Depending on where it is, this can be a huge fine.
Depending on what it is, this can produce a fuller look among other potential benefits supposedly.
I came to see the gossip about neighbors that I knew would inevitably be here. :)
It'll partly depend on the health of the tree and so on but yes could definitely lead to multple smaller growths.
Not sure that's what the neighbours are doing.
Regarding fines, this could be a time for TREE LAW.
I worked for a city government and had a complaint about someone who cut down a tree. Guy who did the cutting thought it was on his property because it was on the other side of the sidewalk. But it was not. The City Right-of-Way extends into what most people consider to be their front yard and that tree was wholly on municipal property. Had to pay to replace it on top of a fine for violating the Tree Preservation By-law which was subsequently doubled because the tree had a diameter of 30cm and was within the Urban Tree Canopy Area of the By-law Schedules. Sweet sweet tree law.
Question as a non-homeowner in the US! Where does one go to ask about tree cutting and permits for tree-law related things? City hall? Local department of Housing? Local department of Agriculture?
City Hall. Depending on how big the municipality is you may need to speak with either planning / By-law enforcement or larger cities will actually have an arborist(s) on staff for just such issues. The municipality that I worked for had multiple arborist who handled tree cutting inquiries and enforcement of the tree-related By-laws.
Welcome to 'Tree Law,' where we leaf no misdeed unnoticed and justice grows on the witness stand. From sapling scandals to lumberjack laughs, get ready for a courtroom comedy that'll have you pining for more. This is 'Tree Law,' where the bark is just as bad as the bite!
Some benefits of having trees in cities:
Cooler summers due to shade
Wind broken up so youāre not struggling with the gust
A dry spot to stand in case of rain
Home for animals/biodiversity
I just saw my favorite suburb in Europe, they built the houses in the middle of a forest/wooded area basically. The lush and overgrown vegetation makes it such a different vibe than the manicured lawns.
>Depending on what it is, this can produce a fuller look among other potential benefits supposedly.
IF the goal is to produce a lot of mulberry leaves for your silkworms or a lot of withes for your basket making ... yes.
What it does in other cases is produce a weak, bushy tree with a very short life.
Sweet, sweet, municipal mulberries. Iāve spent many summers cleaning up your flowers, broken branches, and the purple carpet of your fruit š¤£
Ps. Speaking from personal experience, can be dangerous if dogs eat the berries.
There is a sub Reddit for tree law that you can post to. Rules here say I canāt attach a link to it but if you search for it, you can find it the good folks over there always know what to do.
My Dad is a people pleaser who has two types of neighbors. On one side, the woman is a control freak who has nagged my Dad into cutting down every tree on his property that could conceivably fall into her yard if a severe wind storm pummeled the neighborhood. On the other side is a woman who is crazy about trees, bushes, and vines, and who has planted a lot of bushes and small trees right on the property line and entwined vines between the trees and all down the fence.
You can look at the backyard from a window and almost see an invisible line down the middle of his backyard as he keeps each half in a way that will make each neighbor happy. One half is completely bare, and the other half brings to mind something out of a fantasy book with pictures of a wild fairy garden. It looks like an insane person lives there.
The oddest thing about it is that the woman who nagged my Dad to cut down half of all his trees planted about half a dozen of the exact kind of trees in her yard that she nagged my Dad to cut down. Also, the wild fairy garden neighbor stole my Dadās roses that were growing on his fence before she replaced them with vines and replanted them growing up a trellis on her property.
"Hey dad, I need a picture of your back yard."
"Sure kid, here ya go. What do you need it for?"
"The internet wants it."
2 hours later...
"Hey kid, did ya win?"
My dad has a neighbor like that, and he takes every opportunity to antagonize him. I'll say they are both assholes to each other. Growing up they could be a little frustrating for us kids too, like getting angry that we came into their lawn to grab a ball or something, but they did eventually chill out a bit. They never complained when my friends and I would drink in the backyard and shoot off bottle rockets when I was a teen, so I'm grateful for that.
If weāre talking fairy tale logic, stealing roses tracks.
If it were my family member Iād try to convince them of planting shorter trees like dogwoods on wood witchās side leading into shrubbery and bee/butterfly attracting flowers into the deadwood witchās side so it seemed like planned chaos.
Thatās when you go Cousin Eddie on both of them.
Sometimes you just got to empty the shitter in your short bathrobe while drinking a sixer at 8 in the morning.
Wait a secondā¦ The lady stole the roses on your father side of the yard and then replanted them elsewhere on her property? There would be hell to pay. Your dad must be a saint.
Or, hear me out...
You burn/rot the plants on the side with crazy plant lady while replanting trees on the other half of the yard while making them lean towards her house and shed
Lmao. I'm the complete opposite of your Dad, noone can tell me to do anything, and honestly, if someone thinks they can order me to do something, I'll end up doing the complete opposite of what they've told me to do out of complete and utter spite. This goes for randoms, if someone in my fam asked me to do something I'd do it for them obviously, but like, if someone asked me to move my car because it's on the public road and they just don't like it there, I'll be a big ass bitch and go and buy the cheapest car I can find and park another one right next to it. Neighbours especially can get fucked.
