Winter Wreckage in Which Trees

For the last few weeks Richmond has been dealing with the aftermath of a few ice and snow storms, with broken and fallen trees on our houses, our driveways and in  our yards. It’s been a frightful ordeal for many, and tree crews around the city have been steadily at work trying to help with the clean up. This weather is something we have not had to deal with over the last few years, and many trees with poor unions and weak branches have not been put to the test. This article is a quick glimpse at our biggest flunkies, a focus on the 5 species most prevalent in the clean up.

A couple of quick honorable mentions that did not make our list, but were definitely damaged in great numbers, are the Weeping Willow and Bradford Pear trees. Most people are aware of the dreadful Bradford Pear and its notoriously weak unions that fall apart if you stare at them too long, but the Weeping Willow was a real bummer. These beloved trees are less common in Richmond, but the few I’ve seen were severely broken under the weight of the ice. The tree is a short lived and fast growing species, with long bowing limbs that don’t make for great levers once the wispy ends of the limbs become completely overwhelmed by the weight of the ice. 

Our first tree on the list is the Southern Magnolia. This species did not do well in this ice storm, nor did they do well in the last ice storm we had in 2021. Since the tree is an evergreen, the big broad leaves end up holding a lot of ice when water freezes in the canopy, overbearing the limbs. The species is also prone to some included unions that are weaker and can shear under the extra weight. When limbs eventually meet their breaking point, the fall can pick up momentum and break out everything underneath on the way down. But there’s good news, as these trees rarely need any restorative pruning due to their ability to readily sprout from damaged branches.

Next on the list is the Leyland Cypress trees, as they experienced a lot of failures, with some that just lost a few limbs while others completely failed at the base. Their needles can accumulate lots of snow and ice that bend and break under all the pressure. Their root systems then can also fail under all the added weight, sometimes falling into the other Leyland trees in their hedge row, causing a domino effect of toppling a few trees at once. It’s a common enough occurrence that I usually recommend replanting Arborvitae in their place as a better replacement.

The next tree is the poor Elm trees that had a lot of failures during this recent storm, which was very surprising to me. The species is known to have very fibrous, strong limbs that can withstand an incredible amount of force. Its structure is typically decurrent, growing more laterally than upright, and it can handle almost horizontal growth. Ice storms are an extreme weather event that push these different species to their limits, so it’s a good idea to make sure any overextended limbs are thinned or reduced where appropriate.

Another tree is the Maple trees, as they also had a lot of limb damage, especially the red maples, with tear outs and broken limbs that dangle in the canopies. This species is not great with their compartmentalization of decay, so there tends to be a lot of hollow limbs and trunks in the more mature trees. This is not the end for those trees, nor do I necessarily recommend a removal of the tree even though I’ve witnessed large broken tops and leaders on the ground. The tree can recover with some restoration cuts in the canopy to promote proper new growth.

The last on my list is the Pine tree, and it was certainly the most prevalent in the first days of the extreme weather conditions. Though these trees are very strong in wind storms and need little to no pruning on a regular basis, the lack of snow and ice over the last 3-4 years in Richmond allowed for weaker limbs to persist. The city got 3-4 years of winter limb breaks in a couple days, crashing out all over the place. This was the most common of the species for damage, yet very few of the trees needed any mitigation after the damage. Most of the broken limbs left small stubs that will die and fall off in pieces over time that can be simply left to nature in most cases. The broken sections in the canopies will initially draw concern but will ultimately make for a great opportunity for new growth!