Let me paint you a scenario:
Homeowner: Hi, [municipality]! I would like to have this tree removed. Do you mind? Municipality: Yes, we mind, you can not remove that tree. H: But I really want to build a patio out front! M: Too bad. H: Well, I paid a lot for this house, I work hard for my money and I feel like I should be able to build a patio on my property. M: Well, you can’t. Bye!
Homeowner goes ahead and builds a patio right up to the base of the 60ft tall spruce. Building a patio is hard work, it involves some sort of digging, compacting soil, laying foundation (I’m not sure, I don’t build patios) and the tree’s roots were definitely in the way. So what can you do? I guess you could either cut those roots off (it has lots of roots!) or just compact the soil around them, because trees don’t need oxygen or anything, right?
So either the roots die and rot away or are removed completely. Do you know where this is going? And after a certain amount of time, years maybe, and a certain number of wind storms, the tree, missing half of its anchoring roots, finally succumbs to the force and falls over, smashing a neighbouring birch tree and missing the neighbour’s house by eight inches. Not just any old part of the house, but the kids’ bedroom. There it hangs, blocking the garage, hanging over the driveway until an arborist can come to safely remove it.
What really incenses me about this is (aside from the homeowner’s ignorance resulting in a near tragedy) that now we arborists are getting flooded with calls from people who are frantic and afraid that tall trees everywhere are going to fall down and destroy the people and things that they love, when it is often human error that is causing these trees to come down and not the nature of trees themselves. I can understand this fear of tall trees, but we can’t go around cutting down every tree. We need trees in our cities to produce oxygen, moderate the heat island effect, filter pollutants, protect and improve soil, create habitat, the list goes on, and these benefits increase with mature, large-canopied trees.
I think that the municipality could have been a little more proactive in providing information along with their decision to deny the homeowner’s permit application. It’s not really their fault, but if they’d had the common sense to assume the homeowner might go ahead and try something under the table, a thing that many people do after having their request declined, they could have instead offered some kind of advice; for example: “if you are going to go ahead and build that patio, make sure it’s [X distance] away from the base of the tree or else you are going to seriously damage the tree’s structural support and jeopardize the safety of yourself and your neighbours.” Or they could have done what they often do, and say “yes, you can remove this tree as long as you replace it with another tree of appropriate quality, size and species.”
For the record, I think that the permitting process should be a lot quicker for hazardous trees. Too many hazardous trees get hung up for too long in the permitting process. When canopy goals meet public safety, things get tricky.
My main point is, you don’t have much to fear from a well-placed, well-planted, properly maintained tree. They don’t like to fall over, and they try their best to make their roots strong enough to hold themselves up. And when they become old, or ill, and hazardous, it should be a fairly simple process to get them removed. But if you cut half of those roots off to install a patio or to dig for any other reason, or raise the grade over a root system, or plant a tree with girdling roots or a tree inappropriate for the soil type you end up with trees failing at the base, destroying property and infrastructure, and possibly causing injury or death. And then who cleans up those failed trees? Arborists. Storm damage is one of the more dangerous types of tree work, and unfortunately, it does claim lives, as we saw last week. The arborists were out doing emergency storm work while the storm was still going and a second tree fell on top of them.
So, think underground, friends! The roots are important and they spread far and wide! It should really be common knowledge, but it’s not.
If you’re worried about how hazardous the trees on your property are, every tree care company I’ve ever heard of gives free quotes - read: free information about your tree and what it might need, with no obligation. You could also hire a TRAQ (Tree Risk Assessment Qualification) Certified Arborist to write you a risk assessment report. A lot of non-certified arborists also have this knowledge, but the certification helps you choose if you’re just cold calling.
Anyway… rant over. This one just really bugged me.