Arborcide in Maplewood?

Lately at least two trees that seemed to be in perfect health were removed by the town's tree contractor for no apparent good reason. One ash tree on Ridgewood Road near our home was in perfect health and there were no issues with the sidewalk or street. The removal of this tree changed the entire environment of the neighborhood. The other tree on Durand Road did the same to that area. Does anyone know why these trees were removed? Maybe DPW knows.

DPW would know. Give them a call.

There might be issues with wiring ...but yes, call and ask for explanations from DPW .

They will offer there reasons and then you can go from there ..where on these two locations were the trees removed ? Please share

Trees grow and die and have to be replaced. A proper tree management program (I should do this in my own yard) would have 60+ year-old trees replaced on a regular basis. This will lead to healthier trees, greater carbon uptake and less tree damage during storms.

icdart.....The tree on Ridgewood was between St. Lawrence Ave. and Dehart Rd. on the property next to the Ball House. The tree on Durand was just below Wyoming on the right (going up).

A few years ago I talked to the guy who was the Maplewood tree guy- his name escapes me. In any case, we talked at length about trees in Maplewood generally. Part of what he had to manage was trees planted or that had "volunteered" decades ago that are inappropriate in terms of size for the area and present a hazard.

Often times they look fine but are rotted inside, or are species with a shallow root system, or were dangerously destabilized at some point due to someone cutting roots.

In any case, he was having those taken out and replaced with more appropriate trees whose terminal size would be safer for the spot.

Point being- the town doesn't take tree removal lightly

Well, they didn't when Todd Lamm was on the job. But now that we don't have a town arborist any more, who knows who is making those decisions and how knowledgeable they are.

Not sure, but it's possible that we use Steve Schuckman, Montclair's arborist, as a consultant. Can anyone corroborate that?

My tree was removed (Durand Road).

1) We never requested it.

2) We even had it trimmed at our expense in May. Contractor never said there was a problem with the tree.

3) DPW NEVER asked us or any of our neighbors about removing the tree, thus throwing in everyone's face their own rules that we must follow for removing a tree.

4) The tree was healthy, it was not pushing up the curb or the street with its roots and was not a danger to overhead wires any more so than literally many hundreds of town trees in Maplewood -- hundreds of trees. And since had it it trimmed, it was less of a danger than many hundreds of town trees to overhead wires.

5) DPW had a hard time explaining why it did it. My belief, probably correct but I cannot prove it in the sense of going to court, is that DPW:

a) had no paperwork supporting the removal of that tree

b) had paperwork for the removal of some other tree on the same street which is in sad shape and buckling the sidewalk, although that tree is not technically a "town tree".

6) DPW initially claimed we asked for the tree to be removed, which is completely false.

7) We asked for two new trees to be planted; they said only one. We asked for the gigantic hole in the lawn to be replaced with sod and DPW said they would plant lawn seed. Wow. Lawn seed.

8) Before the tree was cut down we had a contractor repair all the swail (I think that is the spelling -- the cobblestones stuff on Durand Road) stones and the DPW contractor succeeded in buckling some of the stones that I will now have to pay for repair. Thank you DPW.

9) We did contact all members of the TC and no one got back to us. Not a very big issue but if DPW is running amok tearing down healthy trees, maybe they should be called to task on this.

And before anyone replies that the DPW is responsive, ponder just how is it they took down a healthy tree and not once asked us or queried the neighbors.

Some years ago an elderly couple was selling their house on Durand and the town tree was in very bad shape. They asked at least two times in writing to have the town remove the dead tree. The town did nothing; a storm hit the area and tore down that tree which smashed into a another tree and the two hit the house, causing a lot of damage. That was a while ago and new management is in place that seems to continue the tradition of ignoring residents.

Jackson_Fusion said:
....Often times they look fine but are rotted inside, or are species with a shallow root system, or were dangerously destabilized at some point due to someone cutting roots....

Yes...the "perfectly healthy" aged tree in our backyard dropped a limb that could have killed a pedestrian (if it were a street tree) on a calm sunny day. The "perfectly healthy" tree across the street did something similar. Others here can attest to having "healthy" street trees with weak roots land on their homes during major storms. It is the municipality's job to try to make sure our street trees are not only healthy, but also safe for their locations.

