begun. 80 mph winds were topping the charts in Boulder the other day and
unfortunately are wreaking havoc on our newly budding trees. So what do you do when
your 50 ft Spruce tree topples over and smashes your fence, barely missing your
home? You call in an ISA Certified Arborist.

Spruce tree blown over by high winds

Blue River Forestry & Tree Care is a premier tree service in Boulder County
which not only employs ISA Certified Arborists, we have the machinery and
knowledge to easily remove any storm damaged tree. Thankfully, not all trees are
completely toppled over by fierce winds and most only incur minor storm damage such
as broken leaders or limbs. However, broken leaders hanging over your play yard,
house or drive can cause their own damage and can be hazardous is their very own
way, hitting a fence may be your last fear if a broken leader is hanging over your swing
set. Call an arborist immediately if you see storm damage on your property to prevent
further breakage. Blue River Forestry & Tree Care has day of emergency appointments
in Boulder and surrounding areas for tree removal and/or care and will come to any
hazardous call within in hours.
Prevention is the best way to deal with storm damage. Proper pruning practices
by a professionally certified arborist will minimize the risk of storm damage and create a
healthy growth pattern for your trees to be able to with stand the fierce Colorado winds.
Proper pruning will remove the dead, dying, diseased, crowded, weakly-attached, and
low vigor branches from the crown of the tree so you will have less breakage and less
danger during storms. We all know the climate here changes rapidly and snow in April
is not uncommon. April snow is wet and heavy and great to play in, but if your tree has
weakly-attached branches or dead and dying branches those will be the first to break
during a heavy snow load. Protecting your trees is protecting one of your propertyʼs best  assets, so call today for a free estimate on Spring trimming.

Our ASV Skid Steer "Ricki" making this removal an easy one

Tree trimming can be done at almost any time of the year, but there are many benefits to winter trimming especially in Boulder County. With our sunny winter days and usually warm winter weather, Blue River Tree Care prunes year round to meet your specific trees needs. Certain species of trees such as fruit trees should only be pruned in winter during their dormant season to protect against bacteria and other diseases that affect these species in the summer.  Here are the how’s and whys of winter trimming to answer the most common client questions.

How does the arborist know which branches are dead in the winter?

It is easy to see a dead branch in blooming time, they are the dried up branches with dead leaves or no leaves, however a qualified ISA Certified Arborist will able to tell the difference between a dead branch and an alive branch in the winter.  A dead branch will be rough in texture versus the smooth texture an alive branch will have. The buds on an alive branch will be full, of normal color and texture and buds on a dead branch will be dried out and shriveled. Another way to tell an alive branch versus a dead branch is that a dead branch will break easily, an alive branch will bend and is flexible, rather than snapping right away.  One of the unique ways the arborists at Blue River Tree Care use to identify dead branches while in trees is by tapping them with the back of their handsaws and listening to the sounds they make. Dead branches will make a completely different sound than an alive branch. So if you see your arborist tap, tap, tapping away, you can rest assure that they are identifying alive from dead and taking the best precautions to safely trim your trees.

If it’s easier to identify the dead in the summer, why trim in the winter?

Trimming a tree does various things besides just removing dead branches.  Creating a healthy and strong tree structure to prevent breakage and damage from the elements, prominent light penetration and air movement within the crown, and to provide clearance for sidewalks, pedestrians or children that may play in the area. If you live in Longmont you know that the trees are mature and large, breakage from heavy snow loads on these tress can be fatal for your house, car or anyone near.  The structure of the tree is most visible in the winter when the leaves are gone. It allows the arborist to move gracefully through the tree because of better access, and maintenance structural problems that are seen.

We understand you love your Colorado Columbines and we don’t want to damage them either, this is another benefit of winter trimming.  We always do our best to avoid the plants and flowers growing under your tree, the best way to reduce risk to your flowers is to trim your tree in the winter, when your flowers are dormant or waiting to be replanted.

Frozen ground also gives arborists access to grounds with equipment without impact. Boulder’s Black Walnut trees are suffering from an epidemic call 1000 Cankers disease, and if you have a Black Walnut that needs to come out, winter is the perfect time for this. Being able to access the yard with all equipment makes the job quick and easy, and also the disease is less communicable in the winter.

If your looking for an affordable tree service in Boulder County or the surrounding area, winter is a time for great deals. Winter deals make caring for your trees an easy decision.  Blue River Tree Care offers specials from December to March, and we always offer free estimates.

The Pro Green Expo once again makes it’s way to Denver Febuary 8-11, 2011.  The Pro Green Expo offers 141 seminars on the hottest topics in the green industry. The expo has a weatlh of information that can be applied to everything from the office, to the jobsite, to the trees themselves, this is why I am so excited to be attending. Being the support system and “go to girl” for the business and crew, I am always looking for new ways to update the office, make customer service the best ever, and make sure our crew is the happiest crew on the block.  This will be my first year attending the Pro Green Expo and being the book worm that I am, I am already excited for my first day of classes. Stay tuned for updates in Febuary on all the wonderful things I have learned.

Brandy & Maddox at ISA Tree Competition in Greeley CO

The International Society of Arboriculture also know as “ISA” promotes the professional practice of arboriculture and fosters a greater worldwide awareness of the benefits of trees. They set forth standards for the tree care industry, provide testing, continuing education, and require all arborists to abide by a code of ethics.  After one completes the ISA test and becomes a certified arborist, they are required to obtain 30 continuing education credits in order to maintain the status of ISA certified arborist.

We congratulate Ryan for taking a step above the rest and becoming ISA Certified Arborist #RM-7382A.  From the moment Ryan began working with Blue River Tree Care we could see his natural talent and ability when it came to climbing and trimming.  Ryan also competed this year in the Rocky Mountain Chapter’s Tree Climbing Competition and placed among the top 15 climbers.  He continues to study under owner and ISA certified arborist Dustin Brown and is excelling every day in the new tree care practices and techniques. So our hat is off to you Ryan, congratulations and thank you for being a part of the Blue River Tree Care’s team.

Meet “Ricki” he is our forestry employee of the month.

“Ricki” is part of the crew and is an ASV Skid Steer. He is the favored piece of equipment when it comes to forestry.  Equipped with a bucket loader, winch or a grapple, all Blue River Tree Care’s employees like to work with him as he knows how to get the job done.  Fire mitigation, defensible space or helping to complete forest health projects, he makes the job go smoothly when needing to pull large trees away from houses or off the forest floor.  Not only does he assist on forest projects, he is also great when he comes to hauling away storm damage trees that have fallen, or large leaders that must be removed. This winter we were asked to participate in a classroom project from Wisconsin and “Ricki” helped give Flat Stanley some education on Colorado’s forests.