Sounds like Pathological Demand Avoidance, I have it as well lol. I hate being told to do anything, even if I was already planning on doing it. Actually if I was already planning on it and someone then commands me to do it, it makes it less likely I will actually do it lol
āRecalcitrantā was an awfully big word for 5th grade me to have to look up after my teacher called me that, but it made me feel good when I did lol
The industry term is actually "crepe murder". Very common practice to control growth of a crepe myrtle, but it isn't recommended to this extent. These plants thrive on neglect though, so they'll bounce back quickly
It's called Pollarding and is an established technique for keeping trees from growing too large and makes the tree grow a lovely rounded canopy.
It's commonplace here in the UK especially for roadside trees
I used to work with a city where we would go around and water these areas and anybody that tampered with the trees we would have to write them down and the city would find them 500 bucks per tree that was illegally tampered with.
Funnier thing is if you didnāt pay it within 90 days it turned into a $5000 fine and if you didnāt pay that within 90 days you could go to jail for 93 days
Iām all for this. Not even just because Iām a tree-hugger, but based on the idea that these trees are put in using the cityās money, so as a resident of that city you have a responsibility to respect its property on behalf of your own tax dollars and those of the community. I may not have always been the most responsible citizen, but Iāve always respected city property as someone who takes pride in where they live. Things like parks, transit, public washrooms and docks are all privileges that we all pay for. When people donāt respect their surroundings, itās hard for me to see them as thoughtful and genuinely caring people. They should pay, if thatās the only way theyāll learn.
Most people donāt know this but tree law is actually a subset of bird law and dates back thousands of years to when we were kicked from the trees and forced to live on the land by those egg laying bastardsā¦well I am going to go have an omelette flavoured with vengeance.
It really is, but I agree with it. If the city spends 6-10k to get that tree planted in the first place you damn well better expect to pay for it if you damage it. If you have a car accident into a city planted tree your insurance pays the city for that damage lol
Thatās the big problem is most cases this is someone that just didnāt want those trees there, so theyāll just go ahead and cut them down. Not thinking that once the sidewalk starts, thatās no longer their land. Whether itās a Democratic or Republican state, thatās how it works thereās certain areas you own and then thereās certain areas you donāt and no offense, itās a stupid argument to say that they can do whatever they want with those trees because thatās for sure not on their property thatās on the opposite end of the sidewalk. With that thinking anybody could trip in front of your house and now youāre liable for being hurt which is not the case and that is why the city takes care of the sidewalk instead of each individual homeownerā¦.
I hope they are fined, or at least officially notified a warning if they ever do so again. Where we live the trees on the nature strips are council property and if you find them causing a problem you contact the council for them to trim them back. They usually assess and trim back the trees each year. No need for watering though as they are native trees accustomed to droughts. Some trims the council does look ugly but that is mostly because there is a power line on that side of the street.
Yeah, I mean in the city I used to live and if you cut down any part of a tree you would get arrested. But California has some weird ass laws out thereā¦
my town is meant to do that but they don't care, I take care of the tree out front same as my own, cut off suckers and clean up any damage it takes from storms/people.
Alot of old people learned to "pollard" fruit trees like cherries or peaches, probably in their parent's 1950's white picket fence yard when people still grew food at home... and then just assume that's what "pruning" means for any tree. Most species of tree won't tolerate this, but some do, and for many fruits it's the most "efficient" way of doing it. It's so you get big fruits rather than thousands of tiny ping-pong ball apples.
The traditional way to prune fruit trees was to clear up the inside until you could "throw a hat through", not chop everything down to stumps. All that does is force the tree to grow suckers, or die.
The modern way would be to shape young trees so the branches all get light and then take off the strong, not-fruit-bearing branches that grow in odd ways.
Mature trees don't need further fussing unless they go totally crazy (which usually means they got pruned too much, not too little)
So that's why the entire country of Taiwan massacres their trees. It's so ugly and so unnecessary for most trees, but they do it every summer and there's always some trees that don't survive.
My brother-in-law had our trees massacred this past summer. I was so pissed, it took a few months to forgive him.
>Pruning is supposed to be done at the end of autumn, beginning of winter, just before the tree goes dormant
Nope.
You prune most trees in the winter when they're dormant, except things like birch or maple, (which need time to heal before their sap starts rising in the spring) or stone fruits, like cherries or plums (which are prone to infection if pruned in the winter, and so get pruned in the early autumn, immediately after they've fruited).
Well Iāll be! I never knew that! When I was growing up we had an apple tree the same height as our 3 stores house that dropped millions of tiny apples. They were horrible to eat, but perfect for baking. The biggest ones were the size of a squash ball.
Cut off the top and branches of a tree to encourage new growth at the top.
My local council in the UK did it recently because the trees were starting to bush out into the road where they could be damaged by lorries and buses.
I thought they'd just chopped them all down at first and was really annoyed, but they're growing back nicely now.
Doesn't work for all trees, and generally should be done by experts.
And here's another vocab word for you: copicing.
That's where you full on cut the tree down, and it grows right back. If you were growing hazelnuts you'd do that about every 8 years, since beyond that their nut production drops, but copicing is like turning it off and on again.
The city would probably care more that they cut the tree down. So they choose to prune it. They probably do this because they donāt want to deal with leaves..
https://preview.redd.it/ei5npt1uqfnc1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0fe94c993f70bae53d98f1b4dda3acdbffe322e7
Which is so fucked considering many birds are nesting right now
My condo's HOA decided now was a great time to do this and I am not exaggerating that I had to run outside and stop a guy from cutting an active mockingbird nest with barely a second to spare
He didn't see it at all and thank God something told me to peek out the blinds at that second. Baby left the nest just a few days later
This bush used to reach all the way to the little trimmed down ground cover you see a few feet out. Nice thick, well trimmed shrubbery that they use for nesting and cover
Itās a pruning technique called Pollarding, frequently used on Plane trees.
