Sad and Dying Trees Due to Bad Landscaping

Sigh
It seems the City of Vancouver, HUD, and others are cheapskates…paying little for tree care, and so they get butchered. We lost about 30 flowering plums at my apartments eventually due to ONCE their limbs were totally chopped off.

Then yesterday in downtown not far from City Hall, this. :frowning:


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Oh my, terrible! The City of San Antonio is getting better - removing invasives from the protection list, and increasing protection of native, hardy trees. The city Arborist also allows removal of weak natives, such as a compromised hackberry, mesquite, or other trees which are eminent (in the past, they would make you wait till they fell, or require replacement).

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I do not think we have an Arborist. I know we have no Diversity and Equity office like Portland does. We got a lot of things to improve. You can imagine how I felt looking at the state of this city-planted tree remnant.

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Those pictures are so sad, but tree rapists abound.
I guess some folks think trees in Dr Suess books look nice?

Tree service is what my family does, and lately it seems everyone with a pickup and chainsaw fancies himself a tree trimmer.

My hubby is not a certified arborist, but he trims trees right. Proper cuts, not damaging the collar, reducing the crown, by bringing the limbs back to a leader. Not stripping out the inside so all new growth is at the ends of the limbs. He will NOT top a tree or do a bad job.
He has taught our sons to trim right too. In fact he can trin half a big tree while one of our sons trims the other half and there is no visible difference in the quality or style of the job.
These guys stay very busy on referal work. They have an excellent reputation for doing high quality work and making happy customers, AND they cost less most of the time.
Insured with a liabilty policy that has never been needed. These guys can take down trees over houses safely. They do it all the time.
They also do brush removal for fire safety creating defensible space around homes.

Prescott Arizona area folks can message me if they want a bid. Estimates/bids are always free.

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What is worse than the pruning job is the huge gall- if the tree was human the tumor would already have killed it. It certainly has drastically reduced the link between roots and leaves.

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@David_DeafGardening, I totally can! I feel your pain. It’s like when someone has a hair out of place and you just want to pluck it! I bet you would cause a stir if you were to jump out of your vehicle with a chainsaw and just chop it down, lol.

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Usually “they” just don’t care, whether it’s the government or private enterprise. There’s a large shopping plaza where whoever built it lined the area in between the parking lot and the road with apple trees. Not crabapple, apple. Must have been on sale at Home Depot when they were finishing up things. It looked great one year and when I went to go get some apples the following year they had trimmed the trees way too far back. Basically to the height they probably were when the trees were picked up at Home Depot or whatever. There’s an older (1970s) hotel that had apple trees and a peach tree in its parking lot. The peaches are never any good and the best apple trees were cut down a few years ago, probably because the apples were falling onto the lot and onto people’s cars.

Sometimes, the lack of caring on the part of “them” can be to your benefit. There’s some good places to get black raspberries and wineberries around here. I’ve also had some very good wild blackberries but usually they aren’t great for fresh eating and these days with much of the “crop” coming in August, which is when SWD appears, they’re not worth picking to me.

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Some cities really are a pain in many regards, including trees. I advised a new property manager in Charlotte NC about 10-12 years ago that the properties’ Bradford Pears would eventually have to go…at the time the flowering cherries and Bradford pears were healthy.

Now, about 5 years ago I was back for a visit…and there is a big fine for removing anything without permission. So, they’re stuck with the problems Bradford pears present…until one tree at a time they give up the ghost. So much for tearing out old outdated landscaping and installing something new.

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Apartments and inner-city paved areas are not ideal sites for fruiting trees (some flowering plums do make a fair amount of fruit). Those trees may be getting deliberately pruned to reduce fruiting.

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Lots of entities around here are known for planting trees in the middle of summer, and then never giving them a single drop of water.

:pensive: those are some sad, funky looking trees.

My local gov planted a small apple orchard- nice thing to do. Except they don’t tend it!!! So i feel your pain because seeing it regularly, so ill maintained, drives me batty!!! There are suckers coming up all over, trees that tipped halfway over, no pruning at all. It’s a mess. The city hires new hourly parks dept employees each summer and they surely know nothing about fruiting trees. Sorry for ranting but man, it’s irritating. Why can’t they hire someone knowledgeable. I know why :heavy_dollar_sign:but still.

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Ours had zero fruit. You made an error assuming the apartment was inside city limits. It is in the unincorporated area, and at the time built was close to rural. It is suburban today. The problem is the city owns the property now.

Oh, they replaced some of the gorgeous trees wirh fast growing trees that sucker and sprout all over. The tree itself by my apt I fear is growing into the building foundation, too close and too big. Ill share a photo later.

What will likely win votes more, keeping taxes down or keeping the trees properly cared for? How can the government efficiently function when the public doesn’t trust the government to spend their money wisely? (not for no reason). We can’t even manage to keep our highways up to world class standards befitting such a wealthy nation.

The endless political conflict- the trees are collateral damage, but not the most important problem. Think about it every time you cross a bridge in your car, or lose hours of your time stuck in traffic (time is money, especially time transporting goods and services) due to lack of adequate transportation services, either enough road construction or alternative transportation.

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Vancouver is run by liberal City Council and mayor, and they do not appear to care about cost of living, taxes, or tolls. They also seem clueless about trees.

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