DENVER (KDVR) — With heavy, wet snow forecast on Tuesday, if you have trees in your yard you have a potential problem, experts warn.  

“A snowstorm this time of year is nature’s way of really kind of trimming the trees,” Denver Parks and Recreation Deputy Executive Director Scott Gilmore told FOX31. 

As a homeowner, your job is to make sure mother nature doesn’t prune too much. Denver Parks and Recreation recommends using a broom or long pole to gently knock snow off of branches. 

“It’s not going to be this fluffy stuff that you go skiing in. We’re not going to get that yet. So the snow is going to be pretty heavy,” Gilmore said. 

A buildup of snow even on healthy branches can cause them to break off. 

“DO NOT attempt to shake snow off a tree if a utility line is going through its branches or is within contact distance,” Denver Parks and Recreation said in a press release.

If you find broken branches from your tree in your yard, sidewalk or street, Denver Parks and Recreation is reminding it is the homeowner’s responsibility to clean them up or call a licensed professional for removal. 

“It is your problem. It is your tree. Clean it up,” Gilmore said. 

If you need emergency removal due to a tree blocking a road, call 311. 

According to Gilmore, one of the biggest problems Denver faces following storms resulting in widespread tree damage is the accumulation of tree debris in public rights of way. 

“Do not drag it into the parkways,” he said. “I don’t have enough staff to clean all those trees up. I just don’t. Those trees are going to sit there for a month if people don’t take the responsibility of cleaning up their own trees.”

Denver residents can cut branches into four-foot sections and make bundles weighing less than 50 pounds to be put out with the scheduled every-8-week extra trash collection. Additionally, Denver residents can drop off branches at Cherry Creek Recycling Drop-off Center.