[ETA, obviously if Maplewood's contractors are taking down the wrong trees, that is a major issue]

Perhaps the ash tree on Ridgewood was afflicted with Emerald Ash Borer as are many ash trees in Washington Park. Often the topmost branches are affected first.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_ash_borer

I'm interested to hear what the DPW has to say about these 2 trees. I always thought they were fussy about tree removal. Maybe only town trees are randomly removed.

susan1014 said:

Jackson_Fusion said:
....Often times they look fine but are rotted inside, or are species with a shallow root system, or were dangerously destabilized at some point due to someone cutting roots....

Yes...the "perfectly healthy" aged tree in our backyard dropped a limb that could have killed a pedestrian (if it were a street tree) on a calm sunny day. The "perfectly healthy" tree across the street did something similar. Others here can attest to having "healthy" street trees with weak roots land on their homes during major storms. It is the municipality's job to try to make sure our street trees are not only healthy, but also safe for their locations.
[ETA, obviously if Maplewood's contractors are taking down the wrong trees, that is a major issue]

Exactly. A lot of the large old trees have secrets.

I just looked up my town tree against the hacked Ashley Madison data bank. I was shocked to find that seemingly faithful Oak was harboring such a secret!

tjohn said:

susan1014 said:

Jackson_Fusion said:
....Often times they look fine but are rotted inside, or are species with a shallow root system, or were dangerously destabilized at some point due to someone cutting roots....

Yes...the "perfectly healthy" aged tree in our backyard dropped a limb that could have killed a pedestrian (if it were a street tree) on a calm sunny day. The "perfectly healthy" tree across the street did something similar. Others here can attest to having "healthy" street trees with weak roots land on their homes during major storms. It is the municipality's job to try to make sure our street trees are not only healthy, but also safe for their locations.
[ETA, obviously if Maplewood's contractors are taking down the wrong trees, that is a major issue]

Exactly. A lot of the large old trees have secrets.

alias said:
I just looked up my town tree against the hacked Ashley Madison data bank. I was shocked to find that seemingly faithful Oak was harboring such a secret! " src="//static.wwstf.com/common/plugins/redactor/emoticons/1.0/images/1.gif" unselectable="on">

tjohn said:

susan1014 said:

Jackson_Fusion said:
....Often times they look fine but are rotted inside, or are species with a shallow root system, or were dangerously destabilized at some point due to someone cutting roots....

Yes...the "perfectly healthy" aged tree in our backyard dropped a limb that could have killed a pedestrian (if it were a street tree) on a calm sunny day. The "perfectly healthy" tree across the street did something similar. Others here can attest to having "healthy" street trees with weak roots land on their homes during major storms. It is the municipality's job to try to make sure our street trees are not only healthy, but also safe for their locations.
[ETA, obviously if Maplewood's contractors are taking down the wrong trees, that is a major issue]

Exactly. A lot of the large old trees have secrets.

GD-it! Beat me to it by 4 minutes!

I think the whole area got a serious wake-up call after two major storms in the past several years took out numerous trees and caused a ton of damage to homes and roads. As a result, they are probably being much more proactive about removing trees that are either internally unsound or inappropriate for their locations and therefore a threat if another huge storm comes along.

I was rather sad when West Orange started removing the beautiful old trees along our stretch of Walker Road, but I realized they were right to do so, especially after I saw the stumps and how much rot was going on unseen. It's going to take a long time for the small trees they planted to replace those giant oaks to reach a size that does the road credit, but it's better than having a 100-year-old oak in your living room.

You're not the first one to tell me that.

But enough about high school.

Let's get back to the trees.

ridski said:

alias said:
I just looked up my town tree against the hacked Ashley Madison data bank. I was shocked to find that seemingly faithful Oak was harboring such a secret! " src="//static.wwstf.com/common/plugins/redactor/emoticons/1.0/images/1.gif" unselectable="on">

tjohn said:

susan1014 said:

Jackson_Fusion said:
....Often times they look fine but are rotted inside, or are species with a shallow root system, or were dangerously destabilized at some point due to someone cutting roots....

