Expert tree care by the preservation specialists
Everything seems to be blooming early this year, including lilacs (did anyone else’s rhubarb bolt before they managed to harvest?). It was a delightful surprise to stroll down the street with their floral scent wafting through the late-May breeze, but for Woodpecker Tree Care that meant it was time to spring into action. When the lilacs are blooming, it’s time for us to cruise around the countryside and inoculate valuable Maritime elm trees.
After months of hard desk work and organization, Woodpecker Tree Care has made the exciting transformation into Woodpecker Tree Care Ltd. We are officially an incorporated business, which is very exciting news at HQ. It has been a wonderful 20 years in the arboricultural business, and this next step is a big one for a small operation like ours.
A cracked and rotting spruce jam-packed between several structures (and other trees) at a property outside of Amherst, NS needed to come down as soon as possible. With two experienced climbers (Beck and Rory) on deck, it could be done in the afternoon if all went smoothly. What turned this lakeside spruce into an all-day adventure was its location: situated by a remote cabin only reachable by 2.5km of back-road terrain or by boat.
Can you believe that spring is just around the corner? After shoveling ourselves out on a nearly weekly basis, it’s hard to imagine leaves on the trees again.
Woodpecker Tree Care is gearing up for the spring season, which begins on March 1st for us. It will be lovely to return to outdoor work among the branches in just a matter of weeks, and we are offering an “early bird” spring deal.
John optimistically purchased this Ulmus “Morton” elm hybrid, more commonly known as an “Accolade” elm, from Charlie the Tree Guy this fall. The Accolade cultivar was originally planted in 1924 at the famous Morton Arboretum (Lisle, Illinois). In 2005, the Accolade was studied alongside several cultivars in the US National Elm Trial, which determined the survival rate among elms. At the time, elm trees were dying off by tens of millions due to Dutch Elm Disease (DED) and other pests. Accolade came out as one of the top hybrid cultivars, with a 92.5% survival rate.
Beck Aurell is self-admittedly obsessed with trees and plants. She is an accomplished arborist with a breadth of experience, including Treemasters in Stockholm, The Tree Company in Melbourne, All Green Tree Care in Halifax and Asplundh in Nova Scotia.
Luciano Onichino, more often affectionately called “Looch,” is honoured to climb and care for trees. He joined the team in 2018, and has learned leaps and bounds, including how to climb and remove trees. The team loves having him around for his big heart and mechanical skills.
This black walnut in Sackville, NB needed some help to keep it from falling apart, so Woodpecker Tree Care was hired to give it the support it desperately needed. The problem is pretty obvious, it’s splitting down the middle, but you need more than superglue and some string to pull it back together.
This is one of the most frequent questions Woodpecker Tree Care staff gets on the job. The process is typically quick, so clients tend to miss the process altogether by the time they check in. We don’t lasso the trunk or bring stilts, but getting ropes up a tree is still pretty fun (and surprisingly simple). With the help of a weight, a throw line, and sometimes a slingshot, we’re able to pull our ropes up into a tree’s canopy.
Watch Woodpecker Tree Care’s Kevin Anderson and Rory Fraser demonstrate the process:
This is the second in a series of seven we’re calling “Meet the Team Monday”
Multi-talented John Haney is beloved here at Woodpecker Tree Care for his smile, wit, and generosity (we especially appreciate how generous he is with his beautifully baked bread).