5 Reasons You Need to Remove Stump In Your Yard
As wonderful as trees are, sometimes they just have to come down. Maybe it’s a willow tree whose roots started to attack your water pipes. Maybe it’s that oak that’s keeping you from remodeling your house.
Maybe it’s that old maple that looks like it’ll fall onto your house any day now. Location, size, disease, whatever the reason may be, people have to cut down trees in their yards all the time.
Tree removal in Minnesota is such an ordeal in and of itself that people don’t tend to give much thought to the stump that’s left behind.
Oftentimes, people decide it’s not worth the extra effort or cost and just leave it there.
While a stump is nowhere near as dangerous as an unstable tree, it still brings along a lot of issues that warrant a removal.
Here are some reasons why you should remove stump in your yard ASAP:
Reason 1: Stumps can sprout new trees
When you cut down a tree, you leave its root system completely intact. A tree’s root system usually stretches as far as the branches did when the tree was standing—sometimes even farther.
Needless to say, if you opted to dig up those roots, it would destroy your yard. Those roots won’t grow any more after the tree falls, but they won’t die right away, either. For several years after a healthy tree falls, the roots sustain themselves on nutrients provided by the stump.
Sometimes, those still-living roots sprout baby trees called “suckers” that can grow back into a full-sized tree if left untended. Furthermore, suckers can keep popping up for as long as the stump provides nutrients to the root system, which is a long time.
Even if it will take years for a sucker to turn into a large tree, it will happen, and that may completely defeat the purpose of having cut down the tree in the first place.
Reason 2: Stumps attract pests
As the stump ages and becomes dead wood, it attracts wood-loving pests—namely, termites and carpenter ants.
Carpenter ants burrow through the wood of your home to make nests, while termites feed on the wood.
Termites are the worse of the two, but both of them can (and will) permanently damage your home. In fact, Americans spend about $5 billion annually on termite damages.
If your tree was already dead when you cut it down, it is much more likely that its stump will attract termites.
Reason 3: Stumps spread disease to other trees
On top of termites, if your tree was dead when you cut it down it’s possible that a disease killed it.
This could have happened without anyone realizing, since many diseases do not show any outward signs, making them invisible to the naked eye.
If the tree was diseased when it died, the stump still harbors that disease and can spread it to nearby trees. This is especially likely if the nearby trees are the same species as the one that was cut down.
If you’re ever concerned about your trees health, or just want them to get a checkup, give us a call.
Reason 4: Stumps take up space
Sometimes a tree was cut down to free up the space it took up. If that was the case, the stump obviously needs to go, too.
Even if you cut down the tree because it was blocking your beautiful riverside view, the stump left behind is still a nuisance. It makes cutting grass more difficult, and can pose a tripping hazard for both you and your children.
Reason 5: Stumps can decrease the value of your home
Just as trees can increase the property value of your home, unsightly stumps can decrease it. This is especially true of the gnarled stumps that trees leave behind when they fall after a storm.
Whether you’re selling your house or you just don’t like the look of the stump in the front yard, you should consider removing it to protect your investment.
Minnesota’s Stump Removal Experts
You’ve decided you want to remove stump. Now what?
There are lots of products out there that claim to speed up the degradation of your stump, but they don’t work very well. If they do work well, they only speed up the process by several years.
That means the stump will still spend a good 5+ years decomposing in your yard.
Instead, consider hiring Green Grounds Landscaping to remove stump away.
Stump grinding is the fastest, most effective way to remove stump today. It uses a machine that grinds away at the stump until there’s nothing left.
That way, your stump is gone within hours, not years. If you’re ready to remove stump away now, contact us today for a free estimate.