Yes...the "perfectly healthy" aged tree in our backyard dropped a limb that could have killed a pedestrian (if it were a street tree) on a calm sunny day. The "perfectly healthy" tree across the street did something similar. Others here can attest to having "healthy" street trees with weak roots land on their homes during major storms. It is the municipality's job to try to make sure our street trees are not only healthy, but also safe for their locations.
[ETA, obviously if Maplewood's contractors are taking down the wrong trees, that is a major issue]

Exactly. A lot of the large old trees have secrets.

GD-it! Beat me to it by 4 minutes!

Jude -- swale

Jude said:

5) DPW had a hard time explaining why it did it. My belief, probably correct but I cannot prove it in the sense of going to court, is that DPW:
a) had no paperwork supporting the removal of that tree
b) had paperwork for the removal of some other tree on the same street which is in sad shape and buckling the sidewalk, although that tree is not technically a "town tree".

Were you not home when they came? maybe they were on the wrong block, correct house number? Seems nuts to me they didn't have paperwork on them. And, if you were home and said "what the F are you doing? " you'd think they would have stopped what they were doing.

Usually they have a tree company do the work, like Carew. Do you remember which tree co?

As we speak, the hundreds of trees (all ashes) lining the main walks of the grounds of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis where I live are being cut down, proactively. This wouldn't bother me so much if the National Park Service hadn't decided to replace them all with a monoculture, another single species, which could develop its own pest and have to be cut down all over again in 20 years. This was in keeping with the NPS philosophy to honor the original landscape design of Dan Kiley, whose fetish was for monoculture. What's worse, in the reworking of the grounds and interior of the Arch, it is the local taxpayers, in an unprecedented move for a national park, who are splitting the cost imposed on them by the decision of the NPS for plantings that might have to be ripped up and replaced every 20 years for the next millenium, as various pests threaten the mandated monoculture.

The irony connected to Maplewood, N.J. is that it was their chief arborist, Richard Walter, was the first to recognize the presence of Dutch Elm Disease on the East Coast, and who subsequently inveighed against the imposition if monoculture, requiring the streets of the town to have a mixture of trees. He is famous in the arborist profession and justly the namesake of a park in Maplewood. Although losing some chestnuts and elms, Maplewood never experienced the devestation evinced in before and after photographs I once saw of a residential streetscape in Evanston, Ill., formerly one of the handsomest views on the planet.

Dan Kiley's designs are striking (I once saw his landscape for a famous modernist house in Columbus, Indiana). But he paid no attention to what had already been established as best practices for his profession that already knew the devestation caused by Dutch Elm and the even earlier Chestnut Blight that wiped out so many chestnuts in the eastern half of N. America.

Responding to ffof:

We were not at home but our real estate agent coincidentally showed up for an open house for realtors. He ran out to ask what they were doing and he called me on the phone. The contractor said we asked for the tree to be torn down. I recall yelling a bit that we never asked for the tree to be torn down. But the damage was already done.

What I find especially appalling is that DPW never once asked us about the tree. There is no sidewalk on our side of the street. Our neighbors were outraged at us that we had the tree taken down. We had to spread the word that it wasn't us.

As far as I can tell, the DPW just takes down trees when it feels like it and does not notify the property owner and the neighbors..

Was it the DPW or a contractor that did the work

Years ago, when our street was being repaved, a number of trees along the street were marked for removal. Our neighbor complained bitterly that she did not want the tree in front of her house taken down. Shortly thereafter there was a significant storm and the tree which had been left untouched at her insistence came down and landed on her roof. Fortunately, the damage to the house was not severe.

I would sooo get to the bottom of that travesty.

alias said:
I just looked up my town tree against the hacked Ashley Madison data bank. I was shocked to find that seemingly faithful Oak was harboring such a secret! ">

That son of a birch!

Contractor did the work

here in WO the town cuts trees at a ridiculous rate.... one block from me is being repaved and they cut over 20 trees on the two block stretch, it looks desolate now .... sad and ugly, turned a beautiful street lined with mature greeeeeeen trees into a plain random suburb

The town is planning to cut down saw tooth oak trees in the Village that were planted by Richard Walter, arborist, in the 1960s

Why?

One is next to the Post Office that they are planning on demolishing (could keep the tree if the bldg were adaptively re-used) and the other is next to the Village Coffee Shop where they are putting dumpsters instead of the tree (yes really). Oh and they are cutting down 4 trees in Ricalton Square,,,no reason given. and seven more around that area.