Hi Jessaka,

The answer is kinda, sorta yes, but nothing is absolutely guaranteed because even the sturdiest and toughest trees can only handle so much weight before they collapse or snap in half or lose limbs.

I remember that The Oklahoman had a news article either late in 2007 or early in 2008 after the December 2007 ice storm and it talked about all the damage around OKC, especially around the Myriad Gardens area.

The newspaper reporter did mention a mere handful of tree types that survived the storm and one that stuck in my mind is the Gingko, which surely has to be one of the slowest-growing trees in the entire world. (So, if you choose to plant a Ginko, be willing to spend a lot of bucks to get a bigger one because its' growth will be painfally slow, so you want to start out with a larger one.)

If your tree trunks are still standing, you probably will get some regrowth on those trunks more quickly than you think, by the way.

Just as important as the handful (I think it was only 3 or 4 or 5) of tree types that survived the storm would be the list of those that showed the most damage, which I think included willows and pines, which is not surprising. I think most oaks took a lot of damage too, but probably because they are hardwood and would have "snapped" instead of "bending" under the load of the ice. Of course, the willows and pines "bent" until they "snapped", so I don't know what difference it made.

I'll see if I can find and link the article. There may have been other news articles too, and you might want to google and find the Oklahoma Forest Service website and look there too. I suspect they'll have publications on ice storm damage, saving damaged trees, etc. that you can read or download and print.

How is the dear little apricot tree? Still standing?

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: The Oklahoman's Article on Trees/2007 Ice Storm

Scroll to the bottom of this to the list. I don't agree with sycamore. Around here the sycamores were worst of all for snapping. My walnuts did hold up and they were on the list. I would not plant a walnut in my yard however. Pruning the tree as it grows and removing branches at steep angles would help.

Here is a link that might be useful: trees and ice

My apricot tree popped back up, as did my almond. Today I think, this little tree has withstood so much in its little life, that maybe it will grow strong one day and produce apricots. But I can't see myself chopping it down and planting another. How sad that would be when it has struggled to survive for so long.

I will now see what the links are.

I had massave damage in Dec. 2007. It was just too much ice for any tree to hold up under. There was no one species that stood out. Younger hardwoods like pecan and oak 10 feet tall or shorter had no damage at all.

The few species of elm I have were by far the worst outside of bradford pear. I don't count bradford pear as a tree. It's pure trash. The 3 that I have left are just that. My wife still won't let me cut them down. Those and river birch look the worst of all the plants on the property.

I actually had "less" damage on my large Sycamores than I did on my large Shumard Oaks and pecans.

A nice healthy hardwood located and planted properly is a safe bet. But no matter how stout a species is, there is only so much it can withstand when it comes to adverse weather.

I had 10 or so willows that did not snap, but just uprooted and laid down next to the creek because of the ice load and soil saturation. I would never plant a willow. These are volunteer and get cut down for starter wood for the wood stove.

randy

I will check out each of those trees. I do have a lot of baby trees growing in the back, so now they will have more light to grow. And who knows, maybe there will be enough light to grow blackberries, my favorite fruit.

I am too old to wait for ginkyo to grow, and too poor to buy a large one.

I checked the Tulsa Master Gardeners site:
http://www.tulsamastergardeners.org/oldindex.shtml
and found this link for trees:

Here is a link that might be useful: ice storm trees

scroll down to page 14 for a list of Susceptible, Intermediate, and Resistant trees.

The river birches and red oaks on our acreage were all damaged last winter. The pecans were somewhat damaged.

Pecans are the only trees I know a lot about. I can tell you that native pecans will vary a lot in their resistance to ice-storm damage. It all depends on branch angles and other branch-growth properties. If you want pecans, there are a few cultivars that are extremely resistant to damage due to the branch angles and branch caliper that occur naturally. Good pruning will help even more.

I think the age of the tree is important. On our place we have a lot of very old oaks, hackberries, mulberries, hickories, redbuds, black cherry and all the old trees had massive damage. The young hickories because they have such sparse twig pattern, I think, held up well where they didn't get broken by falling limbs. One tall hackberry trunk snapped in two below the branches; another lost a very large limb with a poor crotch, stripping ten feet down the trunk.