Ice Bending Your Trees in Richmond Hill?

Freezing rain fell all night. In the morning everything is glazed, the birch out front is bent like a fishing rod, the cedar hedge has split open down the middle, and every so often you hear a crack from the big silver maple. Plenty of Richmond Hill streets still carry scars from the ice storm that hit in December 2013, when limbs and power lines came down across town. Smaller ice events hit most winters.

What Ice Does to Trees

Ice adds a lot of weight fast, and it builds up evenly on every twig. How a tree handles it depends on its shape and its wood.

Trees That Bend

Birches are flexible and bow under ice, sometimes until their tops touch the snow. Cedars and other upright evergreens splay open as the weight pulls their stems apart. Bending is how these trees survive, and many recover.

Trees That Break

Silver maples, willows, Manitoba maples and older trees with weak forks have brittle wood that snaps instead of bending. Limbs crack and hang, or come down entirely. The mature silver maples and willows around Mill Pond and along older streets in Richvale take it hard.

Trees With Leaves Still On

An early ice storm in fall, before the leaves drop, catches far more ice and does much more damage. The same goes for evergreens, which hold ice on their needles all winter.

What to Do While the Ice Is On

Mostly, wait. The ice will come off on its own, and almost anything you do to frozen branches makes it worse.

• Don’t shake the tree or hit branches to knock the ice off. Frozen wood is brittle and snaps.
• Don’t pour warm water on branches. It refreezes and adds weight.
• Brush light snow gently upward from underneath with a broom, if it’s soft snow and not ice.
• Stay out from under loaded trees, especially on a sunny morning when ice and broken limbs start dropping.
• Keep ten metres from any fallen wire and phone 911 or Alectra Utilities. Branches on lines are for the utility to clear.
• Move the car if it’s parked under a heavy limb.

After the Melt: What to Check

Once the ice is off and it’s safe to walk around, take a careful look.

• Bent birches: give them until late spring. If the trunk isn’t cracked, many stand back up as they grow.
• Splayed cedars: they often close back up. If one stem has torn away from the base, it won’t.
• Hanging limbs: a broken branch lodged up high may let go days or weeks later. These are the urgent ones.
• Split trunks: a fresh crack where two main stems meet weakens the whole tree.
• Torn bark: where a limb ripped off, the tree needs a clean cut so the wound can close.

Getting Ready for Next Winter

A few things in fall make ice less damaging. Taking out dead and weak limbs means fewer branches to break. Thinning a dense crown lets less ice build up. Tying cedars loosely with soft, wide strapping helps them hold their shape. Keeping limbs back from the roof and from the wire that runs to your house means fewer problems when they do sag.

Late fall is the easiest time for this work around Richmond Hill. The leaves are down, so every weak fork and dead limb is easy to see, and the ground is usually firm enough to carry branches out without rutting the lawn. A trim done in November means the tree heads into its first freezing rain lighter and better balanced.

Richmond Hill Rules

If an ice-damaged tree has to come down, check its size. Richmond Hill’s Tree Preservation By-law 19-25 covers private trees measuring 15 cm or more across at chest height, and hazardous trees can follow a different process, so ask the City. Boulevard trees belong to the City; report damage to Access Richmond Hill at 905-771-8800.

Which Trees Handle Ice Best

If you are planting after losing a tree, species matters. Some hold up far better under ice than others.

• Usually tougher: bur oak, hackberry, ginkgo and most hickories have strong wood and open crowns.
• Middle of the pack: sugar maple, red oak and linden lose some twigs but rarely big limbs.
• Prone to damage: silver maple, Manitoba maple, willow, Bradford-type pears and birch break or bend most.

Young trees with a single, central trunk handle ice better than trees with several stems splitting off at one point.

Getting It Looked At

Phone or text us at (289) 475-5822, any day between 8 in the morning and 8 at night. We have no after-hours crew, so dial 911 if someone is injured or a power line has fallen. When it is safe, send a picture of what broke and what is still hanging. Scott can usually visit that day, tell you plainly what can stay, and price the work for free. For broken trees, see storm-damaged tree removal. If it can wait until spring, he will say so. We cart the wood away and sweep up before we leave.