After a major storm, the first question is always the same: which trees are safe, which ones can be saved, and which ones need to come down. At A.M. Leonard, we supply the tools professionals use for this work. This guide covers the field assessment sequence arborists use, grounded in university extension research, with the thresholds that drive save-or-remove decision making.
The first pass is a safety scan from a distance, looking for immediate hazards before you approach anything. After that, the close inspection runs ground-up: root zone, trunk, then crown. The base is where real problems hide, and what you find there informs how you read everything above.
Clear Immediate Hazards Before Anything Else
Don't walk under trees yet. Start from a distance and do a full perimeter scan before you approach anything individually. You're looking for conditions that require immediate action, or that change how safely you can do the rest of the work.
Widow Makers and Hanging Branches
Widow makers, a term used by arborists and loggers for generations, are broken branches still suspended in the canopy. A partially broken branch can drop without warning, especially as wind picks back up or as adjacent wood dries and shifts in the days following a storm.
Use binoculars to scan the upper canopy before walking under any tree. Look for branches cracked near where they attach, resting on other branches, or hanging at a wrong angle. Any tree with visible widow makers gets flagged as a hazard until they're out. A telescoping pole saw reaching 15 to 21 feet handles most hanging scaffold branches from the ground. Anything higher or over a structure needs a climber with rigging.
Check for utility contact too. Broken branches on or near power lines come off the assessment list entirely. The utility company handles those. Don't touch or work near, and don't let anyone else get near this area until the hazard is cleared.
Root plate heave is the other hazard to catch early. A partially uprooted tree shows soil mounding on the side opposite the lean, sometimes with cracks spreading out from the base. These trees can go down without more wind. Stay 25 feet back from anything showing active movement until you've had a closer look.
Root Zone Assessment
Start your close inspection at ground level. The root zone tells you more about recovery odds than the crown does, and it's faster to read.
Walk all the way around the base. Watch for:
- Root plate uplift. Any visible lifting of the root mass matters. On a large tree, even 2 to 3 inches of lift on one side means a good chunk of the anchor root system is gone.
- Soil fracturing. Cracks spreading out from the base mean the root system moved during the storm, even if the tree is still standing.
- Newly exposed surface roots. Roots that were covered and aren't now point to soil displacement.
- Bark damage at the root flare. Storm forces can split or crush bark right at the base. Easy to miss if you go straight to the trunk above ground.
A fully uprooted mature tree is almost always a removal. The root system won't rebuild enough holding strength to make the tree safe, and you won't know for certain until it's too late. The exception is small trees under 10 feet with at least half the root plate still in the ground. Those can sometimes be reset and staked, but it takes several growing seasons before you know if it worked. (Iowa State Extension)
Trunk Assessment
The trunk drives the decision more than anything else. A tree can lose a lot of crown and recover. Trunk damage is a different problem.
Walk all the way around the tree, looking from the ground up to the first scaffold branches. Take your time. Storm forces surface problems that had been building for years.
Document what you find:
- Vertical splits. A split running up or down the trunk, especially one that opens under pressure, means the structure has already failed. On a large tree, that's a removal.
- Bark loss. Estimate the share of the trunk where bark has been stripped or crushed. Over 50% cuts off the tree's ability to move water and nutrients. Under 25%, most healthy trees can wall off the wound over time. Between 25% and 50%, the rest of what you're seeing determines it.
- Cracks at branch unions. A crack running from a major branch down into the trunk means that branch is hanging by a shrinking strip of wood. It's a removal priority no matter what the rest of the crown looks like.
- Fresh splits at old wounds. Existing cavities and old pruning cuts often open wider under storm stress. A wound that looked stable last season may now be showing active decay.