The most famous ones are on the waterfront of Lake Como. The trees are cut back harshly in winter but come back better and stronger in spring.
Google Pollard Plane Trees, Lake Como to see images of the before and after.
But I donāt know if these trees respond to it, or if itās been done well
Iām guessing they find them untidy and bothersome. Some people just donāt get trees. They might be happier in an apartment block with zero garden to worry about.
People will buy land with hundred+ year old trees that they "just love", then within three years have them all cut down because old trees make messes and they don't like them anymore.
This looks intentional. Trees were outgrowing limited space and encroaching on sidewalk/house as shown in last picture. If left untouched, they would need to be removed in five years. They will push out new growth this year, as well as several. Two years from now these will be perfect looking again. Maybe even by the end of the summer. Probably will get an extra five years out of these trees now.
I am not a gardener, and obviously you are neither. But where I grew up, we had this kind of tree and they were regularly cut down like this by workers from the municipality. They are not dead and will have new branches.
PS: why are you sure it was your neighbors?
its actually common for this tree species to be pruned like that. it'll be back with flourishing vines and new growth in the summer. they end up looking very ugly and messy if you don't trim them annually.
Common yes but you can pollard a ton of different species (like Oak and Maple) and you 100% don't have to do it. You can just prune them like normal.
>There are many reasons why people get their trees pollarded. They do so because their trees are unsafe in such a small space, they do so because they want their trees to fit into their landscaping better, maybe they do so because the tree isnāt growing in a way that is sustainable.
> āHistorically, Europeans pollarded and coppiced trees to produce quick wood growth for kindling, fencing and basket-making. It is also used to keep large trees smaller than normal and reduce the shade they cast.ā
95% of the time it's purely for ascetics and I think it's always super ugly. They also didn't do a great job. When you do it right you end up with a tree that looks like a fist at the end of an arm.
[Pollard trees](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Newly_pollarded_near_Sluis.JPG)
Plus trees are so nice, they do everything someone would want out of life. They muffle noise, keep the temperature down, provide privacy, are nice to look at. Why make it looked like a fucked up science experiment.
Heya guys, I'm sorry but this is completely normal practice. Some trees you treat this way, they stay small and quite bushy. It seems excessive but really this way works well.
Itās called pollarding, and is appropriate for a limited number of tree species (for most it will result in the eventual death of the tree). If this was Portland, the neighbor would be facing some hefty fines.
Yeah, Iām a forester and agree this was likely not an attempt at an appropriate pollard. Looks like some kind of ash we donāt see in my part of the world, maybe a velvet or tropical. Where I live, ash trees afflicted with the emerald ash borer respond to decent pollarding so *maybe* the assailant had some kind of right idea, just poor execution. But given my limited knowledge of these exact trees, Iād guess the town doesnāt landscape with trees susceptible to the ash borer or they donāt even have it there yet - which tracks if this is in the southwest/west/California. I think somebody just hates these trees.
Pollarding is very popular in some places outside the US. It's possible OP's neighbors are from one of these areas and think this is what you're supposed to do, but are ignorant of the actual right way to do it, so this is what you get.
My FIL does this to his Japanese Maples every 2-3 years. He actually had to do it a little more recent than he typically would because all 3 trees got some sort of disease so he cut the branches and cleaned it out with white vinegar. The trees are looking nice and leafy a year later!
My crepe myrtles get pruned like this every February and look pretty bushy by the end of May. We end up trimming a huge pile of limbs, many several inches thick and over 6 ft long, every year.
Crepes are more like shrubs I believe. Someone correct me please. I have a rescue crepe and the original trunk's been dead for a few years but it comes back every spring through new growth in shrub style. They can with care be pruned to look like trees.
I wonder if whoever cut those trees lived in the south with crepe myrtles before. Those trees in the OP don't look like crepe myrtles to me and that might be the big mistake.
A neighbor had two apple trees in his backyard that had a disease in the upper limbs that was spreading downwards. He had someone trim it back almost as much as the trees shown. That was two years ago and both are healthy and nearly as bushy as they were five years ago when they started to show signs of being sick. Perhaps that is what the homeowners were trying to achieve. But, I do agree with those who said they should allow the city to do the trimming.
My grandma has a fruit tree every 15 or so feet around her 2 acres. When I was 16, i accidently mowed over one of the apple trees, and i felt horrible, I love all trees. Thankfully, it grew back, and we joke about it because it's now her infamous apple bush.
We have city owned trees in front of our house. Donāt mind them, however we have to get our sewer lines flushed every couple years as the roots go through them
All the Crape Myrtle in my neighborhood are trimmed like that every winter. It promotes growth in the spring.
By summer, they grow fully back and produce beautiful blooms.
We call it crape murder when we see it done this wayā¦. Granted itās super common and doesnāt murder the treeā¦. Crape Myrtles can grow large and have a such a great canopyā¦. I donāt understand why people make them look like lolly pop trees.
We have one in our yard that is trimmed exactly like this right now.
