Columbia's Expert Arborists

Columbia’s Tree Challenges

Oak wilt is the call we watch hardest in Columbia. It spreads through root grafts between neighboring oaks and through beetles drawn to fresh wounds, so pruning white oak in the wrong season can do more harm than the storm that broke the limb. Emerald ash borer has already thinned the ash population across Maury County, leaving standing dead wood that needs removal before it fails on its own schedule. Newer plantings of red maple, callery pear, and honeylocust bring their own issues, particularly bacterial leaf scorch and included bark unions that split under wind load. Severe thunderstorms, derechos, tornadoes, and ice storms all pass through this part of Tennessee, and on Maury County’s compaction prone soils, saturated ground after heavy rain is often what finally brings a stressed tree down. An arborist trained to spot root failure risk before a storm arrives can save a tree, or a roof.