Most of us would be aware of the damage that falling trees or tree limbs can do. We’ve all seen a fallen tree or tree branch at one time or another during our lives, just last week I was driving down Woodward Street and saw a branch fall from a tree just missing a passing car. It wasn’t a huge branch but certainly big enough to do some damage if it landed on someone or something as it fell.

Orange is almost tree city and I suspect that many reading this have wondered, just like my wife and I, what the current drought and stormy weather may be doing to our trees and what hidden dangers may be lurking behind the scenes. It’s a bit of a scary thought and to be honest, there’s only so much we can do to guard against such occurrences. It must be very challenging for our City leaders with so many beautiful trees coming under their responsibility.

On the other hand, many of us have our own trees to contend with and this is the area that I want to touch on here.

Some time back my wife noticed that one of our trees was looking a bit sadder than it should, and given where it was located, there was a fear that if not dealt with, it may fall on the house at some stage. We kept an eye on it and last week decided to get some advice. We called Grant Stanford from Austrim Tree Services and asked him to come and have a look at it and then give us some advice. Grant quickly established that the tree was infested with borers, and there was also a couple of dead branches at the back, his advice was pretty clear, given the extent of the damage and showing us how far the borers had gone, it had to go!

We took Grant’s advice and he removed the tree for us. My wife and I now feel at peace. Grant’s advice and the excellent manner in which he went about his job impressed us. We felt justified in first, seeking some professional advice and then having such a great tradesman carry out the work.

The lesson in this for others is, if you have a tree you’re concerned about, for your peace of mind, seek some professional advice sooner rather than later and then go from there. We were very happy with Grant and happy to recommend him to others. He can be contacted at Austrim Tree Services on 0428 640 905 if you think he may be able to help you too.