My house is over 175 years old. I replace a 80 year old steel roof with a new one this April. The contractor did a great job. However there were some additions that were different from the last roof. The new roof has solid bars for snow guards instead of those individual ones. Next the new roof has a splash guard. This keeps the water flowing into the gutter instead of overshooting it. It also makes for a neater edge. Everything looks and works great.
Then the fall comes and I have 8 pine trees behind the house. Of course the wind blows into the pine trees then over the house. So every snowguard bar has pine needles stacked on the roof up to two feet. That little drip edge it does just as well stacking up the pine needles plus it get underneath and blocks the water flow.
It took me two hours today to clear out the pine needles. I'm sure I will have to do it again before the snow blows. Now the bad thing is they are close to the house. The second issue is they have that lean towards the house. I spent about 5 minutes looking how I might be able to cut them down. That was about how long it took my wife to come over and tell me there was no way I was cutting those trees down. She said there are professional tree cutters that are less likely to land them on the house. She did have a point so I put the chain saw back in the barn.