General Knowledge

26 Apr

Storm Damage: What to Do: A Step-by-Step Plan

Storm Damage is stressful. Waking up to a tree down in your front yard, a limb on your house or your car is just not the way anyone wants to start their day. amiright? 

Tis the season for heavy, wet snow that breaks your tree limbs and causes that unwelcomed headache. How should you handle it and what can you do to prevent it?

Prevention is always key to preventing these spring storm problems. 

  1. Always ensure you are keeping your trees happy and healthy by trimming them when necessary, removing them when they need removal, or treating them before they are infested.
    1. When trees are healthy they are less likely to snap under the pressure of heavy spring snow.
  2. We are always available to access the health of your trees and make any suggestions to ensure they stay that way.

When the snow comes.

  1. Check to make sure the tree is safe and clear of all utility lines prior to removing snow. If they are laying on a power line: DO NOT TOUCH OR TRY AND MOVE IT. CALL EXCEL ENERGY.
  2. If the tree is clear of utility lines, use a broom to remove as much snow as possible from branches by brushing off or gently shaking. Do not bang broom on tree limbs as this could cause the limb to break.
  3. Do not attempt to climb a tree or use a ladder to reach higher limbs, this is dangerous and will cause bigger problems than just the tree being hurt!
  4. If the tree is between the street and the sidewalk on your street – call your city official as this is more likely their responsibility.
  5. If your limb has landed on your house, fence, car, shed, another tree DO NOT attempt to move them.
    1.  Take photos of the damage to the best of your ability.
    2. Call you insurance and report the damage.
    3. Call Colorado Trees or fill out the work request form and we will get you on the schedule asap. Be sure to include “storm damage” in your details so we can mark as urgent.
    4. Do not attempt to move (if small enough off car or fence etc) until you are told to do so by your adjuster.
  6. Do not attempt to remove broken branches or trees by yourself.
    1. If the job requires running a chainsaw overhead, sawing from a ladder or removing large branches or entire trees, contact an insured, ISA- Certified arborist like Colorado Trees. We have multiple certified arborists on staff, are licensed, insured and we prioritize safety and client satisfcation.
    2. PLUS for every tree or trim or remove this year we are planting one tree with our partner One Tree Planted in burn areas in Colorado to reforest.

 

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13 Apr

Celebrating Earth Day by Planting Trees With US

As Earth Day approaches many companies, indviduals, politicians, and eco-consicience folks will be thinking about what they can do to keep making positive impacts on the planet this year. As a company who cares deeply about the environment and works in the beautiful outdoors of Colorado each and every single day we put thought in to this topic all year long. Taking care of the environment often means removing dead trees or keeping your trees healthy and maintained. We love what we do and our “office” aka the trees are always on our minds.

As wildfires have ravaged many parts of Colorado, leaving behind burnt landscapes and destroyed ecosystems. The Spring Creek fire near La Veta, the Troublesome Fire in Grand County, and the Cameron Peak Fire near Fort Collins are the three burn areas alone consumed over 200,000 hectares of forests in Colorado.

We have partnered with the incredible non-profit called One Tree Planted. One Tree Planted makes it simple to plant trees and support incredible projects across the world. One Tree Planted have planted over 92.7 million trees in more than 80 countries across the globe since 2014. In 2022, they more than doubled their impact from 2021 – with 52.7 million trees.

One way to counterbalance the negative impact of removing or trimming trees is by planting new ones. For every tree that we remove or trim,  we will be planting one with One Tree Planted. We have pledged a minimum of 500 trees specifically to the three burn areas in Colorado (Spring Creek Fire, Troublesome Fire and The Cameron Peak Fire).

Choosing Colorado Trees to trim or remove your trees is all you need to do to support this reforestation project! It’s as simple as that. If you’d like to do more you can also contribute more (just $1 plants a tree!) by clicking here to support our fundraiser.

To learn more about One Tree Planted check out this impact video!

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15 Sep

Celebrating 5 Years by offsetting our Carbon for 2021!

Wow. FIVE years.

It’s been a crazy road to where we are today. Colorado Trees started off as one man (Mark, owner) and a truck and a boat trailer. Mark worked hard and cut trees alone, dragged brush alone, loaded brush on his raft trailer and tied it down alone, booked jobs, did invoices and estimates and built this company through blood, sweat, and sometimes tears. We aren’t too proud to admit that!

