The Trees and That Wind!

[digitS']

There were trees falling all around my neighborhood 10 days ago. Just 83 customers of the local electric company remain without power this morning, down from nearly 180,000. Countless roofs were damaged.

Which trees fell? Having lost their leaves to frost, the bare deciduous trees had a strong advantage on survival. I did notice that those oaks, the ones that sometimes hold onto their leaves way, way into winter - gave up those dry dead things when the wind began to hit about 50mph.

This area has a native ponderosa pine forest. Many of those trees are in residential areas. They can be very tall and catch a lot of wind. About half the trees that fell were pines but their population is likely 70% or 80% of residential evergreens.

There are lots of Douglas firs, quite a few other evergreens but I bet nearly half of the trees that fell were Colorado blue spruce.

Steve

 

[so lucky]

I had noticed in past storms in the PNW that huge old evergreens come down easily. It is amazing to see how small the root ball is on some of them. I guess in an area where rainfall is plentiful, the trees don't need to establish such far-reaching roots. But it sure makes for some scary and deadly incidents. Did you lose any trees, Steve?

 

[digitS']

No trees in about 300 yards fell, @so lucky .

However, at just about 300 yards in every direction, a tree fell - Darndest thing!!! Three of the four trees were spruce.

A black locust fell about that distance, also. But, it was an unusual tree ... or pair of trees. I imagine they were about 100 years old and growing cheek to jowl. One fell.

Keep in mind this is an area of the PNW with less than 20" of annual precipitation. The native spruce grow right along the creeks in the mountains.

I have neighboring evergreens at the little veggie garden. Grand fir, hemlock, ponderosa pine, spruce, larch. Okay, that last one loses its needles and isn't an evergreen ...

Anyway, other than shade, the only problem I have with them is the roots of the spruce trees. I can't really keep up with trimming them out of the outside bed! The pine must go deep, deep.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

I wondered about the species of trees that fell as I drove around. I saw a lot at my dentist office that were Ponderosa, but I think it was as you said Steve, they have large thick canopies that catch a lot of wind.

I think the predominance of fallen spruce in neighborhoods is because they were transplants, (obviously) and so many landscape trees only receive lawn water which keeps the roots shallow. Combined with their density and relative stiffness they can't stand up to strong sustained winds.

We have a doug fir close to the house that was making me a little nervous, but we didn't get the brunt of the winds like many areas, and it stood, fortunately.

 

[digitS']

I really should get back to the little veggie garden and see what fell, if anything. It's very protected, against a hill. The road deadends at the property. It's really 4 lots with 1 house and 1 detached garage. There was once another residence I was told. It was taken out before I got there, 20 years ago in the Spring.

The shady corner has 5 non-spruce within about 50 feet. I really have almost no trouble from those trees. It wasn't until last year that I realized I am gardening on top the old driveway. Yeah! The new owner had no use for that 2nd driveway onto the property but that original owner must have gone on a little drive, dug up some native trees, and planted them along his driveway!

The 3 spruce are near the other part of the garden. There were once 4 spruce but one must have failed against its competitors in sucking water and nutrients out of my nearest garden bed! The owner cut the sad thing and pulled the stump out about 5 years ago.

No guarantee on that Doug fir, Thistle'! There is one down not all that far away. Actually, it looks like it's had a hard life. Take care of yours. I wonder what pruning can be done on them, if anything. They do tend to drop branches.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Mine is relatively young, about 25 years probably. I do have my shade garden planted under it, which is a no no from an arborists point of view because of the shallow watering and the possibility of mulch against the trunk. But I keep mulch back and give it a deep, deep soak twice per growing season. It has grown and filled out substantially in 13 years, and I hope that helps keep it vertical!

 

[digitS']

As the utility company said, the 99203 neighborhood on Spokane's South Hill was "ground zero" in the windstorm. So ... the numbers for Spokane (link):

817: Trees downed by storm and counted by Wednesday, Nov. 25, in city of Spokane street right-of-way.

Those were just the trees in the streets of a city of about 180,000!

83: Percentage of 99203 ZIP Code still without power five days after storm.

I believe that Spokane is 0% without power now, over 10 days after storm.

There is a small house not far from me that still has a tree on its roof. Huge thing - crushed the roof in the front of the house breaking the front picture window. The house was vacant but it may amount to a total loss if there is rain and melting snow on that little house.

Steve

 

[SweetMissDaisy]

I'm so glad I didn't have any damage. Well, excuse me .... i lost 1 shingle off the barn. Whoop... that's hardly even worth the time it took to type.
It was a crazy mess around the north end of Newman lake, too... just crazy.

 

[thistlebloom]

Hey! Looky what the wind blew in! Good to see you @SweetMissDaisy !

 

[SweetMissDaisy]

Hahaha! Yup, it took a doozie of a storm to drag me out from under the rock I live under.