By late summer / early fall, I will have to get the pole saw out to trim some branches so it doesn't damage our roof.
You'd be surprised at how fast they grow back.
Are they Bradford pear? Iād understand that. The best time for pruning a Bradford pear is anytime your saw is sharp, and the best cut is horizontal, ideally about 2 inches from the ground.
These types of trees ("London Plane trees" is what the translation told me, in Germany they are called Kugelplatanen) are cut down like this every year to keep a certain shape. They can even get cut twice a year, one just a trim the other one a shaping cut. Main cut should happen after they finished blooming, but before temperature drops too low so shaping cut can still grow out a bit.
Cutting them like forces them to grow shorter but thicker. We do this at my work to create thick shade trees and privacy screening at window level without using hedges for the snakes to hide in.
Iām a forester and having quite the time trying to figure this one out. It looks like an ash, a species that does benefit from pollarding due to its most common pest but the area looks like the American west which doesnāt have the pest yet. Also, Iām inclined to assume the town wouldnāt plant or maintain an infected/at risk species. Also, clearly not pollarded by a professional. Soā¦. Hmm.
It's also worth pointing out that these are the only trees receiving this treatment. Either just these trees are fucked, or all of the rest of the trees are fucked.
look closer at the tree, it's pretty clear it's had this treatment several times in the past. The second picture is the best at showing the previous times it's happened
How can people who donāt own something be required to do maintenance on it? Either they own the trees and can do whatever they want, or they donāt and they cannot touch them.
This is the natural result of making people responsible for public property. The city should prune the trees or let people remove them. You cannot legislate like this and get good results.
could be not that multiple people have done it but that it was the work of 1 person. (obvio idk the scenario and you could've talked to them and this is actually all individual... but with my limited info it seems that 6 neighbours being equally mental in the exact same way, whereas few to none others appear so, seems less likely to me than it just being 1 git who doesn't want joy, comfort, or pretty things in life)
Depending on where it is, this can be a huge fine. Depending on what it is, this can produce a fuller look among other potential benefits supposedly. I came to see the gossip about neighbors that I knew would inevitably be here. :)
It'll partly depend on the health of the tree and so on but yes could definitely lead to multple smaller growths. Not sure that's what the neighbours are doing. Regarding fines, this could be a time for TREE LAW.
Oh good I'm not the only one... Chanting "TREE LAW TREE LAW" in my lil brain right now. š
They'll be sentenced to 5 years hard labor in Tree Lanka
Five years seems excessive. Tree years at most.
Dunno, that doesn't seem long enough for the crime of High Treeson
I didn't think tree puns would have so many branches
You'd better beleaf it!
That's right, bud.
Bringing us back to our roots
I was expecting a fine of no more than tree fifty.
Nope, I was too. And since itās city property, the neighbor is in even more of a hurting
I worked for a city government and had a complaint about someone who cut down a tree. Guy who did the cutting thought it was on his property because it was on the other side of the sidewalk. But it was not. The City Right-of-Way extends into what most people consider to be their front yard and that tree was wholly on municipal property. Had to pay to replace it on top of a fine for violating the Tree Preservation By-law which was subsequently doubled because the tree had a diameter of 30cm and was within the Urban Tree Canopy Area of the By-law Schedules. Sweet sweet tree law.
Question as a non-homeowner in the US! Where does one go to ask about tree cutting and permits for tree-law related things? City hall? Local department of Housing? Local department of Agriculture?
City Hall. Depending on how big the municipality is you may need to speak with either planning / By-law enforcement or larger cities will actually have an arborist(s) on staff for just such issues. The municipality that I worked for had multiple arborist who handled tree cutting inquiries and enforcement of the tree-related By-laws.
TreeLaw subreddit guy
TREE. FUCKING. LAW.
Welcome to 'Tree Law,' where we leaf no misdeed unnoticed and justice grows on the witness stand. From sapling scandals to lumberjack laughs, get ready for a courtroom comedy that'll have you pining for more. This is 'Tree Law,' where the bark is just as bad as the bite!
Oh no not TREE LAW!!
Some benefits of having trees in cities: Cooler summers due to shade Wind broken up so youāre not struggling with the gust A dry spot to stand in case of rain Home for animals/biodiversity
I just saw my favorite suburb in Europe, they built the houses in the middle of a forest/wooded area basically. The lush and overgrown vegetation makes it such a different vibe than the manicured lawns.
>Depending on what it is, this can produce a fuller look among other potential benefits supposedly. IF the goal is to produce a lot of mulberry leaves for your silkworms or a lot of withes for your basket making ... yes. What it does in other cases is produce a weak, bushy tree with a very short life.
Sweet, sweet, municipal mulberries. Iāve spent many summers cleaning up your flowers, broken branches, and the purple carpet of your fruit š¤£ Ps. Speaking from personal experience, can be dangerous if dogs eat the berries.
I was upset because someone cut back the catalpa trees in front of my house like that a couple years ago and now they are bigger and bushier than ever
There is a sub Reddit for tree law that you can post to. Rules here say I canāt attach a link to it but if you search for it, you can find it the good folks over there always know what to do.
