Permission? Work orders? Who needs em! TIMBEEEERRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dave1982]

Haven't heard anything

[eltf177]

Any further word

[Sapphire Silk]

Seriously. I saw the thread and thought, "oooh! updates!"

[Dave1982]

Sorry, nothing yet.

[notalwaysright]

Since no update, I'll tell a short story from my parents neighbor.

Neighbor has lived on the property for many years. I'd say 20-25. As with a lot of areas, it was mostly wooded, and is slowly being cleared as people sell or split and sell lots. This happened with the property next to my neighbor. One awesome person bought more than one lot, specifically so he could keep a nice green belt around his house. Now, all these lots have amazing views. Neighbor asked New Guy if she could cut down one or two trees which were near her garage "for safety." New Guy says okay. He comes back, she has cut down at least 15 trees, strictly because they were blocking her view. He takes her to court, she has to pay a large amount per tree. Something like $650 each. After court fees, she owes over $15k. Oh, forgot! She had to give him the lumber!

This is not the first time she has tried something like this. She tried to get my parents to cut down some trees on their property because they were "leaning over" her fence. My parents hired a professional arborist to trim the trees. She responded by having her lawyer send my parents a certified letter stating that we were warned, and my parents are now responsible for any damages the trees might cause to her property. Btw, in this area it is completely unreasonable to force others to cut down trees on neighboring lots. It is still pretty heavily forested.

[Cecily]

Since we're trading tree stories...

My parents bought a itty bitty bit of land to put a small camping trailer on, it was to become our "cottage" with no running water, minimal heating and bugs. The people who bought those strips mostly wanted to have cottages, woodsy outdoors and be near the sea. My parents only cleared enough of their land to plunk down the trailer, install a table and park two cars.

Another couple bought the other itty bitty strip of land next to my parents. Since they were not on the beach front, they decided to bring the beach to them. They clear cut their whole lot, had a bunch of sand delivered to them, put a cement slab for their trailer and complained about the leaves all the neighbour lots were dumping on them in the fall. Why is it so hard to understand that if you buy something in the forest, there will be trees?

[Captain Trips]

Why is it so hard to understand that if you buy something in the forest, there will be trees?

I guess some people can't see the trees for the forest.

[bhskittykatt]

This story came up in the news that reminded me of this thread:
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/C...294471141.html

A developer salted a bunch of trees to try and poison them to improve the views from his land. They won't know yet if the trees will survive or not, but it looks like they're estimating each one's replacement value at $2400 if they do end up dying.

[Gilhelmi]

Trees are lovely and beautiful.

What is it with people and destroying beauty?

[ThirdGenRetail]

Trees are lovely and beautiful.

What is it with people and destroying beauty?

If it's a case of safety, I can see that.

When I was a wee little one, we rented a house with a pine tree in the back yard that was split-trunked(The base was a bit long, and it split about 5-6 feet up into a V before turning into two individual trunks. I'd stick a hose in it, make a water fall, and have fun in the ensuing giant mud puddle), and quite tall. Even as at the age of 8-10, I pegged it to be a good... Four to five stories tall, that's how big it was. And this was with it leaning two ways. The landlord had a company come and cut it down, because if just the right wind storm came along, that tree would come down either one way, or both ways, and by my estimate, it'd have reached the fence for the freeway a block away and/or the elementary school the other way... Never mind the houses that would be in that path. So, for the safety of everybody around us, it came down. Which was partly saddening, as it created some GREAT shade on our rental house in the summer.

That said, none of these stories qualify for "For safety reasons" as valid reason to remove a tree. The only other valid reason is "They were already sick and dying," which none of these were, either.

[Aragarthiel]

Something similar happened to my in-laws. A company was hired to clear out a lot behind their property. This is a forested area and the property was small, maybe only a couple of acres. They cleared almost FIFTY, on dozens of different properties, some even across roads from where they were supposed to be! My in-laws lost half the trees in their backyard and they started having critter problems, since now the critters had nowhere to live except indoors with people.

[raudf]

That said, none of these stories qualify for "For safety reasons" as valid reason to remove a tree. The only other valid reason is "They were already sick and dying," which none of these were, either.

There is also thinning the trees for their own health. Pines are especially bad about stacking themselves up like cord-wood when they start growing. You need periodic thinning to allow the healthiest trees to get the most sun and soil. Hard woods aren't as bad about it, but they still need a thinning or two to keep 'em growing well.

My parents just had their land thinned because the pines were taking over.

[eltf177]

There is also thinning the trees for their own health. Pines are especially bad about stacking themselves up like cord-wood when they start growing. You need periodic thinning to allow the healthiest trees to get the most sun and soil. Hard woods aren't as bad about it, but they still need a thinning or two to keep 'em growing well.

My parents just had their land thinned because the pines were taking over.

That or they crowd each other out. Some neighbors of ours a while back planted a large number of pines on the property line. Some years later after they'd grown a fair bit they took every other one out so the rest had plenty of room to continue growing...

[Argabarga]

My route to school used to pass a patch of land where someone had planted pines on a patch of barren land that used to be a field. As a little grade schooler it was fascinating to me that trees could grow in perfect lines/grids like that.

But they never came back to thin them out, and by the time I was in high school, most of them had died, crowded out by their neighbors, who didn't have room to grow around the standing dead wood.

Then, we had a big ice storm, the limbs iced up, the dead ones fell over and took the live ones with them.

End result was same as it started.

Eventually, the "regular" forest around it assimilated the plot and now there are some regular hardwood trees there, with owls living in them

[TheSHAD0W]

A developer salted a bunch of trees to try and poison them to improve the views from his land. They won't know yet if the trees will survive or not, but it looks like they're estimating each one's replacement value at $2400 if they do end up dying.

More than that, possibly quite a bit more, as they'd have to replace a bunch of the soil with stuff that isn't contaminated with the salt.