Mother Nature’s Moment - November 2020
by: Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA Certified Arborist

This time of year the question of “How can we tell what is alive or dead?” is a frequent one. It is so second nature to us that we often forget to explain to you how we tell if a branch is alive or dead in the middle of the “dormant” season. Let’s start by talking about what we mean when we say: “dormant season”. In the ‘olden days’, our understanding of what deciduous trees were doing in the winter was intuitive but inaccurate. Trees that lose their leaves in the autumn, do slow down their processes in order to survive the long journey around the sun. However, to say that trees go dormant during the winter is a bit misleading.