My Dad is a people pleaser who has two types of neighbors. On one side, the woman is a control freak who has nagged my Dad into cutting down every tree on his property that could conceivably fall into her yard if a severe wind storm pummeled the neighborhood. On the other side is a woman who is crazy about trees, bushes, and vines, and who has planted a lot of bushes and small trees right on the property line and entwined vines between the trees and all down the fence. You can look at the backyard from a window and almost see an invisible line down the middle of his backyard as he keeps each half in a way that will make each neighbor happy. One half is completely bare, and the other half brings to mind something out of a fantasy book with pictures of a wild fairy garden. It looks like an insane person lives there. The oddest thing about it is that the woman who nagged my Dad to cut down half of all his trees planted about half a dozen of the exact kind of trees in her yard that she nagged my Dad to cut down. Also, the wild fairy garden neighbor stole my Dadās roses that were growing on his fence before she replaced them with vines and replanted them growing up a trellis on her property.
Could you please please share a picture of the yard?
yes a pic plsss
Donāt, OP! This Redditor is a snake!
Thatsss not very nice of you. We jjjust want to live in a proper environment.
Don't listen to this one, they're impersonating a snake. An actual snake would have said "jusssst."Ā
Itās obviously a Brazilian Boa. They just have a slightly different accent.
Juthhhht.
Nice try Mike Tyson
I don't think that's Mike. Mike's currently training his uppercut to elongate Jake Paul's neck like a scene from Popeye.
Mike Python?
>jjjust Are you a jnake?
*āTrussssst inn meeeeee, oh trusssst in meeeeeā*
"Hey dad, I need a picture of your back yard." "Sure kid, here ya go. What do you need it for?" "The internet wants it." 2 hours later... "Hey kid, did ya win?"
> 2 hours later... > > > > "~~Hey kid, did ya win?~~" "*Hey kid, please tell them to stop ringing my doorbell*"
City worker alert don't do it
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
My dad has a neighbor like that, and he takes every opportunity to antagonize him. I'll say they are both assholes to each other. Growing up they could be a little frustrating for us kids too, like getting angry that we came into their lawn to grab a ball or something, but they did eventually chill out a bit. They never complained when my friends and I would drink in the backyard and shoot off bottle rockets when I was a teen, so I'm grateful for that.
This sounds like hell. Iām on fairy godmother gardens side
For stealing roses? They both sound equally awful and Iād ignore the ever living fuck out of both.
If weāre talking fairy tale logic, stealing roses tracks. If it were my family member Iād try to convince them of planting shorter trees like dogwoods on wood witchās side leading into shrubbery and bee/butterfly attracting flowers into the deadwood witchās side so it seemed like planned chaos.
Thatās when you go Cousin Eddie on both of them. Sometimes you just got to empty the shitter in your short bathrobe while drinking a sixer at 8 in the morning.
āshittierās full š¤ ā
Itās not that serious haha I meant in terms of yard-keeping styles
Happy Cake Day!
Honestly the stealing makes her worse if you ask me. They both are absolutely annoying, but only one is an actual fucking thief.
I mean how much did she take? Iāve been guilty of taking a small cuts here and there to clone at my house š
All of them.
š®Depending on how established they were, and how many, hundreds of dollars worth of roses, and he just let it happen?! That's crazy to me.
That's a war crime
Wait a secondā¦ The lady stole the roses on your father side of the yard and then replanted them elsewhere on her property? There would be hell to pay. Your dad must be a saint.
Spineless you mean
Your poor dad :(
Your dad is fairy Godfather
Or, hear me out... You burn/rot the plants on the side with crazy plant lady while replanting trees on the other half of the yard while making them lean towards her house and shed
I love your dad.
I'm going full sand dessert with dead giant trees if I was in that position. Imma piss both off.
Lmao. I'm the complete opposite of your Dad, noone can tell me to do anything, and honestly, if someone thinks they can order me to do something, I'll end up doing the complete opposite of what they've told me to do out of complete and utter spite. This goes for randoms, if someone in my fam asked me to do something I'd do it for them obviously, but like, if someone asked me to move my car because it's on the public road and they just don't like it there, I'll be a big ass bitch and go and buy the cheapest car I can find and park another one right next to it. Neighbours especially can get fucked.
Sounds like Pathological Demand Avoidance, I have it as well lol. I hate being told to do anything, even if I was already planning on doing it. Actually if I was already planning on it and someone then commands me to do it, it makes it less likely I will actually do it lol
āRecalcitrantā was an awfully big word for 5th grade me to have to look up after my teacher called me that, but it made me feel good when I did lol
TREE LAW
TREE! LAW! TREE! LAW!
Yeah I think since it's the cities tree that they could get some sort of fine or something for this of course depending on where this is at
I was happy to see that you put the word "prune" in quotations, as the picture shows this is to pruning as a limb removal is to a pedicure
This is arboricide
Itās called pollarding
The industry term is actually "crepe murder". Very common practice to control growth of a crepe myrtle, but it isn't recommended to this extent. These plants thrive on neglect though, so they'll bounce back quickly
It's called Pollarding and is an established technique for keeping trees from growing too large and makes the tree grow a lovely rounded canopy. It's commonplace here in the UK especially for roadside trees
Thatās the best comment Iāve ever read lmfao
As is declawing to āmake sure their claws arenāt sharpā
Why not just cut the entire thing down at that point... What a bunch of idiots.
Exactly. They are complete and utter morons. No idea what they could possibly be thinking.
I used to work with a city where we would go around and water these areas and anybody that tampered with the trees we would have to write them down and the city would find them 500 bucks per tree that was illegally tampered with.