How Pre-Existing Defects Change Things
Codominant stems, included bark and pre-existing cavities all get worse after a storm. A codominant union that was borderline before 60 mph winds may now be partially split even if it looks fine. Knock on it with a mallet. A hollow sound or visible flex means it's compromised. Same goes for a tree that's been previously topped. Those epicormic clusters below the cuts don't attach well, and storm forces hit them hard. The tree often looks worse than it is, but don't let that mislead you. The attachment quality on that regrowth is poor no matter how the crown looks now. (University of Tennessee Extension · Iowa State Extension)
Scaffold Branches and Crown
Work outward from the first major branch junctions. For each primary scaffold branch, note whether it broke at the collar or mid-branch. Collar breaks, where the branch snapped at or near where it attaches to the trunk, create larger wounds and shed more weight at once. They're harder to manage than a clean mid-branch break.
Any hanging or fully separated scaffold branches need to come off immediately, ideally before you finish the assessment. Then look at the break quality too. Clean breaks get cut back to the collar with a folding pruning saw and close over normally. Shredded splits leave larger wound surfaces open to decay.
Crown loss percentage is the number clients ask about. It matters, but not by itself:
- Under 25%: recovery is likely for a tree that was healthy before the storm. Clean up the broken wood and watch for pest and disease pressure over the coming months.
- 25% to 50%: depends on what you found at the trunk and roots. Forty percent crown loss with a clean trunk has a path forward. The same loss with a vertical trunk split doesn't.
- Over 50%: removal is usually the call. Trees occasionally pull through at this level, but the recovery is long, the result is usually poor, and the tree stays weak throughout. (Colorado State University Extension · University of Tennessee Extension)
The Save-or-Remove Decision Framework
When deciding to save or remove a tree, combine what you found across all four zones. Use this table to track your findings, then make the call on the whole picture.
| Assessment Zone | Save | Monitor / Judgment Call | Remove |
|---|---|---|---|
| Root zone | No uplift, soil intact | Minor heave, soil fracturing present | Major uplift, full plate out, large tree |
| Trunk | No splits, bark loss under 25% | 25–50% bark loss, surface cracks at unions | Vertical split, bark loss over 50%, exposed decay cavity |
| Scaffold branches | Minor breakage only | 1–2 major limbs lost, collar breaks | Multiple primary scaffolds lost or hanging |
| Crown | Under 25% loss | 25–50% loss | Over 50% loss |
Two or more reds usually means removal. Trunk vertical split with over 50% crown loss: removal. Root plate uplift plus a major scaffold down plus 40% crown damage: removal. But a tree with a clean root zone and trunk, 30% crown loss from mid-branch breaks? That's a crown restoration candidate over the next couple of growing seasons.
When multiple zones land yellow, species tips the call. Oaks, hickories and most conifers seal off wounds well. Silver maples, Bradford pears and any previously topped tree don't recover as cleanly. Two yellows on a silver maple leans toward removal. The same on an oak leans toward monitoring.
What to Do Now vs. What Can Wait
Do now:
- Pull all widow makers and hanging branches. A pole saw reaching 18 to 21 feet handles most hanging scaffold branches from the ground without a climber.
- Cut broken stubs back to the collar. A bypass lopper with 2-inch cutting capacity cleans up stubs under that size. Larger stubs need a hand saw or chainsaw.
- Photograph everything before and after. Date-stamped photos hold up for insurance claims and give you a baseline for tracking wound closure on follow-up visits.
Wait on:
- Crown restoration pruning. It's multi-season work. Starting it on a stressed tree right after a storm sets recovery back. Hold it for the next dormant season at the earliest.
- Fertilization. Let the tree stabilize first. Pushing new growth before the root system has settled does more harm than good.
- Cabling or bracing codominant unions that survived. They need evaluation, but it isn't urgent if the stems are still intact.
Work the Sequence
Run this evaluation sequence in order every time: start from a safe distance, focus in on the roots and trunk, then move up to the crown last. The root zone and trunk tell you more than the canopy, and viewing the full picture means the entire condition of the tree is being considered when deciding to save or remove.
