Though ordinarily, tree service companies work strictly during daylight hours, local professionals say they were working 12 to 16 hour days during the worst of last week’s storm.
The mess left by the four feet of snow will keep tree service companies busy for months to come. With branches on the ground, debris tangled up in trees and countless others compromised, cleanup will continue until well after the snow melts.
Dale Nova, owner of Able Tree Service, said the storm was by far the most destructive he’s seen in 31 winters working the Mt. Shasta area. “We had storm damage in 1992 and 1993, but not quite like this,” he said.
“It was the wetness of the snow that made it so destructive,” said Jason Maygren, owner of Northstate Tree Service. “It was made worse because trees couldn’t unload the snow that was stuck to them. I attempted to remove snow from some of the trees that were overloaded, but you couldn’t knock it out. It was like glue.”
Storm stories
As cleanup continues, stories of close calls, unbelievable damage and dangerous situations are being told everywhere.
On the evening of Jan. 20, CAL FIRE and the Mount Shasta City Fire Department noticed a large oak on Orem Street that had cracked all the way down its middle, putting three homes in danger.
Maygren teamed up with Nick Borgatti, owner of A Cut Above Tree Service, to stabilize the oak until it could be safely taken down.
By putting chains around the tree’s base, taking some weighty branches off the sides and binding some of the limbs halfway up, Borgatti said they were able to close the large gap in the trunk, which was opening anywhere from 2 to 4 inches, depending on the wind.
After securing the oak, the two crews were able to come back the following day during daylight hours to safely bring it down.
The operation required nine men and two climbers to get up in the tree to help cut off sections, Borgatti said.
“We brought in a crane, and took down pieces that were 1,200 to 4,400 pounds.”
Borgatti himself didn’t get out of the storm without taking a hit. While it was parked in his driveway off Summit Drive, his company’s bucket truck was totalled by the top of snapped pine.
“I figure that was a fitting end to [the truck’s] life,” he joked. “What’s important is that no one got hurt.”
One of the more memorable experiences for Maygren was when he got a call on Jan. 20 about the top of a pine tree that had snapped off and fallen vertically, piercing through a house’s roof, shooting through the kitchen countertop between the sink and the refrigerator, through the floor and into the crawlspace under the house.
The residents of the home, which is located near Shasta Brown Ranch in Mount Shasta, weren’t home at the time.
“A 16 foot section was sticking out from the roof, and was stuck all the way into the dirt underneath the house,” said Maygren. “The way it snapped off 60 feet up gave it a lot of momentum. Where we cut it off in the crawlspace, the tree was nine inches in diameter.”
Many other times, Maygren said he and his crew removed limbs that had fallen on homes, shovelled the roofs, and tarped the damage until repairs could be made.
Nova said he had several close calls working in the dangerous conditions of Jan. 20 and 21.
“Two different treetops fell and almost got myself and a couple of my crew killed,” he said. “My wife, Giselle, was flagging on McCloud, and a top fell all the way across the road, missing her and a power line by inches.”
Cleanup begins
Now that the worst of the damage is done, Nova said work is beginning to level out.
“We’re switching from emergency mode to cleaning up the secondary layer of damage,” he said. “The very extreme damage has already passed... now carpenters are beginning to close up roofs.”
Though things are getting back to normal, Nova said he still has three crews working full time.
Maygren and his crew have been working at the Mount Shasta City Park, taking down countless broken branches and taking down trees which were compromised and dangerous.
“There’s a lot of destruction there,” Maygren said, adding that the areas around Washington Drive and Orem Street were also hard hit because of the concentration of older oaks, black oaks and brittle cedars.
Lessons learned
“I believe this storm has raised awareness of the potential hazards of trees and the importance of keeping them pruned,” Borgatti said.
“Good tree maintenance is paramount,” Nova said. “People should be proactive with their tree maintenance.”
Though the damage around the area is devastating in some places, Borgatti said many of the trees can regenerate themselves over time. Most important, he said, is to have a certified arborist work on the damaged trees.
“If you have trees, you probably had some damage,” he said. “It’s everywhere.”
Nova suggested visiting the International Society of Arboriculture’s website at www.isa-arbor.com, which gives some guidelines about how to safely maintain trees to keep them healthy.
Mount Shasta, Calif. —