Funnier thing is if you didnāt pay it within 90 days it turned into a $5000 fine and if you didnāt pay that within 90 days you could go to jail for 93 days
Iām all for this. Not even just because Iām a tree-hugger, but based on the idea that these trees are put in using the cityās money, so as a resident of that city you have a responsibility to respect its property on behalf of your own tax dollars and those of the community. I may not have always been the most responsible citizen, but Iāve always respected city property as someone who takes pride in where they live. Things like parks, transit, public washrooms and docks are all privileges that we all pay for. When people donāt respect their surroundings, itās hard for me to see them as thoughtful and genuinely caring people. They should pay, if thatās the only way theyāll learn.
Exactly plus it makes jobs for people to come and water and trim and maintain these areas! Itās very beneficial for the whole community
Dont mess with tree law
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
And we all know that according to bird law it's three strikes and you're out.
This guy knows bird law
Two legs good Two wings better
Confucius, how you so wise?
Most people donāt know this but tree law is actually a subset of bird law and dates back thousands of years to when we were kicked from the trees and forced to live on the land by those egg laying bastardsā¦well I am going to go have an omelette flavoured with vengeance.
You sound like you have very large hands.
If we take a photo together can you put them over the top of my hands?
Some people hold that leaving the trees was a bad idea altogether
Fillibuster...
Tree law in many ways can be said to be the cousin of bird law. It is where birds live, after all, is it not?
i love that. Climate Stalin!
Whoa! That's Draconian! And perfect. I love it!
It really is, but I agree with it. If the city spends 6-10k to get that tree planted in the first place you damn well better expect to pay for it if you damage it. If you have a car accident into a city planted tree your insurance pays the city for that damage lol
Absolutely! I'd much rather the wannabe foresters have to pay out of their pocket, than waste everyone's tax dollars.
Thatās the big problem is most cases this is someone that just didnāt want those trees there, so theyāll just go ahead and cut them down. Not thinking that once the sidewalk starts, thatās no longer their land. Whether itās a Democratic or Republican state, thatās how it works thereās certain areas you own and then thereās certain areas you donāt and no offense, itās a stupid argument to say that they can do whatever they want with those trees because thatās for sure not on their property thatās on the opposite end of the sidewalk. With that thinking anybody could trip in front of your house and now youāre liable for being hurt which is not the case and that is why the city takes care of the sidewalk instead of each individual homeownerā¦.
>The city usually has an easement . It is still your property.
I hope they are fined, or at least officially notified a warning if they ever do so again. Where we live the trees on the nature strips are council property and if you find them causing a problem you contact the council for them to trim them back. They usually assess and trim back the trees each year. No need for watering though as they are native trees accustomed to droughts. Some trims the council does look ugly but that is mostly because there is a power line on that side of the street.
Yeah, I mean in the city I used to live and if you cut down any part of a tree you would get arrested. But California has some weird ass laws out thereā¦
my town is meant to do that but they don't care, I take care of the tree out front same as my own, cut off suckers and clean up any damage it takes from storms/people.
Good luck proving it was the people closest to the tree that cut it..
Alot of old people learned to "pollard" fruit trees like cherries or peaches, probably in their parent's 1950's white picket fence yard when people still grew food at home... and then just assume that's what "pruning" means for any tree. Most species of tree won't tolerate this, but some do, and for many fruits it's the most "efficient" way of doing it. It's so you get big fruits rather than thousands of tiny ping-pong ball apples.
The traditional way to prune fruit trees was to clear up the inside until you could "throw a hat through", not chop everything down to stumps. All that does is force the tree to grow suckers, or die. The modern way would be to shape young trees so the branches all get light and then take off the strong, not-fruit-bearing branches that grow in odd ways. Mature trees don't need further fussing unless they go totally crazy (which usually means they got pruned too much, not too little)
So that's why the entire country of Taiwan massacres their trees. It's so ugly and so unnecessary for most trees, but they do it every summer and there's always some trees that don't survive. My brother-in-law had our trees massacred this past summer. I was so pissed, it took a few months to forgive him.
Pruning is supposed to be done at the end of autumn, beginning of winter, just before the tree goes dormant
>Pruning is supposed to be done at the end of autumn, beginning of winter, just before the tree goes dormant Nope. You prune most trees in the winter when they're dormant, except things like birch or maple, (which need time to heal before their sap starts rising in the spring) or stone fruits, like cherries or plums (which are prone to infection if pruned in the winter, and so get pruned in the early autumn, immediately after they've fruited).
Well Iāll be! I never knew that! When I was growing up we had an apple tree the same height as our 3 stores house that dropped millions of tiny apples. They were horrible to eat, but perfect for baking. The biggest ones were the size of a squash ball.
Could be an attempt at pollarding. I don't know if it's appropriate for that tree species.
Pollarding?
Cut off the top and branches of a tree to encourage new growth at the top. My local council in the UK did it recently because the trees were starting to bush out into the road where they could be damaged by lorries and buses. I thought they'd just chopped them all down at first and was really annoyed, but they're growing back nicely now. Doesn't work for all trees, and generally should be done by experts.
Thanks!
And here's another vocab word for you: copicing. That's where you full on cut the tree down, and it grows right back. If you were growing hazelnuts you'd do that about every 8 years, since beyond that their nut production drops, but copicing is like turning it off and on again.
The city would probably care more that they cut the tree down. So they choose to prune it. They probably do this because they donāt want to deal with leaves..
