The ice storm that we just witnessed in the GTA is definitely a rare event. It puts a stress and strain on trees that is very unnatural. Sometimes a storm will expose a weakness in the tree, and other times the damage is just indiscriminate. There are ways to help prepare for storms in the future. The trees canopy can be Thinned, leaving the larger more structural branches intact. Also steel cables can be used to connect large sections of the tree together. After a tree has suffered damage, The best thing is to have the stubs pruned off, and possibly the tree fertilized in the springtime in order to help take some stress off of it
