In case you weren’t aware, we take our trees very seriously in the Lowcountry. There are ordinances galore, on both sides of the bridge, telling you what you can and can’t cut down, what trees need to be where, and how many of them there must be.
Yet as seriously as we take trees, we have nothing on Bartlett Tree Experts. “Trees don’t just grow up out of the ground,” said Madolyn Henderson, a certified arborist with the local Bartlett Tree Experts office. “They tell a story.”
And helping tell that story is what Henderson and the many arborists, scientists and assorted geniuses at Bartlett do best. Theirs is a scientific approach that goes far more in-depth than your average tree service, one born of more than a century of keeping trees healthy across North America. To them, it’s not just a hack-and-slash operation.
“Anyone can go out and trim branches off of trees, but we know what to prune to complement the growth of the tree,” Henderson said. “It’s almost like an art, being able to look at it say, ‘Taking this branch will be good for the tree and make it look pretty, as well.’”
And it’s not just knowing which branches to prune. There’s just as much science as there is art. Backing up the local experts who call the Lowcountry home is Bartlett Tree Experts’ national network of tree specialists who help with everything, analyzing soil samples around a tree’s roots to developing pest mitigation techniques that won’t harm the tree or the environment.
“Not a lot of companies have that,” Henderson said. “We have entomologist in the lab as well as plant pathologists, certified arborists, and people have degrees in the related fields.”
That powerful combination of national resources and local expertise is key to maintaining healthy trees. “There is a lot of clay and sand around here, neither of which is great for trees,” Henderson said. Knowing which soil a tree is planted in and how best to treat it to promote root growth is crucial to keeping a tree healthy in the Lowcountry. As is protecting it from the ever-present threat of bugs and the stifling Lowcountry climate.
“We live in an environment where you essentially have one and a half seasons,” Henderson said. “Disease is rampant because of the humidity. And then bugs never die over the winter, so you have to constantly treat for them … twig bores will absolutely demolish a tree if you don’t treat every other month.”
And that’s on top of the needed upkeep that our native plants demand, whether it’s added lightning protection to our area’s iconic live oaks or cabling Bradford pear branches together, the local team at Bartlett Tree Experts know our fauna better than anyone else. From the roots up, they are the true experts.
Visit bartlett.com to learn more.