The call usually comes after wet snow or a hard onshore blow off Braddock Bay: a Norway maple has dropped a third of itself onto a garage roof. Those maples went in with the ranches off Long Pond and Latta, and plenty got topped decades ago. The old cuts never closed. Decay walked down the leaders, so the tree looks fine from the driveway and is hollow twelve feet up.
Access here is its own puzzle. Shallow water table and the ditches along Latta keep the ground soft into spring, so we'll often set the crane in the street off Dewey or Ridge Road West and pick pieces over the house. The cottages on Edgemere Drive take the worst of the wind. We're out there a lot.
What the lake plain does to Greece trees
My maple looks healthy but it was topped years ago. Is that a problem?
Often, yes. Topping forces weak regrowth off the old wound, and those new leaders sit on decayed wood. They're the ones that fail under snow load.
Can you work a Greece backyard without wrecking the lawn?
Usually. Soft soils out here mean we prefer crane or bucket work from the street, and mats when we do drive in.