October 18

Halloween tree nightmare?

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14  comments

Seattle City Light has been in the neighborhood for some months now, trimming trees away from power lines before another La Nina cold winter hits.

Do they go too far? Jon K. writes: “Understandably trees need to be trimmed to prevent fires/injury/outages. In the past the city of Seattle has trimmed our very old 95th street icon very nicely and very respectfully to the tree while preserving public safety. This year was a major, major exception, it was butchered….”

He goes on:

From the city of Seattles page at http://www.cityofseattle.net/light/neighborhoods/nh4_trtr.htm

-Our goal is to keep your tree alive, healthy and out of harm’s way. City Light has certified arborists in the field and in-house. They are directly involved with pruning the trees to ensure that proper pruning techniques are used to preserve the health of the trees.

-Our contracted crews are required to work according to approved standards to ensure the health and well-being of the trees.

-The pruning methods we use are endorsed by the International Society of Arboriculture.

I’ve contacted an outside arborist to see what she says and if the tree will, much to everyone’s dismay, have to be taken down. It’s now not only an eyesore, I suspect it will grow heavily on the house side and become unsafe in the future.

It’s not just Jon’s house. Here’s a tree at one of the Maple Leaf Life editor’s homes:

Anyone else have problems?

About the author 

Sara W

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  1. Just today tried to get written agreement from City Light in event my tree suffers same fate as Jon K. Glen Allen AND Brent Schmidt came to the house this morning to assure me no harm will come to my 50 year old hemlock when they prune 1/4 of it off the back in order to replace utility pole. HAH.
    Have been wrangling with City Light on this since June, it is clear they can’t find their ass with both hands. Unbelievable ignorance on all parts as to why, when and how this pole will be handled. Have spoken with over 20 people on the subject and still have no answer.
    Last week doorbell rang at 8am with 2 trucks and crew of 5-8 people here to prune the hemlock. ‘Not today, you’re not,’ sez I. Email to Superintendent, site visit from 3 people this morning.
    Now all I have is assurance from Allen that he or an arborist will be on site when pruning is done. Think I’ll have to take “fusspot” advice and have it done professionally before they get here. And even after all this, nobody knows when the pole will actually be replaced.
    If I ask why it even needs replacing is another 20 people, 20 telephone hours, and no answer. For my sanity don’t think I’ll go there.
    What a lot of wasted man-hours and gross inefficiency.

  2. 95th st tree update:

    Glen Allen Certified Arborist and Seattle City Light Tree Trimming Representative was nice enough to come out and take a look at my tree. Glen did confirm that there was absolutely no danger of the tree falling over or dying from the drastic pruning, which was my primary concern.

    Glens suggestion to me was to hire a certified arborist to prune the tree and essentially move the peak from the center (where it used to be) to slightly closer to my house. An oblong looking tree is not ideal by any means but it will look better than it does now. Quotes from certified arborists were between $500 and $800 to do such a trimming.

  3. Take a look at the dead tree on Ravenna just northwest of the intersection with NE 100th. It was “trimmed” by the city a few years ago, and has subsequently died. Other trees along there were similarly butchered, but have been taken down by the homeowners. Not a new problem.

  4. We had the same thing happen to a very old Cedar in our yard. It was a beautiful big tree, but we came home from work one day around this time last year to find half the tree topped and the other half skinned up one side. It looked terrible, a lot like the one in this picture.

    We consulted with two independent arborists who told us that it would be impossible to prune the tree in any way to make it look much better and that the tree was now far more susceptible to disease and breakage. With it being right next to our house, we ultimately paid to have the tree taken down.

    They also topped trees on 15th by the church and topped other trees on our street (on one tree they left nothing but one branch on it!). I don’t think the city has to be that drastic.

  5. I can understand why you are upset. I am always for saving a tree when it can be done. However, too often, people plant trees under power lines without thinking it through (not saying you did this – as you may have purchased your house with the tree already in place). The web site specifically says, “Note: Seattle City Light customers are expected to keep the line drop from pole to home or other buildings clear of trees and obstructions.” That being said, it would have been nice if they had tried to find a a solution that would work to keep the lines clear and look nicer.

  6. The two trees at 17th Ave NE and NE 90th were trimmed and look equally as bad. Our neighbors living near the tree are also concerned of it falling on their house.

  7. I don’t know, maybe don’t plant tall trees next to power lines? This same thing happened to a neighbor and they were upset. However even after the city came and appropriately butchered the trees there was still an outage as a result. It almost resulted in a fire. There was a rash of tree planting in our neighborhood and the result has been more outages in the past few years than in the prior 20. Ones definition of pretty also varys. Magnolia has very little tall trees (as do portions of Maple Leaf) to preserve views and its a very nice lovely neighborhood.

  8. City Light butchered a tree right next to my house and since it will be forever bald on one side, I will take it down as soon as I have the money. Way to make the city ugly, City Light. There had never, in the 50-plus years of this tree’s life, been any power problems in our neighborhood.

  9. Really unhappy but only 2 options… cut it down or try to level it out. If i level it out, the house side will have no greenery on it and look absolutely horrible. Suggestions definitely welcome.

  10. We have 2 trees in our parking strip here on Queen Anne that I would love to take down. They are too large for the area, are creeping into our water and sewer lines and ruined the sidewalk. Yet, I can not get a permit to take them down from the city. The city though has the audacity to tell me that I need to fix the lines and the sidewalk at my expense though. Gee, thanks. Not going to happen until we can solve the problem that is creating the other problem.

    The city “arborists” are stupid. I’m sorry about your tree.

  11. The response from the city:
    ____________
    Dear Jon,

    I appreciate that you understand the need for safety and reliability in our electrical system. We are under ever increasing pressure to maintain clearances that conform to WISHA permissable distance limits. I did not see your tree before it was pruned but I did see it last Friday.

    It is unfortunate when beautiful large growing trees like yours suffer to maintain those clearances. The clearance for the 26kv uppermost line is 10 feet and the lower underbuilt is 5 feet. I don’t know how long ago your tree was last pruned but it can be drastic when it has been awhile and the trees have grown into those clearance zones. The ISA standards apply to the proper pruning cuts (cut to a lateral, do not leave stubs, etc.) but the clearances have to come first. We are on a four year pruning schedule and need to preserve safety and reliability during that cycle.

    If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me.

    Brent Schmidt
    Interim Manager Energy Support Services
    Seattle City Light
    206.233.3923
    brent.schmidt@seattle.gov

  12. Majority of city pruners are not arborists and they regularly butcher trees. If you love your street-facing trees, spend out of pocket for a pro before the city gets there and destroys your tree… and your property value.

    Established trees and specimen trees can add significant value to your property – in fact you can even get assessments and take out insurance if you want to be serious about protection.

    For pruning, I highly recommend the folks at Bartlett Tree Experts / Four Season Tree Care. They have done great work for me in Fremont for the past six years.

  13. That butcher job is a lawsuit waiting the happen: they’ve made the tree unstable, so it’s more likely to tip over in a windstorm now and crash into the house or into someone’s car. If it rains a lot this winter and the soil gets waterlogged, the roots may also no longer hold the tree in the ground any more since it’s lopsided, and it might well just keel over out of the moist soil. The city has created a huge hazard.

    The owner should get a couple of arborists over to evaluate the tree’s pruning job, write reports on it, and then have a lawyer go to the city with those and force the city to remove the tree entirely. It’s not just an eyesore now; it’s a huge safety hazard.

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