Update on Tulip Poplars and Bradford Pears

This weekend, on my first run through the University Park town park after the storm on Tuesday, I noted 8 trees down. All were tulip poplars. Seven were uprooted like the one in our neighbor's yard (the other one had snapped off at 10 ft. or so above the ground). These are very big trees, like the one still standing in front of our house (seen just to the right of the house in the picture at chernela-mount.outfoxing.com). Other trees (oaks, beech, maple) were not uprooted.

The Bradford Pears, in contrast, lose limbs. In addition to the one in front of our house, I saw five badly damaged Bradford Pears along 40th Ave. (in some cases, the main trunk split). While our pear was certainly pruned (to put it mildly), and will therefore less dangerous for a few years, it is the possible uprooting of the tulip poplar that would be disastrous. Typically, the tulip poplar falls over, pulling up a shallow root ball, and ends up lying flat. Janet has researched this a bit, and found an article in "What's Up Annapolis," (May 2004: Beauty, But Beware!) that confirms our fears, and concludes with some advice, both useful and ironic ("move to the basement when the winds howl, and be ready to duck.").

We will follow the useful advice (to trim branches and check insurance coverage), but we're also talking about having it removed. We do love our home.