New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Can we spare that tree?
The notice that the United Illuminating Co. representative had left sticking out of my front door last week had this “we propose” box checked: “removal of tree.” Underneath that box with the black X was this “description of work” detail: “Remove tree for power line clearance.” On the top of the notice: “United Illuminating and its contractors, working under the oversight of a U.I. arborist, perform ongoing vegetation management. We ask for your support to ensure a safe, reliable energy grid.”
Say what? The tree UI wants to ax is a healthylooking maple, 15-20 years old. Yes, some of its upper branches intersect the power wires. A simple pruning there would take care of that issue.
The tree is on the side of the sidewalk abutting the street, so it’s on city property and it’s up to city officials what happens to it. But as an adjacent property owner I am given some say in that decision.
I looked around and spotted a man sitting nearby in a parked truck with a tree company’s lettering written across it. I walked over to him.
“I saw you looking kind of upset,” he said. He told me he was the one who had delivered the troubling notice.
“How can I save this tree?” I asked. “Why would it be necessary to take it down?”
He explained this was merely a proposal and that it probably wouldn’t happen if I objected. He showed me a place on the notice where I could check the box with the words, “I request a modification to the proposed tree work.” And he said under the “description of work” I should write: “Prune tree only.”
I did that and handed the notice back to him.
This is what we need to do if we want to save our trees and preserve some semblance of a tree canopy in our neighborhoods.
I’m not talking about damaged and rotten trees; those certainly are dangerous and need to be taken down. And I realize this has become a major issue in the wake of increasingly damaging storms caused by climate change. I have sometimes lost power during those storms, as have many, many other homeowners and renters.
But let’s not panic. If prudent pruning can safeguard our homes from toppling trees and wires, let’s choose that remedy.
Those “removal” crews are all over my East Rock neighborhood of New Haven. Maybe they’re coming soon to your door. Maybe they’ve already been there. Know your rights.
After I received a visit, my next-door neighbor Bill Kaplan came back from an errand and saw a “proposal to remove” the tree in front of his house, also on city property. This tree, like the one adjacent to my home, is about 20 years old and appears to be perfectly healthy. We enjoy its blossoms every spring. Kaplan checked the box for “I request a modification to the proposed tree work” and left the notice in his door for the deliverer to pick up.
Kaplan then sent out an email to our neighborhood list of residents, alerting them to the situation. Referring to the tree outside my house and the one outside his, Kaplan wrote:
“Both trees are not huge (mine is only 20 years old), not diseased and should be pruned, not cut down (my opinion and I’m not an arborist). I understand that some people would feel better if a particular tree were removed, especially given the problems we’ve had recently. However, I frankly don’t trust U.I.”
Kaplan recalled what happened a few years ago when UI “tried to push through a guide for tree trimming and removal. Following their guidelines I walked the length of Saint Ronan Street/Edgehill Road with a measuring tape and found that virtually all of the trees on the north side of the street would have ‘qualified’ for removal. Imagine Saint Ronan with less than half the trees left!”
Kaplan noted there was such a public outcry over UI’s plan that more than 500 people attended a meeting in Hamden and the protest “finally stopped U.I. from following through.”
He said he believes UI would be happier if “the trees were simply gone.” But he added, “Such ‘savings’ are not an honest appraisal of what is best for homeowners, for our neighborhood or for the city. Power outages are real, yes, but so are the benefits of a healthy tree cover: higher property values, slower traffic, cover and homes for birds, cooler streets and homes.”
Kaplan, who regularly walks around our streets, said: “Compare the experience of walking in our neighborhood with walking in neighborhoods in the city where trees are non-existent or scarce, and you’ll have some idea of the value of trees.” He said they “make our neighborhood a great place to live.”
When I asked UI spokesman Edward Crowder for comment, he emailed me: “U.I. presents a managed roadside forest that beautifies streets and communities, while supporting the benefits of reliable electric service and public safety. U.I. may seek to perform tree work in order to remove immediate hazards to its system, to address threats that could cause outages during storms or to provide necessary clearance as U.I. upgrades its system to meet modern electrical standards.”
Crowder added: “When we identify a need for tree work on private property, we will contact the property owner and seek consent.
The property owner may object or seek modification to the work plan. For trees in public spaces, including public rights-of-way, we contact abutting property owners and the tree warden (or the state) to seek consent. They, too, may object or seek modification.”
Crowder continued: “All tree work is overseen by a licensed U.I. arborist and performed by qualified tree contractors who follow national arboricultural standards. Customers with questions about this process can visit uinet.com/trees or send an email to trees@uinet.com.”
Not everybody in our neighborhood is as enthusiastic about our large trees as Kaplan and I am. A resident of East Rock Road sent out this email after he got that UI information notice: “I am quite interested in getting the two big oaks in front of our house taken down. The power lines go right through them.”
He followed up with this: “We are motivated to take down the old oaks because they look sickly and I don’t want them falling on the house. We love trees and would certainly get them replaced by something lower-growing and sensible.”
I went over to look at those “sickly” oaks. They look healthy to me and they’re majestic and beautiful.
Philip Langdon, who also lives on East Rock Road, then sent out this message to the neighborhood and his neighbor on those two oaks: “Though I’m not an arborist, the oaks in front of your house look healthy to me. And they look beautiful. They do have some breakage but the foliage looks fairly full and the trees add greatly to the pleasure of living on East Rock Road.”
Langdon said those oaks, combined with the oaks across the street from them, “form a continuous canopy that shades the street; something we should all be grateful for in the heat of July and August and that will become even more important as the climate gets hotter.”
Langdon said trees such as this are “the urban ideal – not a problem.”
I think there might be a happy ending to this. On Monday of this week a pleasant fellow from the city’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Trees came out at Kaplan’s request to look at the tree near his house. The parks worker said he doubts very much the tree will be removed and he said the same goes for the tree near my house.
When I described the oaks on East Rock Road, he said the city won’t allow good, healthy trees to be taken down – although he said UI-hired crews can be “aggressive.”
But again: know and exercise your rights as property owners living near attractive, valuable trees.