Summer storms in the Augusta area arrive fast and leave a mess that is hard to read from the ground. Some of what looks catastrophic is survivable; some of what looks minor is the reason a tree comes down three weeks later on a still afternoon. A few things are worth checking before anyone decides what happens next.
Stay out from under it first
Before assessing anything, look for wires. If a limb is touching a power line, or a line is down anywhere near the tree, that is the utility's job and nobody else's — stay well back and call them. Assume any downed line is live.
Then look at what is still overhead. A storm-damaged canopy can hold broken material under tension that lets go with no warning and no sound. Do the looking from outside the drip line, not from underneath it.
What a tree can usually recover from
Losing smaller branches is not serious. Trees are built to shed limbs, and a healthy hardwood that has lost part of its crown will usually put out new growth the following season, provided the trunk and the main structural limbs are intact.
A rough rule used widely in arboriculture: if noticeably more than about half the crown is gone, recovery gets doubtful, because there isn't enough leaf area left to feed the roots. Under that, and with sound structure, the usual answer is to clean up the broken ends properly and give it a season.
What usually means removal
A split trunk, or a main fork that has cracked open, is generally the end of the conversation — that split will not knit back together, and it is a structural failure waiting for the next wind. The same goes for a large cavity or a strike that has opened the trunk down its length.
A new lean is the other one to take seriously, especially with soil heaved or cracked on the side away from the lean. That means roots have torn, and the tree is being held up by whatever is left. A tree that has leaned the same way for twenty years is a different situation from one that leaned last Tuesday.
Hangers are the part people miss
The most common thing left behind after a storm cleanup is a hanger: a broken limb that never reached the ground and is lodged in the canopy. From below it reads as part of the tree. It isn't — it is loose weight waiting on a gust, and it is why an apparently tidy yard can still be dangerous.
Hangers are worth getting out deliberately rather than waiting for them to fall. If the limb is over a roof, a drive or anywhere people walk, it also wants roping and lowering rather than dropping.
Rather we handled it?
Tell us what the property needs and we'll come and look. Monday–Saturday, 7 AM–6 PM.