Today, Colorado Trees is still mostly run by Mark in many facets, but he’s added a truck, a chipper, more chainsaws, ground crew, and climbers. Mark studied hard and became a certified Arborist and then did two years of training to become a Qualified Supervisor with the Department of Agriculture.  He uses this knowledge to diagnose and treat trees for many situations. Keeping trees healthy and happy is his passion. That passion for trees continues today. Since day one we have thought about how to replace the trees that have had to come down. Being a cog in the health of our environment is important.

Taking down dead trees and keeping trees beautiful is important to our environment but taking them down also takes a BIG truck that emits Carbon Dioxide (CO2). Running a big chipper to chip dead branches uses fuel and emits carbon. Running a chainsaw uses fuel and emits Carbon. To celebrate five years, we wanted to make a positive impact on the environment in a BIG way.

That’s why we’ve partnered with Native, a Public Benefit Corporation and the Medford Spring Grasslands Conservation Project in southeastern Colorado. With this partnership we pledge to offset 100% of our carbon footprint made by our diesel work truck, our wood chipper, and our chainsaws. The fuel used for us to trim, treat and remove trees is 220 tCO2e which is equal to eliminating the carbon from 26.5 homes energy use for an entire year.

How? Grasslands store one-third of the Earth’s carbon, and just one acre of grassland can store an estimated 50 tonnes of carbon or more. Yet, in the U.S., over one million acres of grassland are still converted each year, which has the potential to release 50%-70% of the carbon they hold as carbon dioxide (CO₂). Colorado’s shortgrass prairie The Medford Spring grasslands, hosts bison and black-tailed prairie dogs will help limit shrub and tree encroachment and preserve habitats for native swift fox, ferruginous hawks, burrowing owls, elk, pronghorn antelope, and the mountain plover. This eco-system is important to essentially “pull down” negative CO2 and hold it in the soil and release what you can call “good carbon” back in the air.

We are currently supporting the Medford Springs Grasslands project through Native to offset the 220 tonnes of CO2 we will emit this year essentially ending at net ZERO for 2021.

Choosing CO trees for your trim or removal not only means incredible customer service, fair pricing, and unparalleled expertise, it also means giving back and making our world a better, cleaner place. We believe we can all make change.

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16 Nov

What’s an Arborist?

Like people, trees need proper nutrients and care to thrive. Consider an arborist as your tree’s primary care physician.

An arborist is a professional, certified by the International Society of Arboriculture. This person studies tree function and structure, engaging in the management and care of trees. Arborists can help diagnose the structural integrity and health of your tree.  Arborists recommend treatments or trim plans to get your trees where they need to be when heavy snows or winds come through. Thus, they are helping you in mitigating as much hazard to your property as possible. 

However,  arborists can also have specialty skills. These can include climbing and trimming the trees, and removing trees in various conditions or locations. They’re also able to treat your trees to be as healthy as possible.

The arboricultural industry has a collaborative culture. Various arborists with various skill sets are utilized in many cases to get the job done correctly, and with lasting positive effects. Colorado Trees‘ crew has an amazing mix of arborists to handle every situation they’re faced with. 

Fall Tree Service

Colorado Trees has a culture of continuing education. We are constantly training our arborists, and arborists-in-training. We give them the education they n

eed to be the best, while also keeping our experienced Arborists on the cutting edge of this new and changing industry.

Want to know what an ISA certified arborist can do for you and your trees? Schedule a free estimate here! We’d love to hear from you. 

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06 Nov

Denver Tree Service with Colorado Trees

Trees bring more than just mental and physical health benefits to our lives. Trees add value to properties in Denver’s front range. Beautiful, regularly maintained trees on your property can increase the monetary value of your home from $1,000 to $30,000 depending on the size, location, and how well they’ve been taken care of. If you’re browsing for a certified arborist to maintain your properties’ trees, look no further! Trust Colorado Trees is your friendly Denver tree service provider.

Regular tree service is important to maintain the health and value of the trees on your property in Denver. Consider a certified arborist from Colorado Trees to serve as the primary care physician for these organisms. In doing so, your trees can stay healthy and valuable for as long as possible!

What does regular Denver tree service and maintenance look like?

Trimming: Regular maintenance of branch health and length in our Urban Forest Environment is important for many reasons. Careful maintenance trims or pruning facilitates fresh, young productive growth. Older and dead branches can increase a trees risk of pest infestation or disease. Trimming regularly also mitigates the potential for hazard from fallen or broken branches. All of this maintenance in turn protects your valuable tree assets for years to come.

Removals: In many different cases, you may need a tree removed from your property. The crew with Colorado Trees is able to remove trees of all sizes, in many different seasons and weather conditions. We’re also able to remove trees from lots of different locations.

