All trees will fail at some point in their life, and all trees have some level of risk associated with them. Determining the likelihood of tree failure requires a significant level of experience and knowledge about how trees grow, how they fail, and what characteristics make a tree “risky.”

These trees were genetically selected for their perfect “lollypop” shaped crown, but it is that shape that is responsible for a shortened life span. The limited life of these trees is a function of structural failure, not “natural causes.”

Mulch is organic material placed on the soil’s surface around trees and plants to enhance their growing conditions. Mulch helps maintain soil temperature and moisture, reduce water loss from soil, reduce weed competition, improve soil structure, and give landscapes a clean appearance. Often overlooked, spreading mulch around your trees is one of the easiest and most beneficial techniques that can have great impact on the health and vitality of your trees.

Hemlock trees in eastern forests are late successional tree species that provide shade for the forest understory. Globally, there are ten hemlock species, with populations located in Asia and eastern and western North America12. Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) and Carolina hemlock (Tsuga caroliniana) grow in the eastern U.S. These trees have great ecological and cultural value in forests. However, the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae or HWA) is decimating hemlock populations throughout much of the trees’ native range, altering landscapes, and threatening these iconic tree species in both rural and urban areas.