A Tree Fell in the Yard and Missed Everything. How Long Can It Wait?

The wind quit sometime after midnight, and in the morning there it is. A whole tree lying across the back lawn, roots up in the air at one end, the crown pointed at the neighbor’s yard at the other, and somehow it found the one open stretch of grass on the lot. No roof, no car. The garage door still opens.

That is the lucky version of a storm, and in Lorain County it is the common one. A wet week softens the clay, a squall line comes in off Lake Erie, and a tree with a shallow hold tips over whole instead of breaking. It leaves two questions the storm-night advice never gets to. How soon does it have to go, and who should be holding the saw?

Does a tree that fell in the yard and hit nothing need a crew right away?

Not that night, and not in a panic. A tree lying flat on open lawn, clear of every wire and building and out of the driveway, can wait the few days it takes to get a written price. It is still a job for tree removal in Elyria and not one for next spring. The grass under it dies, and over a season a trunk lying on wet ground starts to soften.

Wait-able means all of it, though. Every part of the tree should be on the ground or resting on its own limbs. Nothing propped against a second tree or a fence, no wire anywhere in the crown, and a clear way in and out of the drive. If a line is involved anywhere, call the utility first.

While it waits, keep kids and dogs off it. A downed crown looks like a climbing frame, and the limbs holding the trunk off the lawn can shift under the weight of a nine-year-old as easily as under a saw.

Why is a tree lying on the ground harder to cut than a standing one?

A standing tree carries its weight straight down into its roots. A fallen one is held up at odd points by its own limbs, the root plate and the ground, so almost every piece of it is bent. One side of each bend is being stretched and the other is being squeezed, and a saw cut lets that stored load go at once, often toward whoever made the cut.

Look at where the trunk meets the lawn. Somewhere along it there is usually a gap, the trunk held a foot or two up by a big limb folded underneath. That limb is working like a spring. Cut it and the trunk drops, and it does not always drop straight. A trunk that loses its prop can roll, and the roll has no reason to go away from the person standing beside it.

The bends cause their own trouble. A saw in the squeezed side gets pinched and locked in the log, and a cut into the stretched side can split the trunk lengthwise and throw it sideways. On a trunk lying at an angle over its own limbs, telling which side is which is hard even for people who do it every week. That is the reason to leave even the small stuff alone. The limbs that look loose are often the ones holding the trunk up.

Can the root plate stand back up when the trunk is cut free?

It can, and it is the part of a fallen-tree job that catches people off guard. When a tree goes over in soft ground it lifts a disc of roots and soil with it, and the trunk is the lever holding that disc up on edge. Cut the trunk off close to the roots and the disc, stump and all, can swing back down into its hole, fast and heavy.

A tree that tips over whole after a week of rain usually had a shallow hold to begin with. Clay that has been soaking for days stops gripping roots, and a tree whose roots spread wide rather than deep lifts as one piece instead of snapping at the trunk. What comes up can be wider than a car and carry a lot of wet soil, and all of that weight is balanced on the trunk you were about to cut.

That is why the cut that separates the trunk from the roots is never the first one on the job, and why it gets planned before anything else. Whether the plate is let down into its hole or held where it is depends on how it is sitting, and that is read on site by the crew doing the work.

Keep everyone out of the hole under the raised roots in the meantime.

What happens to the hole and the root plate after the trunk is gone?

One of two things. If the plate drops back into its hole cleanly, it stays there and gets ground down like any stump. If it stays up on edge or settles crooked, it gets cut into pieces and hauled, and the crater it leaves gets backfilled. The yard ends up level again either way, though not always on the same day.

A plate that settles back rarely sits flush. It tends to land a little high on one side and a little sunk on the other, and the soil around it is loose from being torn up. Stump grinding takes down what is left of the stump and the top of the root mass, so the spot can be filled and seeded with the rest of the lawn.

The crater from a hauled plate is a bigger fill. Its sides slump after the first hard rain, and fresh soil keeps settling for a season, so a second load to top it off next spring is normal.

Did whatever brought this tree down put the others at risk?

Sometimes. The same rain soaked the whole yard, and the same wind hit every tree on that side of the lot. If this one went over while its neighbors held, it may have had something else going on at the base, and trees planted at the same time or from the same stock can share it. The trees still standing deserve a look before the next front comes through.

The fallen tree is the best evidence you will get, since its roots are out in the open for once. A few things worth noticing:

• Dark, crumbly or mushy roots on the torn plate, or a stump end that is hollow or soft. Root rot is a common reason a tree goes over whole, and it can be working on the same kind of tree a few yards away.
• A tree that grew in a group and stood next to the one that fell. It has a side that was sheltered for decades and now takes the full wind.
• A dead ash anywhere in that part of the yard. Dead ash drops limbs and goes over in weather a live tree rides out.
• Fresh lean or cracked soil at the base of anything that took a glancing hit on the way down.

Looking over what is still standing is part of the removal visit, so the crew that comes for the fallen tree can tell you whether anything else on the lot needs attention, or whether the storm picked the one weak tree.

Should a tree that’s already on the ground cost less to remove?

Often, yes. Nobody climbs, nothing gets roped down over a roof, and most of the work happens from the ground. It is not automatic. A trunk pinned under its own limbs, a root plate that has to be handled, or a backyard the chipper cannot reach can put the work back near what a standing removal of the same tree would take.

The ranges for what a removal runs by tree size are written for standing trees, and a fallen tree of the same size tends to price lower in its row when it is lying in the open with easy access. Whether insurance pays any of it is a separate question, covered in who pays for fallen tree removal in Ohio.

What if the tree didn’t come all the way down?

Then everything above changes, and it is an urgent call. A tree hung up in another tree, resting on a fence or across a second trunk, or a broken limb still caught overhead is stored weight waiting for the next gust or the next person to walk under it. Keep everyone clear and call it in the same day as storm and emergency tree work.

The partly fallen tree is easy to misread from the back porch. Most of it can be on the lawn while the top is lodged in a neighbor’s maple, held off the ground by something that is not its own limbs. A tree in that position can move again without warning when the wood holding it shifts or the wind picks up. The tree it rests on is carrying that weight too, so it gets looked at in the same visit.

Walk around it at a distance and look up before deciding which kind of tree you have. A tree held at an angle by anything other than its own limbs counts as hung, even if most of it is lying on the grass.

Facing this decision on a real tree? The service page has the process and what a visit involves: Tree removal in Elyria.