What is it with people. Why do people think they have to hat rack everything in sight this time of year?!
It makes me want to scream.

Yup.

Welcome to the reality of budget problems, lowest bidder, git rid of th' gummint and the results. Teach your children and grandchildren what happens. Take it from an urban forester, it ain't easy and rarely good.

Dan

Yep. It all boils down to lowest bid. Most don't have a clue about pruning. I've seen nice trees in old towns on main streets only to be butchered by low paying employees....

Always have to deal with what the local public may be clamoring for as well. Without being in on the entire history of this episode you don't know that there wasn't a group of citizens and/or vendors harping to have the trees cut back.

are offended by this kind of thing as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: PlantAmnesty

you don't know that there wasn't a group of citizens and/or vendors harping to have the trees cut back.

So the ignorant rule the day. Wonderful. The issue is about proper decision-making and if there is no one around to state that cutting them back is a stupid idea, then there is failure afoot.

Dan

I doubt there was a group of citizens harping to have the trees butchered.

I just can't wrap my mind around the fact that the person that OK'd the work not bothering to find out what was going to be done. I hope they're out of a job.

You can see the work of this company all over town now. There's shopping centers where they have cut off all the branches of trees in the parking lots. Why pay hundreds of dollars for a big tree then pay hundreds to have all the branches cut off?

Another thing you see is where some dumb@$$ decided it would look nice to plant a tree beneath a powerline. Then the utility company comes along and massacres that tree.

Then to make it look right, they hire someone to butcher all the other trees. Then they have no trees.

I hope you called to complain - not just about the looks but also the lack of knowledge on the trimmers' part and the potential damage to the trees from such a hack job.

No I didn't call to complain because I have a tendency to lose my patience/temper when attempting to educate. The last time I called to complain was I called a local county park and told them that the 18" mulch volcanos that they piled up on literally hundreds of trees was going to hurt the trees. But that was a little different. Actually, no the last time I called to complain was the forestry service for selling invasive exotics along with their native seedlings. Those calls went OK but I don't think I could get through this one. Would you like to call them?

Well, I don't mind calling, but I don't think it would have the same effect as a resident. The point is, how will they learn about their mistake if no one tells them. Perhaps take a picture of a couple of trees and email them to the county arborist? If it's a small town, then perhaps the mayor.

When my first child started kindergarten 12 years ago, the county school system did nothing except mow the grass. About 5 years ago, they decided they would take on pruning. It is awful - they took perfectly shaped crepe myrtles that the PTA had planted and chopped them in half, forever ruining their shape. We finally had to tell them to STOP pruning certain trees (and they did), but the crepes were theirs forever .... I'm convinced that crews like that have no knowledge of what they do at all.

But tree services should be held to higher standards, of course.

I went to the city's website and you can even see some of the trees that got massacered. http://cityofbuford.com/
The ginkgo is the one on the left and you can see some zelkovas.
The tree all the way on the left is a huge old oak and was basically just cut down. I don't even think they left anything left to sprout.

Feel free to call or write their contact info is here.
http://cityofbuford.com/Contact.aspx

At least we have photos from a few years ago.

Testimonials from voters carry much more weight than anonymous comments from people the electeds don't know.

Dan

"git rid of th' gummint" is actually the answer.

If these trees were owned by private land owners, they would have an incentive to look after them. Bad pruning means their land value goes down.

If a private owner makes a mistake, the mistake is limited to his or her holdings... and not "all of the trees" through out the historic town.

An individual business sometimes paves paradise and private individuals can make mistakes, but it takes government to make colossal ones.

Please, no politics on this thread. Thank you in advance.

Dan

And "git rid of th' gummint" isn't an insulting jab at a certain political philosophy?

The town probably thought they were doing the right thing.
Afterall, this is the time of year to "prune" everything in sight. You can't go anywhere without seeing crepe myrtles cut down to a stump. There's a couple of homes in my subdivision where they topped their trees.

You can't go anywhere without seeing crepe myrtles cut down to a stump.

Hard to believe such powerful ignorance continues in this day and age.

This has happened so many times in the past. It stopped in each city by citizens groups forming to stop the madness, and electeds ordering staff to write a tree ordinance stopping the madness. Literally hundreds of examples out there.

Good luck in stopping the madness.

Dan

iforgot, if you don't want to call, it's sometimes quite rewarding to sit down and write a really good letter. And if you get impatient educating people, I understand, but people (ya, "gummint") need to hear voices like yours.

I feel your pain. My town actually has a tree committee that's pretty dedicated to preserving the trees, but even they can't always stop the power company.

That's cool. Not only does my town top their trees, outside of the mainstreet area, they have planted a monoculture of willow oaks, most of which are beneath powerlines.

It's like they hate trees and want to plant them so they can then cut them down.

All the more reason to reach out to their arborist. Most counties have one.

The electeds need to be pressured to tell staff to make it happen. I am an urban planner in addition to an arborist. This is how it works. If you want specifics on how to make this work, e-mail me. This is how it works.

Dan

It's terrible in my town. I mean, WHO IS RESPONSIBLE for planting live oak, bald cypress and other trees DIRECTLY under the power lines???? It's like having monkeys running boards of whatever they are...