Tree Hazards

For trees that present a danger of coming down in wind storms, it's the smart thing to do.

Additionally, trees that are on their way out add no ornamental value to a lot.

Lastly, maintenance. i.e. Leaves, pruning, etc.
 

The back lot across from my garage use to have large maples that were probably over 100 years old. My dad an I used to play horseshoes there. It was sold and the new owner built an 8 unit apartment building and parking lot on that spot. My mother cried when the trees came down.

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debodun said:
The back lot across from my garage use to have large maples that were probably over 100 years old. My dad an I used to play horseshoes there. It was sold and the new owner built an 8 unit apartment building on that lot. My mother cried when the trees came down.

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I believe it.

Aside from loathing change, I just loathe seeing this sort of thing in a standard residential area.
 
We have one more by the house to get down.... huge Maple.
Bunch already cleaned up and stumps dug out.
Then I can start thinning out the woods of the dead and down
Mostly pine, but several hardwoods that will heat or house for the next few years.
 
Any subdivisions or commercial lots want every square inch to make money. If they’d leave some areas of trees, the properties might be even more coveted and they’d make more profit.
 
I had the opposite problem but it was self-imposed. The lot was all meadow and over an 8-yr. period, I planted 1,000 trees, a few from seed and acorns but most shipped-in from nurseries. Did this for selfish reasons: lessen the amt. of grass to be mowed.

But as a former city boy, made a lot of mistakes, like planting some too close to the driveway, one Bartlett pear tree grown from seed planted next to the house grew to 30 ft. which is 10 ft. more than normal, and worst of all 50 Androscoggin poplars planted near power lines.

Androscoggins were projected to last 50 yrs. and be fast growing. In their early years, they grew 8 linear ft. per year. Gorgeous yellow fall color. But after only 25 years, they started coming down. One fell on the power line and there was no electricity for two weeks because the power line served only three customers: our place and two neighboring farms. So the utility co. put us on the back burner.

I had the Androscoggins taken down but even then new trees shot up from their roots. A real headache for several years afterward.
 
We live in a large city so it isn't unusual to see people take down large old trees. Here you need a permit for any tree removal with a trunk larger than 6" across. Spaces are tight; you don't want some DIY amateur felling a tree that falls on top of the neighbor's roof - especially if you're the neighbor!

There are major problems with the older trees:
Many are not really suited to urban environments. For a while it was the fashion to plant redwoods, because they're fast-growing. If you are familiar with redwoods, this is the absolute worst city tree in the world to plant! For one thing, they get 100'+ tall - and WIDE. If a limb falls off, it weighs over 80 lbs and can kill someone (it happens periodically; crushed cars occur every year during winter storms).

You can't just cut them down, either. Redwoods resprout; unless the interior heartwood is killed, the stump remains alive and saplings will reappear from both stump and roots. I once saw a neighborhood backyd in an open house. where they had cut down a redwood but left the tree on the ground - I guess it was too big and heavy to move easily. The tree had resprouted from the top, and saplings were emerging all along the trunk. Instead of one tree, they had sowed half a dozen new ones, LOL.

Or people planted eucalyptus, which aren't native. They're a fire hazard (high oil content) and their evergreen litter drops year-round, killing all understory plants around them. And sweetgums, whose aggressive roots break up sidewalks and invade plumbing pipes.

It's why most cities have approved lists for street trees. Trees are wonderful, but you need the right tree in the right place, as damagedgoods' post points out.
 
Speaking of Eucalyptus, the developers planted them in 2 foot square plots behind all our garages in our condo. In about 3 years the roots would have broken up the surrounding driveways!
We removed them all and turned them into firewood
 

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