As executive director of the Savannah Tree Foundation, Zoe Rinker has a unique perspective on the Georgia coast’s signature live oaks.
The gnarly giants, with Spanish moss-draped limbs twisted like swollen, arthritic fingers running through wiry, white hair, add an unmistakable air of authenticity to Savannah’s place among the South’s iconic historic cities.
On a more practical level, they also fortify a tree canopy that absorbs pollution – including heat-trapping carbon dioxide – minimizes the impact of urban heat and reduces stormwater runoff in a city prone to rain-induced flooding.
But for Rinker’s insurance company, the live oak in her Talahi Island yard represents something very different: a risk.
Less than two months after Rinker took out a home policy in February, an adjuster told her the tree would need to come down.
“Doing what I do, I knew they still had to insure me for a year no matter what,” Rinker explained. “So, I said, ‘Well, I’m not cutting it down. I’ll find another insurance company.’ But you know, that’s a huge lift to go back and find someone else to insure your house.”
The insurance industry revolves around the calculation of risk, so assessments like the one of Rinker’s yard are a staple of the business.
“Insurers have always inspected properties covered by their policies to help identify, prevent and mitigate potential losses, such as trees and branches that may damage a home during a high wind event,” said Karen Collins, vice president of property and environmental at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.
However, those reviews are becoming much less personal, with onsite visits often replaced by aerial imagery from drones and satellites.
“Insurers are continuing to invest in and embrace innovative tools and new technology, such as remote viewing technology, which is increasingly utilized as a less invasive and more cost-effective solution for spotting safety risks like roof damage or property hazards as well as to help expedite consumer claims after a catastrophe,” Collins added.
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‘Every tree is not the same’
But the insurance industry’s assessments are evolving along with its inspection techniques.
As storms fueled by record-warm seas in the Atlantic Basin grow more powerful before coming ashore in the U.S., insurance companies increasingly view trees as a threat to property, just as they have with flooding in coastal areas of Florida, experts say.
“Unfortunately, that’s led to what we would consider in the tree-care business (to be) a bit of an overreach response,” said Jason Gordon, a professor at the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.
Put simply, insurers are more likely than ever to conclude that trees should be drastically altered or removed altogether if they appear to potentially imperil buildings, even if the determination comes from afar, Gorden explained.
“The problem with that is, every tree is not the same, both in terms of species, and any kinds of defects or other risk indicators that (it) might have,” he explained.
Coastal live oaks, for example, have evolved genetically to drop leaves from their sprawling canopies in the face of extreme gusts, allowing the wind to flow through without damaging the tree. The oaks are bare for a season before growing leaves again.
“That’s not necessarily what insurers will know,” Gordon said, adding that someone staring at a remote image on a computer screen likely can’t identify a tree species, or how close overhanging branches actually are to a building. “What the industry is failing to do, for the most part, is to consult people like certified arborists who know the difference between a high-risk tree … versus a low-risk tree.”
‘Just very short-sighted’
Hurricane Helene offered a destructive reminder of trees’ potential impact on buildings.
As the storm raced through Georgia, its northeastern bands swirled onshore after accelerating over the Atlantic.
Winds reaching as high as 76 mph brought down hundreds of trees in Savannah, even though the center of the storm was 150 miles to the west. Nearly 100 structures were severely damaged locally, and eight were destroyed, according to the city.
“From our damage assessments, it looks like the majority of damage to homes was caused by trees,” city of Savannah spokesman Josh Peacock confirmed.
However, in many cases, the storm-felled trees were so large that the damage occurred a considerable distance from their bases. A review of satellite imagery likely wouldn’t have deemed some of those trees as risks.
“I would say the causal factor is more related to winds and the storms, as opposed to anything having to do with the trees,” said Gordon.
That includes how close trees actually are to a home, Rinker added.
“Generally speaking, it’s just very short-sighted to just say, ‘Oh, trees fall on houses sometimes, so they’re dangerous,’” she said. “And it’s stoking this idea that in order to be totally safe, you have to have a tree-free property, right? (That thinking) is a source of a lot of tree loss in Savannah and Chatham County.”
Helene did take down a tree in Rinker’s yard, but that came as no surprise.
“We actually knew that tree was at risk of failure, but were relatively confident it would fall away from the house (because) an arborist helped us make that determination,” she explained. “The tree the insurance company is worried about did just fine during the storm.”
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‘Failures that kill people’
Mark Russell, owner of a tree-service business based in the Atlanta area, said he’s seeing insurance companies’ increased scrutiny firsthand, and the potential impact of their edicts frightens him.
“The long-term consequences are going to be really bad for the urban canopy, and it’s probably going to cause more trees to hit houses in the short run,” he predicted.
As both a certified arborist and licensed insurance adjuster, Russell understands the interplay between trees and insurers better than most.
“These insurance companies, they’re just looking to save money,” he said.
Eliminating trees as the source of claims is a start.
“The easy way to do this is just trim the trees with a straight, vertical cut, straight up,” Russell explained. “Nothing over the house means nothing’s going to hit the house.”
But these so-called face cuts often expose the interior of a tree, making it vulnerable to decay.
“I would say, especially in areas like Savannah, within five to 12 years trees are going to start breaking in half more often and hitting houses,” Russell said. “There will be tree failures that kill people over this, and that’s a shame. … The insurance companies, in my opinion, are going to create more claims based off this bad product practice, and they don’t even know it.”
‘Fear mongering’
Rinker, from the Savannah Tree Foundation, noted that a certified arborist like Russell wouldn’t alter a tree in way that weakens it, or recommend removal if it wasn’t necessary.
“But that’s going be a more expensive visit than (from) someone who can just pick up a chainsaw and a truck, call themselves a tree care company and just come and take the tree out,” she said, adding that Georgia does not require such businesses to have certified arborists on staff.
Rinker insisted that property owners, not insurance companies, should decide the future of trees around their homes, even if it means making the “huge lift” to find a new provider like she did.
“Certainly, there’s always an inherent risk in anything,” she conceded. “But, you know, I have two kids, and I comfortably have a live oak over my house because I’ve had it checked and I don’t see any major signs of problems. And I think the benefits it adds for my family outweigh the risk of a potential tree on a roof, which is very, very, very slim.
“But when you have people fear mongering on the insurance side, of course people are going take out the tree, but at a cost of thousands of dollars.”
John Deem covers climate change and the environment in coastal Georgia. He can be reached at 912-652-0213 or jdeem@gannett.com.
