Just like people have risk factors that can worsen the negative impact of an illness or disease, so do trees! Fortunately, the reverse is also true: taking steps to optimize our health and getting good preventative care gives us the best chance at fighting an illness or minimizing the negative effects of things like stress. It also helps to make treatment more effective. Healthy trees are able to withstand stress from things like drought, insects and disease better than trees that are already struggling and then have an additional stressor added. They also respond better to treatment, just like we do to medicine!
