Toluca Lake and Burbank Home Owners - Hug Your Trees
While that statement might seem a bit earthy-crunchy or unusual, I am not being facetious. Greg Thorpe, a home owner in Toluca Lake, recently went through a dramatic experience which may cause him and his neighbors to look at the towering, almost century-old trees in the area a little more closely. A number of weeks ago on a Friday evening, Mr. Thorpe was relaxing in his Toluca Estates home. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary - it was simply another windy evening during springtime in Los Angeles. Suddenly, without warning, the house began to shake. Did the San Andreas fault give way and was this The Big One? No. Instead, the massive ancient maple in his front yard was toppling; the high winds bringing the stately old tree to the end of its life cycle.
The volume was ear-splitting and when the dust settled, the Thorpes were lucky. The tree's huge canopy and giant trunk fell away from the house, crushing a bench, part of a brick wall and lighting fixture but sparing the home from what could have been virtually total destruction. The force of the collapse ripped monster roots out of the soil leaving a jumbled mess of a pit in the yard; part of a giant limb impaled the ground like a knife through butter. Thank goodness the Thorpe's daughter was not visiting as her car would have been parked in the line of fire. Once nerves settled and the new day broke, examination of the downed tree showed black rot through and through. Little did they know, these home owners had a ticking time bomb in their yard. The moral of the story is: pay attention to your trees - hug them on occasion if you will.
Here in the Toluca Lake and Burbank communities of the San Fernando Valley we are blessed with many of these wonders of Mother Nature. Watch for signs of disease and rot. Prune back limbs that could cause imbalance and have a qualified arborist examine your trees if you're not sure. The Thorpes, indeed, were lucky. You may not be. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
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