Advice on saving a tree - HELP!

[babs]

Can anyone please advise on how I can fight my local township authority from taking down a beautiful oak tree that is over 60 feet high.

The tree is within the 15 foot easement and they say it has to come down as they are replacing lines. I just can't imagine taking this gorgeous, healthy tree down!

I am meeting with the foreman on Monday morning to hopefully come up with an alternative. Any advice would be grealy appreciated.

Thanks!

Nicole

[jcoffman]

Hi Babs and welcome to Treehugger. You have quite a fight on your hands. Its not impossible, but it will be far from easy due to the easement rules. Try and get your city officials involved, and other members of your community.

We had the same sort of situation where I live involving a 100+ year old oak in the way of expanding a road. A lot of protests and meetings were held, even a fund raiser to help pay for putting a little curve in the road to avoid removing the tree. Finally everyone agreed to leave the tree and work around it. About two weeks later a bulldozer "accidently" knocked it down.

Good luck in your quest and thanks for your efforts!!!

[mikebeavis]

Is it possible to do some hardcore pruning as opposed to chopping the whole thing down? Sometimes trees are better off for having some limbs removed, and that should also spur growth of new limbs over time.

It also may give you an opportunity to do what SawmillDaren does.

[BobTrips]

Take a moment and "stand in the other pair of shoes".

Try to consider how things might be improved were the tree to be removed. Put yourself in the position of an attorney hired to represent the "let's cut the tree" faction. What sort of issues might you raise to support your case?

For example, would it mean that it would be less likely that the neighborhood would loose power in winter storm were the tree not there?

If you can't find a legitimate reason to cut when you look at the tree from a pro-cut stance then it's a fight that might be worth your effort.

But if you find a legitimate reason to cut then you might look for ways to turn bad into good.

Might the township be willing to do something environmentally useful in exchange? Perhaps plant a bunch of trees where they would be welcome?

[eugene]

They "pruned" the trees beside my house. Big empty open field beside the house and instead of running the lines down it they ran them right down the middle of the two trees shading my house. So they came by a couple years ago and "pruned" away most of the trees, leaving a big trunk with just a couple small branches each.

[mikebeavis]

There's a difference between proper pruning with an arborist's eye and Joe Electrical-Worker just taking a chainsaw to the thing.

[eugene]

This was the tree company contracted by the electric company, the electric company is not going to have their workers touch a tree, union rules and all that.
Probem comes from a certain minimum distance required between the lines and anything else so they have to trim the trees really far back and make sure nothing is above.
They really messed up the pine beside my house by cutting nearly every branch off of one side so it now leans toward my house.

[jcoffman]

Babs, I wanted to add that even if you loose this battle and the tree has to come down, you should plan for this and contact SOMEONE to actually take the tree and do something with it. If not, it will be chopped into small chunk and likely mulched, or worse simply taken to a landfill.

Contacting a woodworker somewhere to make something from this tree is the best alternative to just cutting it down. It may be even that you could buy some extra time if you explain to them you are trying to find someone to do this.

Just a thought I had.

[SkepMod]

If all else fails, use this failsafe method...

Call the nearest mega-church and tell them you have a tree and you can see the face of Jesus on its trunk. Then call your local Fox affiliate.

[wolfspirit]

Babs, I wanted to add that even if you loose this battle and the tree has to come down, you should plan for this and contact SOMEONE to actually take the tree and do something with it. If not, it will be chopped into small chunk and likely mulched, or worse simply taken to a landfill.

Contacting a woodworker somewhere to make something from this tree is the best alternative to just cutting it down. It may be even that you could buy some extra time if you explain to them you are trying to find someone to do this.

Just a thought I had.

The dead tree stuff almost never goes into a landfill. The company will take the tree away from you,and then sell it to someone wanting firewood, making money on both ends (they charge to clean it up, and then they change someone to get it for firewood).

Steven

[xnsdvd]

Hey babs,

To be completely honest, i completely agree with SkepMod. It's worked more than once.

Another alternative would simply be to pay an engineer to secure the tree during the construction. I assume they're merely digging near the tree and then filling it up again so temporary supports don't seem too outrageous. Remember, there's nothing money can't solve

[SawmillDaren]

Please come back and let us know how this turns out. That is a problem with "easement trees", they are not safe from the saw. Municipal planners zone easements just for this reason, for infrastructure/utilities. If the tree does come down, there is still a way for it to live on by putting the wood to good use. That would be the next battle.