Routinely assessing tree risk to public safety is an important part of urban tree management. Determining a tree's risk includes assessing its potential for failure, the extent of the failure, the probability of impact on a target, and the value of the target. The resources below can help you learn common tree defects associated with risk and how to develop a plan to limit the impact of tree failure and its associated damage in your community.

Urban Tree Risk Management: A Community Guide to Program Design and Implementation was designed to preserve public safety and improve the health of urban forests. It does so by assisting communities in the design, adoption, and implementation of a tree risk management program. It also aids in training field staff to detect, assess, and correct hazardous defects in urban trees.

How to Recognize Hazardous Tree Defects helps homeowners and land managers recognize hazardous defects in trees and suggests remedies and corrective actions.

There's Life in Hazard Trees provides information on the risks posed by hazard trees and the benefits they provide for wildlife.