Not every tree failure happens during a big storm. Some of the biggest risks in San Antonio yards start years earlier, with how a tree grew its main trunk.
A co-dominant trunk is when two stems grow upward from roughly the same point instead of one strong central leader, and it often isn't obvious just by looking up from the ground. Where they meet, bark can get pinched between the two stems instead of growing together solidly, creating a weak point called included bark.
That weak union can hold for years and then split apart during nothing more than a normal summer thunderstorm, often without warning, sometimes taking a fence, a roofline, or a parked car with it. Live oaks and hackberries around San Antonio are especially prone to developing this structure if they aren't pruned while young.
Have you ever looked up and noticed a tree in your yard with two main trunks splitting low to the ground?
#SanAntonioArborist
A photo of a real tree with a visible co-dominant trunk or included bark seam, or a crew member inspecting a trunk union.
Canva text suggestion: "Two Trunks, One Weak Point" or "Know the Signs of Structural Risk"