Did you know that people at the beach are more worried about a Shark Attack than they are about a car accident during the long drive to and from the beach?  Guess which has a higher probability?

We learned that fact last week at the Urban Forestry Roundtable on “Disaster Planning, Response and Recovery.” Trees are a valuable community asset, but when weather strikes they can become a problem. Turns out the best way to prevent such problems is our favorite mantra: Plant the Right Tree in the Right Place.  Ensuring large trees won’t be halved by utility companies because they grow into wires, or squeezed between a house and driveway with no root space avoids the problem twenty years later.

Thousands of trees didn’t come down in the storm! won’t make the news headline.

So what does this have to do with Sharks?  After Hurricane Isabel, Derrecho, Snowmaggedon, and many more storms, people react through fear.  One tree comes down on a neighbor’s house — but they don’t notice the 1,000 other trees that did not lose a single limb. Many people’s gut reaction is to have the tree taken down by those who go door to door offering their services, rather than contacting certified arborists to maintain the tree in a preventive manner.

So let’s be proactive and provide education on tree maintenance and direct our neighbors to qualified tree services.  (See post below)http://treestewards.org/2012/08/24/how-to-select-an-arborist-or-tree-service-company/