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The way to always look at these questions is to ask the hard ones.
Like what is the kill radius of that particular tree? Is the house within that radius????
You can rave about certified whatever till the cows come home. There is zero guarantee once you are within a kill radius of any tree. I look at what will harm you in any house. Bad electrical is very, very high on my list.
Having a tree that has a kill radius over / by the house is totally fool hardy. You can mess with fate, tempt the Gods, it can and does kill folks.
Just web search "total for year killed by falling trees in the usa", you get something like 6,480,000 hits. It is not uncommon way to die.
You can claim to be a tree hugger, you can claim anything under the sun. The pure fact of the matter is there is real risk once you are within the kill radius of any tree. The longer and more often, the greater the risk. It is not like your country, not worth dying for.
To give somebody advice when you incur no risk is one thing, to have them incur it knowing is another. To die that way has zero glory. To have somebody else in your family die that way might be something to never be able to live with. There are zero guarantees once within the radius and can be struck by something big enough to kill you.
There is zero way I would ever knowing live in a house with that type of risk. It is for nothing. Plus way too many other negatives in having a tree that big, that close.
Yup, I would have that chain saw in a flash. I'm seeing maybe new cabinets, some shelves, maybe new furniture for the computer room, maybe some steam bending projects. No tree is worth the risk of buying the farm that way.
The BTW, if that pix will not show in your browser, usually can make it so, by just right clicking on the thumbnail if it shows and click "Show in new link". She is big, she is bold, she is beautiful and she is way too close.
I have a tree in my backyard that is over 200 years old, healthy, and is upwards of 100 ft tall. I love it until the leaves fall in the autumn and we have to rake.
The house was built in the 1920s and the tree has not decided to kill anyone yet.
I'll let you all know if it changes its mind & I die in the kill zone.
i have a tree in my backyard that is over 200 years old, healthy, and is upwards of 100 ft tall. I love it until the leaves fall in the autumn and we have to rake.
The house was built in the 1920s and the tree has not decided to kill anyone yet.
I'll let you all know if it changes its mind & i die in the kill zone.
I have a tree in my backyard that is over 200 years old, healthy, and is upwards of 100 ft tall. I love it until the leaves fall in the autumn and we have to rake.
The house was built in the 1920s and the tree has not decided to kill anyone yet.
I'll let you all know if it changes its mind & I die in the kill zone.
If it gets you, doing is done. You walk this Earth no more. BTW I know of some peeps trees killed, it really is not a joke. Neither are all the other peeps I knew who bought the farm from non-glorious causes. It is more similar to car deaths. You assume it will not be your turn. I prefer to get the odds on my side in as many situations as I can.
That tree is not a tame critter if it gets loose. But you are advising the peeps to take the chance.
After you have seen a few folks buy the farm in so called normal situations it changes your perspective. I've seen my share of trees some tumbling down when they were supposed to be safe. Most had nobody under them.
No way would I be risking that puppy over my house. There are many, many other risks I will pass on too, especially if they have lil off setting potential for excepting those risks.
I will note you did not comment on all the real deaths from tree falls. Not difficult to find, none of them, I'm sure expected it to be their turn. Maybe you will be next. Like I say, we will never have clue it got you.
The other point that can not be argued is no tree, no risk of being hit by one. Not a great debate. That puppy even if a branch comes down is going to get your attention.
Cosmic - we all have to go sometime kiddo....I prefer to live as safely and sanely as I can but I refuse to be as full of fears as you seem to be. Trees are wonderful things - they can make or break the look of a house, they make people happy and cooler, the birds live there......as with all things in life, we need to use common sense but for Heaven's sake - live and be happy and stop being such a harbinger of gloom and doom.
Cosmic - we all have to go sometime kiddo....I prefer to live as safely and sanely as I can but I refuse to be as full of fears as you seem to be. Trees are wonderful things - they can make or break the look of a house, they make people happy and cooler, the birds live there......as with all things in life, we need to use common sense but for Heaven's sake - live and be happy and stop being such a harbinger of gloom and doom.
I agree.
~40K per year are killed by/in automobiles in the U.S. If you are really concerned with safety, take a sledgehammer to your car ASAP (but please, don goggles and a helmet first! ).
Couldn't find an exact number for "tree deaths". Yes there are many "hits". I noticed that quite a few were caused by felling trees . In other words, the very act of taking a tree down is dangerous. Many injuries are also weather-related. So, yes, in the event of a hurricane/tornado you may indeed be killed by a tree or branch...or shards of glass, twisted metal, chunks of masonry, brick walls, flying cows etc etc etc.
On that cheery note, love my old oak. And I think she adds to the property value. She definitely helps save on the cooling bill. We have the arborist out every three years or so to cut out any dead limbs or anything hovering too close to the house.
Now that all the wags have tried to convince the OP there is no real danger. The real danger is lightning strikes. Many of those clips you see on the TV after storms with trees on houses are not caused by wind but more by lightning strikes.