We’ve safely removed trees from between houses, hanging over a structure (i.e., a garage, fence, shed, home, et cetera).  Our crew is highly trained to handle removals that require technical rigging and/or use of a crane to remove larger trees. We work with the city to get all necessary permits for temporary street closures to ensure this is a smooth and safe procedure, every time.

Treatments: Colorado Trees has a Qualified Supervisor with the Department of Agriculture to diagnose and treat various tree health issues. Denver tree health issues which require service range from mitigating infestations or infections, or treatments after they have been infested or infected to help get their immune systems working on their own again. We also offer vitality treatments to boost the overall metabolism of your tree, helping their immune and vascular systems run at an optimum level to fight off both infestations and infections.

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04 Nov

Weather Emergencies and Colorado Trees

Weather emergencies and other extreme weather events are commonplace in Colorado’s front range. In this case, the Colorado Trees crew is here to help resolve tree-related weather emergency calls.

Although Colorado’s deciduous trees go dormant for the winter, they are still susceptible to damage via extreme weather. Fluctuating temperatures, swift temperature drops, and low soil moisture are weather emergencies which influence your tree’s vulnerability to damage.

Property owners can decrease tree susceptibility to illness, injury, and death in the case of winter weather emergencies via preventative maintenance. Thus, decrease your risk of tree damage or property damage during a weather emergency by keeping soil moist in the fall, and making sure limbs are pruned regularly.

If you weren’t able to do your yearly maintenance and your tree gets hit by the heavy snows, a certified arborist from Colorado Trees is happy to help set your trees straight. We mitigate this damage through trimming or removal of hazardous trees or their limbs.

After a snow or ice storm, there are some questions you can ask to see if you need our help:

  • Has the tree lost any portion of its canopy?
  • Does the tree have any broken limbs or branches?
  • Are there cracks in the wood?
  • Is the tree leaning?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, please get in touch with us.

This means your tree is likely damaged, and we’ll need to come trim or remove parts of it. Broken trees as a result of weather emergencies are hazardous. They have the potential to harm people and property if not taken care of swiftly.

With Colorado Trees, the winter season is a fantastic time for removing trees that could become a problem if not dealt with.  We offer discounted pricing on all trims and removals during the winter. So give us a call!

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05 Oct

Denver’s Urban Forest and Colorado Trees

If you live in Denver, you live in an Urban Forest Environment.

Much of Denver’s urban forestry efforts were founded by a recent college graduate named Al Rollinger, in the summer of 1969. He walked around the city noting the types of trees that existed on 3×5 index cards. That fall, his secretary typed up Rollinger’s “Tree Pioneers of Denver.” A fifty year project with Denver’s Botanic Garden began shortly thereafter. This project keeps tabs on tree species thriving (and dying) in Denver, giving city foresters insights into what urban forestry might look like as we move into the future. 

Historically, and today, trees are an extremely important asset to any property for aesthetic and functional reasons. In Denver, trees provide for attractive streets and properties. They also share vital shade from the sun at this mile-high altitude. We have a lot to thank trees for, like cleaning the air around them, and turning carbon dioxide into usable oxygen! On the same hand, tree populations help fight climate change for this reason. 

Through cooling homes and beautifying our local landscape, trees do a lot. They increase property value, create character in neighborhoods, improve water and air quality, and reduce hot summer temperatures through shading the land. The city of Denver valuates the annual ecosystem benefits of our trees at over fifteen million dollars annually! This information is quantified and kept in a really interesting tool, the Denver Treeport Card. You can check it out here!

Denver really cares about its environment.

It’s one of the only major cities in the United States with a City Forester. We love that! This being said, we’re here to help where the city doesn’t — at your home and commercial properties. 

The most prevalent tree species in Denver are Maple, Ash, Locust, Linden, Oak, and Elm trees. There’s thousands of them! Basic tree care you can do at home includes making sure your trees are watered, and making sure you can see the sky if your standing underneath the tree’s canopy. Dense, tangled branches are more prone to breaking, dying, and falling. 

Denver’s City Forester takes care of all trees located on streets and in parks. The city relies on property owners to properly care for their own trees. This is where Colorado Trees can help!

It’s important to know an arborist! If you have established, larger trees on your property, we’re able to come check them out, just because! Right now, we’re offering a Vitality Treatment Soil Application. This helps your tree get through dormant and drought periods for a longer amount of time then it would on it’s own. This treatment helps the transpiration process, increases leaf thickness and root density, and helps the microbiome on the roots and in the soil work more effectively. 

 

If you still have questions, contact us! We’d love to chat. 

 

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