Most trees are safer than they look, and a few are more dangerous than they look. After a decade of surveying and dismantling Hampshire’s problem trees, these are the eight signs we check first. Work through them from your garden; no ladder required.
The 8 Warning Signs
- A new lean. Trees that have always leaned are usually fine — a change in lean, especially after storms or wet winters, is the red flag. Look for cracked or heaved soil on the side away from the lean.
- Dead branches (“widow-makers”). Bare limbs in a green summer crown, bark falling away, branches snapped but hanging. Deadwood over a path, drive or trampoline is the most common genuine hazard we see.
- Fungus at the base. Brackets and toadstools growing from the trunk or root flare (not the lawn nearby) can mean internal decay — honey fungus and Ganoderma brackets are the ones to take seriously.
- Cavities and hollows. A hollow isn’t automatically fatal — trees engineer around them — but a cavity plus any other sign on this list needs assessment.
- Cracks and splits. Vertical cracks in the trunk, or a tight V-shaped fork starting to open (“included bark”), especially on large limbs.
- Lifting roots or cracked ground. The most urgent sign on this list — a root plate on the move means the tree’s anchorage is failing. Keep people away and call the same day.
- Sudden leaf loss or dieback. A crown thinning from the top down suggests root or disease trouble — in ash, see our ash dieback guide.
- Bark falling off in sheets. Fresh bark loss exposing bare wood on the trunk (not the natural peeling of birches and planes) signals a dying stem.
What To Do Next
Signs 1 and 6 — act today: keep everyone away from the fall zone and call us on [phone]: emergency tree work. Everything else: a condition survey gives you a written answer — often “it’s fine, check again in two years”, which is worth every penny for the sleep alone. And if the tree is dangerous, dealing with it promptly is always cheaper than waiting: a standing dead tree gets more brittle, and more expensive to dismantle, every season.
One legal note: if your tree damages someone or something and you’d been warned it was hazardous, liability lands on you. A survey is your evidence of taking reasonable care.