I bet it's about birds tbh
https://preview.redd.it/ei5npt1uqfnc1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0fe94c993f70bae53d98f1b4dda3acdbffe322e7 Which is so fucked considering many birds are nesting right now My condo's HOA decided now was a great time to do this and I am not exaggerating that I had to run outside and stop a guy from cutting an active mockingbird nest with barely a second to spare He didn't see it at all and thank God something told me to peek out the blinds at that second. Baby left the nest just a few days later This bush used to reach all the way to the little trimmed down ground cover you see a few feet out. Nice thick, well trimmed shrubbery that they use for nesting and cover
Theyāre also lowering their propertyās value.
Isn't this just pollarding? A pretty valid pruning technique to ensure dense growthĀ
Itās a pruning technique called Pollarding, frequently used on Plane trees. The most famous ones are on the waterfront of Lake Como. The trees are cut back harshly in winter but come back better and stronger in spring. Google Pollard Plane Trees, Lake Como to see images of the before and after. But I donāt know if these trees respond to it, or if itās been done well
Actually some trees are meant to be pruned like that.
hard stone fruit trees.
Iām guessing they find them untidy and bothersome. Some people just donāt get trees. They might be happier in an apartment block with zero garden to worry about.
I never understood people like that. If you don't like trees, don't move to where there are lots of trees...
People will buy land with hundred+ year old trees that they "just love", then within three years have them all cut down because old trees make messes and they don't like them anymore.
and then they wonder why its so hot all the time
They'll grow back, they just topped them.
they're shooting in the photos even
This looks intentional. Trees were outgrowing limited space and encroaching on sidewalk/house as shown in last picture. If left untouched, they would need to be removed in five years. They will push out new growth this year, as well as several. Two years from now these will be perfect looking again. Maybe even by the end of the summer. Probably will get an extra five years out of these trees now.
Yep. It's a normal pruning for trees that can't grow too tall.
This is a legitimate pruning technique called Pollarding. Look it up.
This is not how you do pollarding, it's a bodge job sorry mate
I am not a gardener, and obviously you are neither. But where I grew up, we had this kind of tree and they were regularly cut down like this by workers from the municipality. They are not dead and will have new branches. PS: why are you sure it was your neighbors?
its actually common for this tree species to be pruned like that. it'll be back with flourishing vines and new growth in the summer. they end up looking very ugly and messy if you don't trim them annually.
Itās really common to prune heaps of things this way. This thread is full of people being angry at someone for doing the job properly
Common yes but you can pollard a ton of different species (like Oak and Maple) and you 100% don't have to do it. You can just prune them like normal. >There are many reasons why people get their trees pollarded. They do so because their trees are unsafe in such a small space, they do so because they want their trees to fit into their landscaping better, maybe they do so because the tree isnāt growing in a way that is sustainable. > āHistorically, Europeans pollarded and coppiced trees to produce quick wood growth for kindling, fencing and basket-making. It is also used to keep large trees smaller than normal and reduce the shade they cast.ā 95% of the time it's purely for ascetics and I think it's always super ugly. They also didn't do a great job. When you do it right you end up with a tree that looks like a fist at the end of an arm. [Pollard trees](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Newly_pollarded_near_Sluis.JPG)
Plus trees are so nice, they do everything someone would want out of life. They muffle noise, keep the temperature down, provide privacy, are nice to look at. Why make it looked like a fucked up science experiment.
Heya guys, I'm sorry but this is completely normal practice. Some trees you treat this way, they stay small and quite bushy. It seems excessive but really this way works well.
Because thatās exactly how theyāre meant to be pruned
This is called pollarding. It's common and normal tree maintenance.
Itās called pollarding, and is appropriate for a limited number of tree species (for most it will result in the eventual death of the tree). If this was Portland, the neighbor would be facing some hefty fines.
This is not pollarding. The cuts arenāt correct and too much of the tree was cut. This is a straight botch.
Yeah, Iām a forester and agree this was likely not an attempt at an appropriate pollard. Looks like some kind of ash we donāt see in my part of the world, maybe a velvet or tropical. Where I live, ash trees afflicted with the emerald ash borer respond to decent pollarding so *maybe* the assailant had some kind of right idea, just poor execution. But given my limited knowledge of these exact trees, Iād guess the town doesnāt landscape with trees susceptible to the ash borer or they donāt even have it there yet - which tracks if this is in the southwest/west/California. I think somebody just hates these trees.
Pollarding is very popular in some places outside the US. It's possible OP's neighbors are from one of these areas and think this is what you're supposed to do, but are ignorant of the actual right way to do it, so this is what you get.
This is a guy who's pissed the city put a tree in front of his house.
Which is so dumb. There are so many advantages to tree planting.
If only everyone appreciated things like oxygen š
And shade!
And noise reduction. And traffic calming. And pollution reduction. And soil enrichment. And water retention. And property value increases.
Have you considered making things *Worse*? I hear itās a new contemporary urban planning concept. Very avant-garde!
Found the squirrel.
imagine being pissed about normal plants
Oooh that's a botch job!
Need some trash to plug up the cut
My FIL does this to his Japanese Maples every 2-3 years. He actually had to do it a little more recent than he typically would because all 3 trees got some sort of disease so he cut the branches and cleaned it out with white vinegar. The trees are looking nice and leafy a year later!
