How to Protect Roadside Trees and Shrubs from Winter Road Damage

Drive down any busy road in the middle of winter and you will see bushes and shrubs that have been planted near the roadside in a half dead state. Most of the time the brown and lifeless limbs are the direct result of winter road damage, which is a combination of road salt spray, strong winds and thrown snow. While not always entirely preventable, there are some ways to protect bushes, shrubs and trees that are already planted near the roadside, or things to remember when planting trees of your own.

Create a Barrier
For bushes and trees that are already planted near the roadside there are few options left to prevent them from getting in the way of most of the damaging elements that will come their way, but some do exist. Snow plows throw snow without much care or concern for anything but clearing the road, and with all the additional weight and force of thrown snow, damage can be done to limbs nearest the road. One very dependable solution is to create a temporary winter snow barrier that can be placed on the roadside face of trees and shrubs. This can be done using burlap and stakes, erected three to four feet high depending on the average snowfall your area experiences.

The barrier will also prevent salt from spraying onto the leaves and branches as cars go by. This salt spray results in one half of the tree browning and essentially dying off. In evergreens it is extremely noticeable and the appearance of branches worsens with time.

Remove Weak Limbs
Many times parts of threes and shrubs that are already weak or growing at a susceptible angle are more apt to break or sustain damage when winter comes. To prevent this from happening before the trees are weighed down by snow and ice, remove the branches of trees that are growing at a weak angle. This needs to be done before winter starts, but if a limb does happen to break mid winter it is best to wait until winter is over to remove the broken limb.

Remove Excess Snow and Ice By Hand
If you do not get a barrier up in time, or if there is a lot of snowfall in a single day, it may be necessary to remove excessive amounts of snow by hand. Doing so allows the limbs to retain their shape, and reduces the chance of those limbs snapping off from the weight of snow and ice. Start with the top limbs and work your way down to the limbs and branches nearest the ground. This can be done by hand or using a broom, but be sure that you do not hit the branches too hard and break them yourself.

Create Road Salt Drainage
If you are going to plant trees and bushes next to the road, be sure to plant them at a higher level than the road. If the shrubs were already planted next to the road before you moved in, you can only create ways to reduce the road salt damage that the trees and bushes will be exposed to. The soil near roads is exposed to very high amounts of salt which can damage the roots of trees and bushes as the snow melts and the salt is absorbed into the ground.

By creating ways for the salt to drain away from the area immediately surrounding the shrubs and bushes, you can reduce the degree of damage done. Build up the ground immediately surrounding your roadside trees and dig channels between them so that salt will melt away from their trunks. This also guarantees that when the spring showers arrive, any over absorbed soil will be cleansed of excess salt.