From above ground, it was the picture of health! Both of us, each with over 40 years of experience saving trees, looked at our 60’ Blue Spruce and never suspected that it was vulnerable. However, as we drove through town we noticed more Spruce trees down than any other species. Now we had to ask, why, what was going on?

Backyard Wisdom - March/April 2022
by: Gilbert A Smith, ISA Board Certified Master Arborist

I’m sorry to say it, but we had to take this tree down for safety reasons. But, it has a story to tell us, from the inside out!

This Norway Maple landed as a “whirly bird” seed on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan in Lake Forest in 1960. I counted the annual rings as best I could. I guess everyone knows how to count the tree rings to determine the age of a tree. In April 2019 in our Wisdom From The Trees article Lesley and I talked about how trees grow and how they heal. Also Aldo Leopold, in his famous book, The Sand County Almanac explained the history in the rings of a tree.

Mother Nature’s Moment - March/April 2022
by: Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA Certified Arborist

This week, like many times in the spring of the year, I was asked to visit a client property to examine some large Arborvitae to see why they were not doing well. The client thought that she needed a price for fertilizing these “stressed trees”.

It has been a rainy week after many months of drought in the Chicago area. As I stepped into the back yard I noticed I was stepping onto completely sodden soil. My shoes were making sucking noises while walking the length of the lawn to the back property line where the big Arborvitae were planted. It was easy to see from a distance that the area around the trees was about an inch or two under water. I managed to get under the trees and check out the soil with my soil probe. No surprise that the heavily clay like soil was totally saturated to about a foot below the surface.