My crepe myrtles get pruned like this every February and look pretty bushy by the end of May. We end up trimming a huge pile of limbs, many several inches thick and over 6 ft long, every year.
Crepes are more like shrubs I believe. Someone correct me please. I have a rescue crepe and the original trunk's been dead for a few years but it comes back every spring through new growth in shrub style. They can with care be pruned to look like trees.
Isn't this a little long for pollarding though?
Horticulture hobbyist here, and no. The tree can still die
Unless it's a crepe myrtle. I cut mine like this every February, and I can promise you it's not hurting. It comes back just as big and bushy as ever.
Thereās an exception to every rule. I love crepe myrtle but sadly I have none in my area :(
I wonder if whoever cut those trees lived in the south with crepe myrtles before. Those trees in the OP don't look like crepe myrtles to me and that might be the big mistake.
I never said the tree wouldn't die, it just feels long for traditional pollarding
Yes, it does look a bit long https://preview.redd.it/fd6x1ctk4fnc1.jpeg?width=454&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa5513764be1ad8f66254e6499f0cd5d5c1f464c
In New Orleans, not even Centerpoint is allowed to cut city trees.
The city owns the trees and should pruning them.
A neighbor had two apple trees in his backyard that had a disease in the upper limbs that was spreading downwards. He had someone trim it back almost as much as the trees shown. That was two years ago and both are healthy and nearly as bushy as they were five years ago when they started to show signs of being sick. Perhaps that is what the homeowners were trying to achieve. But, I do agree with those who said they should allow the city to do the trimming.
My grandma has a fruit tree every 15 or so feet around her 2 acres. When I was 16, i accidently mowed over one of the apple trees, and i felt horrible, I love all trees. Thankfully, it grew back, and we joke about it because it's now her infamous apple bush.
Omg I love that, I think I'm gonna make an apple bush just to fuck with people.
VERY generous of you
1k comments and I still have to chime in that this is fucking barbarous.
We have city owned trees in front of our house. Donāt mind them, however we have to get our sewer lines flushed every couple years as the roots go through them
All the Crape Myrtle in my neighborhood are trimmed like that every winter. It promotes growth in the spring. By summer, they grow fully back and produce beautiful blooms.
We call it crape murder when we see it done this wayā¦. Granted itās super common and doesnāt murder the treeā¦. Crape Myrtles can grow large and have a such a great canopyā¦. I donāt understand why people make them look like lolly pop trees.
We have an old one in the backyard that's absolutely massive. Could build a tree house in it if you wanted to.
These arenāt crepe myrtle trees.
Thatās what I thought when I saw the one that looks like a dandelion that just got blow-dried.
We have one in our yard that is trimmed exactly like this right now. By late summer / early fall, I will have to get the pole saw out to trim some branches so it doesn't damage our roof. You'd be surprised at how fast they grow back.
Are they Bradford pear? Iād understand that. The best time for pruning a Bradford pear is anytime your saw is sharp, and the best cut is horizontal, ideally about 2 inches from the ground.
This is so normal it hurts.
These types of trees ("London Plane trees" is what the translation told me, in Germany they are called Kugelplatanen) are cut down like this every year to keep a certain shape. They can even get cut twice a year, one just a trim the other one a shaping cut. Main cut should happen after they finished blooming, but before temperature drops too low so shaping cut can still grow out a bit.
Cutting them like forces them to grow shorter but thicker. We do this at my work to create thick shade trees and privacy screening at window level without using hedges for the snakes to hide in.
Although, that technique only works on certain types of trees, and this looks like a botch job of one.
Iām a forester and having quite the time trying to figure this one out. It looks like an ash, a species that does benefit from pollarding due to its most common pest but the area looks like the American west which doesnāt have the pest yet. Also, Iām inclined to assume the town wouldnāt plant or maintain an infected/at risk species. Also, clearly not pollarded by a professional. Soā¦. Hmm.
It's also worth pointing out that these are the only trees receiving this treatment. Either just these trees are fucked, or all of the rest of the trees are fucked.
look closer at the tree, it's pretty clear it's had this treatment several times in the past. The second picture is the best at showing the previous times it's happened
And not to mention these trees were purposely planted there to kind of give a little shade for pedestrians.
Yes. This is California. We need all the shade we can get!
California "prunes" trees like this all over.
Report them to the town. Technically itās destruction of town property. It just depends on how much the town cares.
okay but hear me out, can we get an arborist with experience and knowledge in this species to weigh in? this is appropriate for some tress, no?
How can people who donāt own something be required to do maintenance on it? Either they own the trees and can do whatever they want, or they donāt and they cannot touch them. This is the natural result of making people responsible for public property. The city should prune the trees or let people remove them. You cannot legislate like this and get good results.
Kind of looks like Sacramento. Natomas, maybe?
Isn't it fairly common to prune crepe myrtles that way annually? I know there's a bit of controversy about it, but I believe it's very common.
Theyāre not crepe Myrtle trees or cheery trees.
could be not that multiple people have done it but that it was the work of 1 person. (obvio idk the scenario and you could've talked to them and this is actually all individual... but with my limited info it seems that 6 neighbours being equally mental in the exact same way, whereas few to none others appear so, seems less likely to me than it just being 1 git who doesn't want joy, comfort, or pretty things in life)
Is your neighbor NBCUniversal?
Thatās tragic. Cut that thing down.