You probably already know which tree it is. You’ve been looking at it for a year or two and every time a storm is in the forecast it’s the first thing you think about. Here’s a straight answer on what actually needs to come down before June.
Dead Trees Near Anything That Matters
If you’ve got a dead tree anywhere near your house, your pool cage, your fence or your neighbor’s property it needs to come down. Not next season. Before June.
Dead wood dries out fast in Florida heat and loses strength in ways you can’t see from the outside. The trunk looks fine from the yard but what’s holding it together inside is already breaking down. It doesn’t need a direct hit to come down in a storm. A strong gust from the wrong angle is enough and Florida storms find that angle regularly.
A lot of people leave dead trees standing because they’re still standing. That makes sense until you understand that standing and solid are two different things. A dead tree that seemed fine six months ago is weaker today and will be weaker still come July. The window for dealing with it on your schedule closes the moment a storm makes the decision for you.
If you’ve got a dead tree anywhere near a structure, that’s the first call to make.
Trees That Got Damaged in a Previous Storm
A tree that split, shifted or lost major limbs in a past storm isn’t the same tree it was before. It may look like it recovered. The canopy filled back in, it’s still standing, nothing seems obviously wrong. But inside it took damage that doesn’t fix itself. The next storm doesn’t have to be worse than the last one to finish what the last one started.
Look for cracks where major limbs meet the trunk, splits in the main trunk, a lean that showed up or got worse after a storm and roots that heaved the ground around them. Any of those on a tree near your house is worth getting looked at before June.
If you’ve been watching a tree since the last hurricane and something about it doesn’t feel right, get someone out to look at it. You’re probably not wrong.
Trees Leaning Toward Your House
A tree that’s leaning toward your house or pool cage needs to be looked at before storm season. A lean that’s been there for years without changing is different from one that showed up recently or has been getting worse. Both matter but the second one is more urgent.
Have someone walk the property and give you a straight answer. They’ll tell you whether it’s stable, whether trimming can reduce the load on the leaning side or whether it needs to come down. Don’t go into another hurricane season looking at a leaning tree and talking yourself into thinking it’ll probably be fine.
Large Trees That Have Outgrown Their Space
Sometimes a perfectly healthy tree has to come down because of where it ended up. A big oak that’s now sitting close to your house with the canopy spread out over the roof is a different situation than it was ten years ago when it was smaller. It grew the way trees grow. The problem is where it grew to.
If you’ve got a large tree that’s gotten noticeably closer to your house over the past few years, get someone out to look at it before storm season. Sometimes trimming handles it. Sometimes the tree has simply gotten to a point where removal is the right call. You want that answer before June not after a storm has made things more complicated.
The Tree You Keep Thinking About
There’s usually at least one tree that crosses your mind every time a storm is in the forecast. It might not be dead or visibly damaged. It’s just something about the way it sits, the way it moves in the wind, something that’s hard to put into words but shows up every time the weather turns.
That’s worth acting on. Get someone out to look at it. Either you find out it’s fine and stop carrying that into every storm season, or you find out it needs to come down and you still have time to deal with it before June 1st.
The trees that cause the most damage in a storm are almost always the ones someone already knew about and put off dealing with.
Removing trees before hurricane season in Spring Hill starts with a free estimate from Spring Hill Tree Specialists.