Climate Change Is Transforming When and How Riverhead Property Owners Care for Their Trees
Long Island’s Riverhead area is experiencing a dramatic shift in tree care scheduling as climate change extends growing seasons and alters traditional maintenance windows. The effects on seasons of a changing climate are already being seen across the country and vary region to region: temperatures have risen across seasons, growing seasons have become longer, precipitation patterns have changed, and extreme precipitation events have increased in frequency and severity. For Riverhead homeowners and businesses, these changes mean rethinking everything from pruning schedules to storm preparation timing.
Extended Growing Seasons Create New Challenges
The prolonged growing season under the warming and warm/dry conditions led to carbon gains of about 4% and 8% in beech and oak, respectively, prior to the time that activity started in the control trees. The results indicate that earlier leaf flushing (the production of new leaves often occurring on all branches of a bare tree or plant) driven by warming leads to higher carbon capture particularly in downy oak, compensating for reduced photosynthesis during hot and dry periods. While this might sound beneficial, it creates complications for tree care professionals and property owners.
Warmer winter spells can cause bud break, but subsequent freezes can damage those buds. Trees that require extended periods of chilling hours, like fruit trees, are most affected by disrupted dormancy patterns. This unpredictability makes it challenging to determine optimal pruning windows that have traditionally been reliable.
Warmer falls delay dormancy, leaving trees vulnerable to sudden cold snaps. This can cause dieback in species like maples and oaks, which are common throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul neighborhoods. Similar patterns are emerging across Long Island, including Riverhead, where coastal conditions amplify these climate effects.
Traditional Tree Care Timing No Longer Reliable
Historically, for most deciduous trees, the dormant season from late November through February provides the ideal trimming window. However, Suffolk County’s relatively mild coastal climate means the trimming season can extend later than in more northern regions, but ice storms and nor’easters can arrive suddenly. Planning fall work early ensures completion before hazardous weather develops.
The challenge for Riverhead property owners is that historically, farmers and gardeners relied on established planting calendars based on local climate patterns. However, the unpredictability brought about by climate change, and other recurring and active climate modalities, has thrown these planting calendars into disarray making it increasingly difficult to predict the optimal times for planting crops. The same unpredictability affects tree care scheduling.
Storm Patterns and Emergency Response
Long Island’s location makes it a frequent target for severe weather, from summer thunderstorms to nor’easters and occasional hurricanes. Strategic tree trimming is your first line of defense against storm damage, but it requires more than just cutting back overgrown branches. Climate change is intensifying these weather events while making their timing less predictable.
Sea-level rise, coastal erosion and flooding, more frequent and harsher extreme weather events, extinctions and crippling economic consequences — these are just some of the impacts of global warming we are already experiencing and can expect to escalate after mid-century if immediate action isn’t taken to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a dire report issued Friday by the federal government. Further, communities across the country must act now to adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change that are already occurring and will increase in the next couple of decades — even if immediate action is taken to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, which trap heat in earth’s lower atmosphere, the report says. Long Island is particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events, sea-level rise and coastal erosion.
Professional Tree Care Adaptation
Leading tree service riverhead companies like Competition Tree are adapting their practices to address these climate-driven changes. Competition Tree Service has been providing Long Island homeowners and business owners with high-quality tree care for more than two decades. Our fully-licensed and insured company is staffed by highly-trained experts that are passionate about providing the highest level of service and maintaining the beauty and integrity of our clients’ homes, yards and properties.
Our team knows which trees thrive in Long Island’s climate and which ones become liabilities over time. When you’re dealing with tree problems that affect your safety and property value, you need professionals who show up prepared, work efficiently, and clean up completely. This local expertise becomes even more valuable as climate patterns shift.
Seasonal Flexibility in Tree Care
The best time for tree trimming and pruning on Long Island depends on the season and the specific needs of your trees. Winter is typically the ideal time for extensive pruning and trimming, while spring, summer, and fall offer opportunities for assessment and light maintenance. However, climate change is blurring these traditional seasonal boundaries.
Proper summer tree trimming begins with timing and purpose. Light pruning is generally acceptable during the warmer months, especially if the goal is to remove dead, damaged, or diseased limbs. These cuts prevent decay organisms from spreading and help the tree redirect energy toward healthy branches. With extended growing seasons, summer maintenance windows may become more important than previously recognized.
Species-Specific Considerations
Long Island is home to a variety of tree species, each with its own specific needs and optimal care times. Common tree species on Long Island include oak, maple, pine, and cherry. Understanding the specific needs of each species can help determine the best time for tree trimming and pruning.
Downy oak is a drought-tolerant species, but some studies suggest beech may be less able to adapt to global warming. The researchers conclude that shifts in plant phenology due to global warming (i.e. earlier leaf-out) may mitigate the negative effect of drought on carbon uptake. This means different species in Riverhead will require increasingly customized care schedules.
Planning for the Future
Management practices that can ease the detrimental impacts of seasonal shifts include: calculating workable field days for all agricultural regions and crops to help producers understand the effects on their decision-making process, understanding how crop/livestock production areas may shift to follow temperature and precipitation range changes for optimal growth and yield, understanding how secondary factors will be influenced such as pests, disease, and weed control, and experimenting with new markets and alternative crops. Longer term planning for longer growing species (i.e. trees) and infrastructure changes (i.e. irrigation, drainage, frost modification) will also be required. USDA’s Climate Hubs aim to better prepare producers with adaptive responses to climate change by working with partners to deliver science-based, region-specific information and technologies to enable climate-smart decision making.
For Riverhead property owners, this means working with experienced tree care professionals who understand both traditional arboriculture and emerging climate challenges. At Competition Tree Service, our goal is to enhance the beauty of homes and businesses throughout Nassau and Suffolk Counties by providing the highest quality tree services. From pruning and trimming to cutting and topping, we do it all!
As climate change continues to reshape Long Island’s growing seasons, proactive tree care scheduling becomes essential for protecting property values, ensuring safety, and maintaining the health of Riverhead’s urban forest. The key is partnering with professionals who can adapt traditional practices to meet evolving environmental conditions while maintaining the highest standards of tree care excellence.