To the editor:
Last week I noticed a public works crew cutting branches off a majestic pine tree on a front lawn up the street. Then they moved down the street and cut more branches off decades-old maples and other trees on the lots of two neighbors across from us. One of those neighbors is in Florida and could not know what was being done in time to do anything about it. I went out and asked the man who appeared to be the supervisor who gave them permission to prune the trees like that, and to my astonishment he said they didn’t need permission. So when I asked why they didn’t, he replied that they didn’t need it because the (allegedly low) branches were striking their sanding and plow trucks and breaking mirrors, etc. I challenged that and further pointed out that the numerous untreated wounds they were leaving on the trees invited invasion by disease or destructive insects, and he acknowledged that possibility, but didn’t show any concern and didn’t express any intention of limiting the damage or treating the wounds as should be done.
As they moved down the street they kept on cutting limbs on the property next door and down at the corner of Collins Street and Elizabeth Avenue. I saw them cut off limbs that were far too high or growing in the wrong direction to ever touch a vehicle in the street. Their behavior was in keeping with the adage that you give some irresponsible person a saw and they won’t know when to quit. I contend that common courtesy should at least require them to ask before they damage trees on private property, and moreover, they are trespassing when they walk on residential lawns and driveways to do it without permission.
There is such a thing as eminent domain, some elements of which might apply here, but I don’t believe it permits willy-nilly violation of private property rights, or the inexpert haggling of valued trees.
Caribou
