Our Green Practices
Trees Keep Giving in their Second Lives
When a tree falls or needs to be removed, we love it when its decades of silent but steady fiber-building can be admired in a useful piece of furniture. This is our favorite of several ways we repurpose wood, and it can be done when its size, condition, aesthetics, and strength are just right. Although a tree-become-table no longer provides shade, oxygen, and wildlife habit, its generosity can last even longer in its second life.
And have you considered this…? We admire a tree’s outer beauty while its inner beauty of rings and burls is admired only by its Creator. Then, when we lose its lush canopy, the right tools and talents can showcase the secret, sinuous grains which had sustained its leafy growth for so long.
While most of our work helps you steward your outdoor riches, adorning the indoors as well adds another layer of satisfaction to our work!
Drop us a line if you’re interested in buying a finished table or an unfinished slab.
Believe it or not, we love trees! The idea of a leading Orlando tree service being environmentally sensitive may seem laughable to some, but we truly care for Creation as we conduct our business. Here's how:
Renew:
Whenever possible, we recommend to our Orlando tree customers that their trees be trimmed rather than removed. Saving trees allows them to continue contributing so much to our quality of life in the City Beautiful and the surrounding area. You may not know that a healthy and beautiful treescape can account for up to 15% of a property's value, in addition to more well-known benefits such as energy savings, chemical absorption, and oxygen production. Don't forget their aesthetic value, the climbing fun they provide to kids, and the cool shade experienced on swings hung from their branches. So, of course it makes sense to trim instead of remove Orlando's trees, in most cases. Trimming out branches which are dead, diseased or insect-ridden can often save a troubled tree. We also recommend trimming away sucker growth which robs the canopy of energy for growth. Even when a tree is too close to a home, our ISA Certified Arborist can advise whether significant trimming can improve home safety without shocking the tree through over-trimming.
Some people cringe at the thought of cutting a single tree branch, thinking that even proper trimming is to the tree's detriment. To the contrary, structural pruning according to arborist standards actually improves the long-term health of a tree by allowing strong, well-spaced joints to remain and grow. Thinning for light and air penetration is good for some tree species and can prevent blowovers in heavy winds and rain. Some trimming is done for another green purpose: allowing more sunlight to reach solar panels which provide environmentally friendly energy to homes and businesses. Even some tree removals are good for Orlando's environment. For example, invasive species are often removed to allow trees that are native to the Orlando area to grow, thrive and reproduce. These invasive species often reproduce at a rapid rate (as do rain trees) and require an inordinate amount of water (as do camphor trees), not to mention the competition with native species for sunlight and soil. Many other problems stemming from invasive species are beyond the scope of the subject at hand. Whenever possible, we talk customers out of tree removal in the case of high quality native species (such as live oak, cypress, magnolia, even longleaf pine, etc) even though it costs us business! On the other hand, being able to return to trim year after year is a plus. Often folks will request a removal to merely eliminate the need to rake leaves or to promote turf growth. We try to fulfill their needs through trimming instead, gently reminding them of the myriad benefits afforded by strong, native trees.
Replant:
In some cases, tree removal is unavoidable, especially when human safety is compromised by an excessively leaning, hollow or dying tree. Some diseased or insect-infested trees (such as pine bore infestations) are beyond saving and if not removed will spread their malady to surrounding trees. Other trees are allowed to grow far too close to structures, threatening to fall on homes and send roots to disrupt foundations, driveways or septic systems. Incidentally, our Company Owner is a member of a local Rotary Club which conducts an annual free tree giveaway of 1500+ trees which are roughly six feet tall. Nothing like serving the community while simultaneously planting future business! Also, some of our proceeds go to benefit the Alliance for International Reforestation projects in Central America.
Recycle:
The most obvious green practice of ours is finding good uses for our tree debris. A friend of our Company Owner recently used some of our logs to build beautiful benches for his daughter's backyard wedding ceremony. Certain long and straight logs (particularly pine, cedar, cherry, and some oak) are taken to the saw mill and formed into lumber. Others are taken to Ocala to be made into paper pulp. Most often, however, our recycling takes the form of wood chips which our customers and employees use for landscape beds and unpaved driveways. Properly used (in thin layers to allow oxygen to the roots, and not touching the trunks), these wood chips can enhance the health of trees and shrubs under which they are spread. The benefits include holding in life-giving moisture during the persistent Florida heat and decomposing to enrich the soil. Our wood chips are free (in very large loads the size of two pickup trucks!) to our customers who are willing to patiently wait until we do a job in their area. Of course, the fastest way to get a load of wood chips is to have us trim your trees! Another way we care for Creation is to find a new home for any displaced wildlife. Our crews can tell you some crazy stories of attacking animals rather unhappy with the trimming of their tree houses, and how they are restored to a measure of peace at the wildlife rescue facilities we partner with.
To sum it up, we do all we can to promote a healthy urban forestry habitat while keeping our tree debris out of the landfills. We trust that other Orlando tree services will follow suit, this being one initiative towards our vision of redefining the industry standard.
To Contact Us
Please call
407-416-2704 in Orlando
386-747-8933 in Daytona Beach
855-937-7863 toll free
or submit our online estimate form. If you prefer, you could write to us at ask@treeworknow.com.
Images:
- Top left and right: photos of Lake Eola, Orlando, Florida by Dirck DuFlon
- Bottom left: Cypress trees in Lake Eola, Orlando, Florida. source
- Bottom right: Camphor tree. source
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