Damaged Trees

"Even trees do not die without a groan"-Henry David Thoreau

Our big snow storm last month broke quite a few limbs off our trees. The biggest branch was about 8 inches across. One was so heavy it took both my wife and I to pull it off the street. We are thankful that none of them hit the house, our fence or our cars with full force. We did have several near misses of mere inches. There was some luck but also some fore planning. About a decade ago we paid an arborist to cut back limbs that hung over our house and driveway.

As we look up now we see several trees with cracked limbs or jagged scars. Sadly there is not much that an amateur can do about it - the shortest trees are 20' and much of the damage is 30, 40 or 50' up in the air. Our first bid from a professional is $1200 for repairs and cleanup.
What if the breaks are lower to the ground? How do you fix a free? Here are several informative articles on home tree repair from Land Grant Colleges:

University of Illinois Extension
University of Tennessee
Michigan State Extension (my school, yeah!)
Iowa State Extension

The Arbor Day Foundation has a guide to help determine when a tree is worth saving (or not).

Bottom Line

There are many opinions on tree repair involving glue, bolts, cables, limb removal, etc. It can be dangerous work. So be very careful or hire a professional.