Mariton: Freezing Rain

by Tim Burris, Preserve Manager

I’ve been enthralled with ice since I was a little boy.  As a grown man freezing rain is still beautiful, but it now comes with the knowledge that it also brings power outages, broken limbs and uprooted trees.  Deep down I know freezing rain is Nature’s “pruning saw”.  Ice often helps me by removing limbs that I can’t reach conventionally.

Observe how the leaves changed orientation during the rain. There are horizontal icicles off of some of the leaves.

Of course, I don’t like to see hundred-year-old Rhododendrons or other trees uprooted by an ice storm.  As I checked trails this morning for down limbs, I heard limbs and branches falling in the woods, but I didn’t hear any large trees coming down.

It still is beautiful.