Module 5: Protecting Your Tree

If you're reading this page, you probably already know the many benefits we get from trees, and that you get from the trees in your yard.   Your trees beautify your home, speak volumes about it's “curb appeal”,   and contribute to making your home a place you want to live.   Your trees are a valuable financial asset too; they make your home more valuable when you go to sell it and they reduce your energy costs.   With all these benefits in mind, it makes sense that you would want to go to great lengths to protect this asset.  

Here is one of the first questions to ask yourself when dealing with a tree and construction situation: “Is this tree worth saving?” Many well intentioned protection efforts fail because large old trees nearing the end of their live spans were protected and younger trees weren't. Take time to look critically at your trees and decide what you want them to look like in 10-20 years.

So it pays to keep your trees safe, so that they remain an asset and don't become a liability.   This module will give you some insights into what it takes to protect trees – to keep them healthy, safe, and productive assets in your home landscape.   The fact is, tree hazards are more easily prevented than repaired.   In this case, your efforts at prevention will be a lot cheaper, and successful, than attempting to cure a damaged tree that is on it's way to becoming a hazard.