Tree bark is roughly akin to the skin of animals; it helps to define the boundary between the internal and external world, and it provides protection against a variety of threats. While bark fails to attract the same level of attention that...

DRAFT

Today, we wanted to talk about an avoidable, but all too common, threat to your trees: girdling. Girdling occurs when something wraps around a tree branch or trunk, and causes damage to the tree’s vascular tissue. Severe girdling damage...

The more ecologists learn about the world, the more it becomes apparent that all living things are connected. Trees provide numerous examples of this, as even youngsters understand that trees provide animals with fruit, shelter and other...

Improper pruning practices can weaken even the healthiest trees. In especially tragic cases, improper pruning can lead to the tree's premature demise. Such is often the case whenever trees suffer a particularly horrible pruning practice called “topping."

The benefits trees provide are simply too numerous to catalog. In addition to providing humans with a number of basic needs – including relatively important things like oxygen and food – trees improve property values, reduce crime rates and ...

Healthy trees are beautiful, ecologically important components of local habitats, but unhealthy trees represent a significant safety hazard. While it is impossible to determine exactly when or if a given tree will fail, several clues can indicate that a tree is at increased risk of dropping branches or falling over completely.