Protect Your Trees, PLEASE

Fastening wires to trees for lighting should not have to hurt the tree. Unfortunately, many contractors simply use staples because it is fast, easy and cheap, without giving any consideration to the health of the tree or the future cost of maintenance.
The proper way to attach wire to trees is by using nylon zip ties with stainless steel screws.

First, stainless steel will not poison the tree as other metals will. Next, as the living tree grows the screws can be manually backed out of the tree so that the tree won’t end up growing around the staple and wire. If for some reason an unusually long time goes by between maintenance visits, a tree may grow around the stainless steel screw. Although the tree won’t be damaged by this, the nylon zip tie will break and the wire will hang free. This is actually a good thing as it prevents the wire from being swallowed by the expanding bark and causing a short in the wire – which will hurt the tree. The wire then has to be cut and replaced, costing more money and the inconvenience of the loss of lighting service from the damaged wire. Ouch!
Here is an example of what can happen if wire or fixtures are not attached properly.

Bottom line: be mindful of your trees. Ask the prospective lighting contractor how they plan to attach the wire to your living landscape décor when installing down light fixtures. We’ll talk about the attachment of the fixtures in another blog post.  www.night-scenes.com