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Removing Spanish moss and deadwood from trees in Daphne, Alabama. This work helps improve the appearance of the trees while removing dead branches and excess material from the canopy. Proper tree maintenance and pruning can help keep mature trees healthier, safer, and better maintained. The City of Daphne also emphasizes the importance of maintaining healthy, safe trees and preserving its natural resources.

Installed a lightning protection system for trees in Olde Towne Daphne, Alabama, helping provide a designated path for lightning to travel safely toward the ground rather than through the tree. Lightning protection systems are especially valuable for large, high-value, historic, or structurally significant trees.

This project adds another layer of protection while helping preserve the trees and their surrounding property for the long term. Chris Francis Tree Care provides professional lightning protection systems as part of its tree preservation and safety services.

This is exactly what we are trying to prevent. This tree experienced a failure caused by co-dominance with bark inclusion, a structural defect that can create a weak union and increase the risk of failure.

The good news is that this defect can often be identified during a professional tree assessment and mitigated with the appropriate support or pruning techniques. Don’t wait until it’s too late have your trees inspected before a structural failure occurs.

The green crew was out in Fairhope, Alabama, handling a combination of deadwooding, clearance pruning, and reduction pruning. The work helps remove dead and potentially hazardous limbs, improve clearance around structures and other areas, and reduce overextended branches while maintaining the tree’s overall structure and health.

Installing stainless steel brace rods at the maximum allowable scaffolding height to provide supplemental structural support to the tree. The elevated work required careful setup and precision to safely reach the upper unions and properly install the brace rods.

Today’s project was the installation of a supplemental support system on a live oak in Olde Towne Daphne, Alabama. The tree has a common structural defect known as co-dominance with bark inclusion, which can increase the risk of a weak union.

The support system includes a Cobra 4T synthetic dynamic cable installed high in the canopy along with five 7/8-inch-diameter brace rods. Because the property is near Mobile Bay and the home is intended to remain in the family for generations, the client chose 316 stainless steel for the threaded rods, nuts, and washers because of its increased resistance to rust and corrosion.

To reach the upper unions, we had to erect scaffolding to its maximum allowable height—a 18-foot platform with a 24-foot work height, thanks in part to Nick’s impressive height!

A huge thank-you to Cheyenne, Dillan, and Nick for sticking it out and working late in the rain to get the entire project completed in one day. Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe would be proud!

The reduction pruning was completed approximately one week before the supplemental support installation.

Performed air excavation in Fairhope, Alabama, to carefully expose and inspect the trunk flares of the trees. Air excavation allows us to remove soil around the root system while minimizing damage to the roots, helping us evaluate the condition of the trunk flare and identify potential issues below the soil surface.

The roots have been pruned and the root barrier is now installed. Tomorrow, we’ll continue the project with air excavation to carefully expose and assess the remaining root system. Another important step in managing the roots while protecting the surrounding property and tree.

The root pruning on this project ended up being more extensive than expected. We discussed several alternatives, including bridging over the roots, but ultimately determined that the roots needed to be removed to protect the house.

We’ll finish installing the root barrier tomorrow and then schedule reduction pruning to help manage the tree moving forward. We can’t say for certain where the roots originated, but the theory is that they extended from the side of the house toward the air conditioner condensate drain, which provides a reliable source of water during the hottest periods.