Douglas County arborists busy with tree cleanup days after massive snowstorm hit Colorado
It's been nearly a week since a massive two-day storm dropped heavy wet snow all over the metro area. Neighbors in Douglas County, which saw some of the highest snow totals, are still dealing with broken branches and debris.
As the snow melts, arborists are busy cleaning up after the damage left behind.
"Oh yeah, our phone's ringing steady," said Michael Dwyer, owner of COVA Tree, "by Friday morning, we were out seeing people, triaging the most serious situations."
Dwyer says this storm is one of the most destructive he's seen in his near-decade as a Douglas County arborist.
"It's up there! This is some of the most snow that we've seen," said Dwyer.
Castle Pines Village was hit particularly hard.
"It sounded like an earthquake," said resident Drew Henderson, "we just didn't know what was happening, and then Ava came out and said there's a 'tree on our roof dad!'"
The Henderson family recently had a tree that fell on their home during the storm removed, leaving a $1,300 hole in their pockets, and one in their roof.
Dwyer says insurance typically only covers tree work if the tree damaged your home. Jobs vary in cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars.
Down the road from the Henderson's house, COVA crews tackle a nearby yard. Climbing damaged trees, and removing only what's necessary.
"This tree, there's enough live branches on it that we're gonna make a clean cut at the top and we're gonna let this tree continue on," said Dwyer.
Safety always comes first.
"Anytime we have branches that are broken and dangling, it's serious. Some people that get killed sometimes by trees either falling or branches breaking," said Dwyer.
Even with hundreds of calls since the storm, Dwyer says COVA has still been able to respond quickly, especially in urgent cases.
"We get a lot of people that tell us 'Hey, I really need you to come out today because this branch is hanging over my house or this tree has fallen and it's blocking my driveway or blocking a sidewalk,'" said Dwyer.
He doesn't recommend climbing trees and cutting off branches yourself but does suggest having an arborist inspect your yard ahead of big storms to mitigate damage.
"We love the life in trees. We love that people love trees. We love caring for trees," said Dwyer.
It generally falls on private property owners to deal with damage from storms like this. Here's more information about cost and responsibility from Douglas County:
"If the tree is located in the Public ROW and there are broken tree branches, the County will remove those broken tree branches whether they are on the ground or still hanging in the tree.
If the broken tree branches are from a tree on private property (property not owned by Douglas County), the County Engineering Inspector will contact the owner and ask them to remove the broken tree branch as soon as possible due to safety concerns.
If the property owner is not able to remove a broken tree branch that is still hanging in the tree and poses a safety concern in the ROW, the County Inspector will have the County's contractor remove the branch with the owner's permission. The County will pay for the contractor in that case. We will not do an additional pruning of the tree if it is not an immediate safety concern.
The County will be opening the County's Slash Mulch Site in Castle Rock on Saturday, April 6th. The Slash Mulch Site will be open every Saturday from 8:00-5:00pm from April 6-October 26th for the public to bring their broken tree branches at no cost."