Hurricane Mitigation and Eco Friendly Earth Anchors - Saving Money and Saving the Environment

Hurricane Mitigation: The cost of repairs, shoulderedmust be hardened before installing. This is
by local governments, for repairs to the municipalaccomplished by wrapping the root ball in burlap and
infrastructure after a catastrophic storm.placing the tree on a concrete slab, or well
Pre Hurricane Mitigation: Funds available tocompacted material, and wetting it over a specified
municipalities, provided by FEMA, to strengthen theirtime to harden and flatten the root ball."
infrastructure against a catastrophic storm."When planting the tree, specified earth anchors will
FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers, havebe driven at equal points around the perimeter of the
conducted extensive research into pre hurricanespecified size root ball, where they will extend to
mitigation, and their findings show, for every onedepths of 4 to 8 feet below the root ball. Cables will
dollar spent on shoring up a municipal infrastructurethen be attached from each of the anchor points,
pre disaster, 3 dollars will be saved on infrastructurewhile strapping over the top of the root ball,
repairs, post disaster.ultimately securing the tree at the nursery line."
Results show that not only securing buildings, bridgesPurpose:
and sea walls is an important part of pre hurricane"Securing the root ball against high winds in it's first
mitigation, but they also showed an obvious need forfew years of growth, allows the tree the chance to
the protection of the urban canopy.extend it's roots horizontally, where it will eventually
In an example of their research into the state ofstabilize itself against high winds when properly
Florida's hurricane mitigation costs on the agriculturalpruned. Usually within 5 years."
division of it's municipalities, they recorded a cost ofMitigation experts agree, properly securing and
1. 1 billion dollars for hurricane Andrew damage alone.pruning trees pre disaster, will save taxpayers billions
Hurricane Katrina showed a cost to taxpayers inof dollars post disaster, for the clean up and
Mississippi of over 1.2 billion dollars in agricultural treereplacement costs associated with tree loss.
damage to a collective 181 municipalities.Originally sought out for their strength and ease of
The research found proper tree planting and pruninginstallment, the earth anchors were also found to be
education were needed to ensure the municipal treesustainable, made up of aluminum and stainless steel.
canopy would have all the means available to help itAs a result of their use, the impact on the
through a storm, and save taxpayers money.environment from cutting down trees to use as
With 47% of post mitigation expenditures beingbraces to support trees is reduced, resulting in
associated with the clean up, re-bracing, or thehundreds of thousands of timber forest acreage
replacement costs of trees after a disaster, the needsaved each year.
for educating urban landscape planners on the use ofInitially the cost of a tree anchoring system is more
tree anchoring systems for high wind corridors wasthan 2x4 bracing, but as the anchors can be dug up
required.and re-used at a later date, the cost is reduced
As a result of pre mitigation education to date,exponentially over time.
municipal landscape architects are now specifyingEventually to a point where smaller municipalities will
"Root Ball Preparation for Tree Anchoring Systems"never need to purchase a 2x4 for tree bracing again.
at the nursery to prevent the uprooting of recentlyMunicipal directors are encouraged to instruct their
planted, or transplanted specimen trees, due tofinance department to apply for their states share of
moderate hurricane winds of 80 to 140 mph.FEMA mitigation funding early, as these requests for
An example of a specification reads:Urban Forestry Mitigation are received in abundance
"To prep a tree for root ball anchoring, the root ballfrom all states in high wind corridors.