Tree App Blog

Dear Reader:

This is the first issue of the Tree App Blog.

The name "Tree App" is as contemporary as one can imagine, but it does have nothing to do with apps for your phone. "Tree App" stands for "Tree Appreciation."

And that is exactly what this blog is going to be about. For many readers, trees have been far from appreciative recently. Hurricane Sandy roared through our community at the expense of many, many trees. My work was, so to speak, "cut out," having to assess many trees that failed and be of assistance so that fallen and broken trees found their way to the compost heap. But occasions like this are unigue opportinities to learn more from the plants that I so dearly love and that have played an integral part of my working life since 1968.

This super storm reconfirmed my observations from earlier tree damages: the majority of the trees that caused havoc, broke, fell and uprooted, did rip to bits as a result of internal weak structures in the tree. This applied to nearly all of the hundreds of trees I inspected during the past few weeks. Sadly, many a tree that caused damage should actually have been subjected to a routine inspection prior to the storm. Trees carry signatures that indicate structural problems and form the basis for recommendations for future maintenance.

Trees are the biggest plants on earth and without them we cannot live. Yet they are also misunderstood. This is maybe because they seem so strong and invincable, yet suddenly.....With The Tree App blog I would like to start a community dialogue that will help you to understand trees better and be able to live with these magnificant plants rather than the alternative: eliminating more and more trees till we finally live in a desert-like atmosphere. 

There are many, many topics to cover but, for now, I will leave you and invite you to pose questions about trees. I will respond in due course and in between start talking trees from the ground up. I hope you will stay connected.

Frank Buddingh'