Many of us are about to be visited by complex weather, perhaps including ice more than snow. Ice accumulation on trees is hazardous to you, your structures, and your trees. Here are a few suggestions for dealing with ice on trees.

The danger that ice creates is due to its weight. A tree may be required to bear an added load that is 3 times its normal weight. That weight may cause small or large branches to break, may break the entire crown, or may cause a tree to fall. Branches bending under the load may contact or break electrical lines.

I live with one of the largest white oaks in the Bluegrass. It is just behind my house. Ice storms in 2003 and 2009 could have brought the tree down on my house. We left warm clothes and shoes by the front door and warned our kids to quickly get out of the house if they heard the tree creaking or breaking. Fortunately, the tree bore the immense weight of the ice and wasn’t harmed. But trees all over the neighborhood came down or lost their crowns. I spent several days as the neighborhood logger.

What should you do in the event of an ice storm? An ice-loaded tree is extremely hazardous. Here are some tips:

• The first rule of safety is to stay away from the tree and do nothing. Your priority has to be your own safety.

• You may be tempted to clear ice off a tree, especially a high-value fruit tree. Don’t. Shaking or brushing a tree will do more damage to the tree than the ice and may do damage to you as well.

• Don’t touch any part of the tree until you can be sure that no electrical wires are in contact with any part of the tree.

• Don’t try to melt the ice with salt, which is a much greater hazard for your tree than the ice. Don’t try to knock the ice off with water from a hose, which may just increase the ice load.

• Don’t clean up branches or ice on the ground below your trees. Ice and branches may fall while you are under the trees.

• When the ice has melted, assess your trees to see how much damage was done. Pay special attention to broken branches, which should be removed lest they fall.

• Here is the number 1 suggestion: prune your trees after the danger of ice storms has passed. For large trees, this work should be done by experienced and insured arborists.

In sum, do everything to keep yourself safe, and take care of the tree after the ice has melted. Back to my big oak tree for a moment: I pruned the tree every year. It had no weak branches and it did not lose a single major branch in either ice storm. The lesson is that good maintenance pays benefits far beyond its costs.

Photo: A black walnut twig covered in ice during an ice storm. Copyright Tom Kimmerer