I live in southern Ontario and we have had a lot of rain and high winds in the last day or so. A 25 year old blue spruce in our backyard has been blown over to a 45 degree angle. Can we save it by pulling it back up and tying it in place or is it best to cut it down? Half the root are still in the ground and it still moves up and down as the wind catches it.
Hire an arborist to evaluate the situation. I suspect the tree can be righted but it's value in the landscape will dictate whether that's practical or safe given a location near structures or utilities.
Thanks for the input. The blue spruce is away from our house and other structures so we decided to pull it back up to the vertical. Because of its height, it took 6 of us and three ratchets to straighten it. I drove three steel posts into the ground and tied off the ropes using the posts. It looks OK for now and is straight. We'll have to wait until the buds form to see if it will survive. Fortunately we have had a very cool spring so far and no buds have come out on any of our coniferous trees yet. When the spruce went over, there were about 5 feet of roots exposed on the side which upturned. Probably a good sign.
