Ed,
I see less of this type of butchery than I used to. But it's good that
you post pictures like this. Whoever did this cannot be called an
arborist just as any forester who liquidates or high-grades a woodlot
cannot be called a forester.
I'm also the Petersham Tree Warden and the electric company (National
Grid) periodically prunes along the roads to help prevent branches and
trees falling on the power lines. Their normal work is to prune all
hazard branches in a 5 foot pruning zone around the wires. But a few
years ago, they had a special program to go beyond that zone and to take
out more hazardous trees to reduce the likelihood of power outages
(about 400 or so). We squeezed them for all the extras we could get (I
got their tree crew for a week to do a lot of town work and I got a tree
planting grant and they delivered all the wood from the tree removals to
local residents for firewood).
But the most important thing to do is to make sure the power company
crews are using proper pruning techniques (natural target pruning which
retains the critical branch collar, etc.). The pictures you show here
are mostly along public ways. If so, where was the Tree Warden? I would
never allow such butchery!
I would like to do more as Tree Warden but with only a few thousand
dollars a year in my budget and 60 miles of roads in town, I can only
care for the Town Common and a few other areas. It would be great to
practice "linear forestry" along all those miles but alas no mon no fun.
Mike Leonard, Consulting Forester
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Edward Frank
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 12:35 PM
To: ENTS Google
Subject: [ENTS] Mutilated Trees
ENTS,
This is part of the series of mutilated street trees.
These are Sugar or red maples beside a parking lot in Dubois, PA. They
stick well above the power lines, so there was no real excuse to trim
them like this. I will need to see if they manage to survive the next
summer, if they are still alive at all.
Previous posts in this thread by Barry Caselli showed
some trees in New Jersey:
Three Ruined Trees
Barry Caselli wrote: Someone in the group recently
mentioned the terrible practice of cutting the tops off large trees, and
how they rarely survive more than a few years afterwards. That reminded
me of some I saw in Egg Harbor City, so I photographed them. There are a
few others scattered around on other streets too. January 18, 2009.
White Pines Completely Ruined
Barry Caselli wrote: imagine these trees are actually
dead now. They show no signs of life.
They did this to them about halfway through last year. I
was shocked. I'm not sure whether the intention was to top them like
they have done elsewhere in the city, thinking they would sprout new
growth, or whether the intention was to kill them, and finish the job at
a later date. But whatever the intention, they are as good as dead, if
they are not dead already (which I think they are). What a shame. They
were nice trees. February 01, 2009
Please add your candidates to this thread. Just hit
reply, add your text and small photo (500 x 375) and be sure to delete
the photos from previous posts.
Ed
"To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its
own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds,
every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and
which shall never be seen again"
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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