In extreme cases the trees actually can split or blow apart. The heat from all the energy in the strike causes the moisture in the wood to turn to steam and in effect you get a type of steam explosion. A big tree can come down in a heap. Look down in this link, a tree actually can be completely blown apart like with dynamite. You can find pixs of them all over the web, even U-Tube actual strikes. Some are pretty spectacular.
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitors sites is not allowed
It is not just one tree in the pix, you can see many others. Any time you have lots of trees mixed in close to houses, you are rolling the dice. One question might be do the insurance companies do about the situation? I would not want to write policies, if I did sure would charge more or maybe exclude damage from all the trees.
If you are within the danger radius of any tree there is always a possible incident of one coming down.
In my own local neighborhood we have lil experience with lightning strikes even tho every storm has lots of it. None of the locals can remember the last time we had a close strike. This year we had two within a few months. One of them got a big cherry of mine, located way from my house. Huge tree, lightning blew the lowest big limb completely off. Very weird path thru the tree. Not only did it come off, it got blown about 10 feet out. If you had been hit by it, probably be dead. The sheer point looks about like it got hit by an artillery shell. The other was the neighbor across the road, he had a small immature maple completely get the top blown out by a lightning strike. It was not even the tallest tree around, had a a taller one right next to it. Limbs came down like spears into the yard. So much for some theories.
So if I had a big tree like that close to my house I would be asking what will happen if this sucker takes a good lightning strike. Probably happens in TX. You only have to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time. There is definite risk.
Also do not let anybody try to convince you big tree can not be brought completely down by lightning. I got many example all over my area. One is this huge tree that got completely split and fell in a heep. I had been trying to bargain for some lumber from it. Since found out it was a butternut, not so interested now, but if I get back over there will take a pix of it.
In the end it ain't about pretty or some damn birds, it is more about what risk you are subjecting your self too. I got nothing against trees as long as they are far away from the house. I sure do not want to be within their kill zone or have them able to reach the house. It is not rare to get lightning strikes, at some point the tree it gets can be yours. It sure got one of mine and I thought we were pretty immune.
Those trees in the pixs are pretty hefty, if it happens will come down with considerable force.
The flipside of the comments about lightening is this: If you cut down all the trees around your house, that makes the house itself the most likely target for lightening because it's now the tallest thing around.
The flipside of the comments about lightening is this: If you cut down all the trees around your house, that makes the house itself the most likely target for lightening because it's now the tallest thing around.
That might seem to be true but it is also the way of the World. You can not totally eliminate the risk from lightning anywhere. Just you might not have tons of wood hanging over your head acting as the lightning rod. It is not also absolutely true that lightning hits the highest point around. Lots of cute ways to spin the situation.
It is never predictable. In that neighborhood I would judge moot because if you looked close in the pix, lots of trees around the neighborhood. Most probable somebody else will get it if you have no tree.
In part a way of attempting to weasel argue the big question, how do you wish to recognize the risk and deal with it? Not only lightning but wind and other factors are also still in that risk equation. Risk can never be completely eliminated from all sources once you have something that big hanging over the house. Those huge mostly horizontal branches are dangerous in themselves from all sources.
Never get knowing within the kill radius of any tree on a more or less permanent basis. You take the other chances as part of living like everybody else.
Just web search your local zip code or location. Tree falls, tree split by lightning, tree falls on house, wind storm kills, ice storm kills, various other such scenarios and see what you get for hits. After every storm of any size, we have the pixs on the local TV station of some poor dude that either bought the farm or got their lumps from having a tree to close to the house. Just about every location in the USA that is not a desert will have the same. Nothing like understanding it local to get your attention.
If it is freaky, weird and possible, it can and does happen. About the time that cherry tree of mine got the hit, couple counties over a dude was killed in his car backing out of the garage. Big limb in his driveway got him. Probably a lightning hit in a rain stom. If he had been a few seconds early / late it would have fallen on the hood or in the back seat, he was within the exact second time frame required to be in the exact right place at the most exact wrong time. I don't go out messing around in the woods during storms either. I don't try to travel during nasty storms and incur those risks either if at all possible, some things are not worth tryng to beat the odds. If you mess with the bulls expect some horns at some point.
That particular tree would be lumber in my new garage.
"Tree kill zone" What would the world look like if everyone adopted that policy? I think it would be uglier, sadder and hotter.
Trees $ value: check for value appraisal for its loss- IRS loss deduction and replacement insurance claims. Some of those numbers might surprise you.
Lightening: Rather have the tree take the hit than the house. One of mine did and I appreciate its sacrifice. Planted another in its place.
Cut tree down: Roots rot: sinking ground. Big roots-big holes. You pay tree service to cut tree down, they sell the wood and mulch.
If it is healthy, I would leave it alone and enjoy.
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No you won't
).
. In other words, the very act of taking a tree down is dangerous. Many injuries are also weather-related. So, yes, in the event of a hurricane/tornado you may indeed be killed by a tree or branch...or shards of glass, twisted metal, chunks of masonry, brick walls, flying cows etc etc etc.
