The city of Ames Public Works Department began removing ash trees in public right-of-ways in Ames Northridge Heights neighborhood Wednesday morning, marking the initial step of a 20-year response plan to the emerald ash borer insect that devastates the tree species.

Wednesdays tree removals in the northwest part of the city came after a Dec. 9 City Council decision to amend the response plan it approved in October in order to limit the appeals process for trees in public right-of-ways the areas between curbs and sidewalks so that work could begin this winter.

Tree removals will continue through the winter, with stump removals to follow in the spring. The city has identified 2,355 public ash trees it plans to remove over 20 years but for now is limiting its efforts to trees in right-of-ways and city parks that have the potential to do damage by falling over and hitting people or vehicles after being killed by ash borer infestations.

Were being proactive with it to avoid having a lot of dead trees, and avoid having the expense and the risk that can be on the city for the right-of-way trees if we have a large windstorm or something like that, said Justin Clausen, the Public Works Departments operations manager, who recently took over the job following Corey Mellies promotion to director of fleet services.

Ash borers have been confirmed in Boone and Story City but not Ames, Clausen said. But he added, for all intents and purposes, theyre probably here, too.

In developing its 20-year plan, the city of Ames looked to how infestations have been handled in cities in states east of Iowa, where the ash borer has plagued communities for several years. (The insect was first identified in the U.S. in Michigan in 2002, but likely arrived stateside years before that inside wood shipping materials delivered from Asia.)

The (areas in the U.S.) that didnt do anything, they kind of got caught with it, Clausen said. Its kind of an exponential curve: once the trees start dying, an infestation takes over, it really takes over fast. Were trying to avoid that.

Over the first five years of the Ames response plan, the city plans to focus on trees with defects that make them more likely to cause problems, and trees with a breast-height diameter of less than six inches.

The city will inject treatments into healthier and larger ash trees this year, and every three years after that until they, too, are removed later down the road. The phased removals are intended to buy the city time, balancing costs over a longer period.

According to a City Council action form from October, the plans 20-year estimated cost is about $2.6 million in contract labor, including just under $1.1 million over the first five years. Those costs include tree removals, treatment, stump grinding and replanting.

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Riverbend mobile homeowners protest removal of more than 100 trees, many taller then 40 feet -

Please, please, please, PLEASE dont cut down my pine tree. I just want to be able to sit on my deck and enjoy it till I croak. I love my pine tree. 🙁 I never ask anyone for anything. I just want my beloved pine.

So wrote Riverbend Mobile Home Park community member Gabrielle St. John, 65, in a sign she tied to a 40-foot-tall Douglas fir when chainsaws began passing by her home along Highway 212/224 this month to chop down more than 100 trees. The tree in front of her house is technically not hers; the manufactured-home park owns all the property and leases it to people with mobile homes.

Riverbend is able to legally remove 159 trees throughout the manufactured-home park that has about 200 families because the trees were deemed unhealthy or because they pose a concern for safety due to large limb failures that could result in property damage in the future. Many of the trees were between 20 and 50 feet tall.

No formal permit was required because the trees were either unregulated or exempt from current Clackamas County regulations. County staff concluded there were no previous or underlying landscaping plans or requirements for the manufactured-home park, so the only trees of concern to the county were 12 Doug firs proposed to be removed within the environmentally sensitive areas within the Clackamas Rivers Habitat Conservation Area (HCA).

Because arborist Jon Poteet of Northwest Tree Specialists identified that those trees pose a concern for safety due to recent large limb failures that resulted in property damage, removal of those trees constitutes an Exempt Use within the HCA per Ordinance Subsection 706.04(P), wrote senior planner Steve Hanschka, a certified floodplain manager for the county.

Riverbend Mobile Home Community is managed by Cal-Am Properties, where a representative declined to comment for this story. According to Cal-Ams arborists report submitted to Clackamas County, the management company proposed to mitigate for the tree removal by planting six 6-foot-tall Western red cedars and six 6-foot-tall Douglas firs in the northeast sector of the site, near the Clackamas River.

Although some local residents were happy with the removal of problematic trees, St. John and her neighbor, Korin Richards, saw themselves as part of a neighborhood revolt. Several other Riverbend residents tied or chained signs to trees near their homes after Cal-Am sent out a 24-Hour Notice of Intent to Enter Upon Premises on Dec. 1 for trimming and/or removing trees before Dec. 30.

They advertise community, but theres no communication, and everyone Ive talked with moved here because of the trees, Richards said. Our home values have gone down, theres more sound from the highway, the air quality is going to be terrible, and this is not being handled well. Even if its legal, I dont think its right, and I think we have to work so this doesnt happen in the future.

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Improving replacement tree planting and survival rates, and better protecting the city's heritage trees, are three of the priorities for proposed changes to Menlo Park's heritage tree ordinance.

The changes, compiled by a three-member subcommittee drawn from the Environmental Quality Commission, would impose financial penalties on property owners for failing to plant replacement trees after removing heritage trees, according to the staff report.

The subcommittee suggested fines of $1,200 or more for failing to plant replacements. People who don't get permits before cutting down heritage trees would see fines of at least $10,000. The city currently has a $5,000 fine for removing a heritage tree without a permit.

Property owners unable to plant replacement trees on their own land would have the option to pay $800 toward planting two replacement trees on city property.

"Currently, we have data on how many trees were required as replacements but we do not collect data that documents how many were planted," said Environmental Programs Manager Heather Abrams. The current heritage tree ordinance doesn't clearly define how the planting of replacement trees is enforced, she said.

Right now enforcement only happens when a property owner asks for a site review or the tree removal is associated with a building permit that requires review under the water efficient landscape ordinance, according to Ms. Abrams.

The subcommittee also recommended improving public outreach about the replacement tree process via mailers and the city's website, and by placing logos on brochures and advertisements to make sure prospective real estate buyers know that Menlo Park has a heritage tree ordinance.

As for existing heritage trees, the subcommittee has proposed a three-year moratorium on further building permits for a given site if a heritage tree has already been cut down to accommodate a new project.

Other procedural suggestions include incorporating the Environmental Quality Commission during preliminary review of new development proposals that might entail heritage tree removal and adding a fee to construction permits that could be reduced or waived if the project will retain heritage trees.

The Environmental Quality Commission will review the proposed changes on Wednesday, Dec. 17. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. at city hall, located in the Civic Center at 701 Laurel St. The City Council will decide at a future meeting whether to follow the commission's final recommendations.

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Menlo Park: Proposals aim to improve heritage tree enforcement

Mary Esther, Florida (PRWEB) December 16, 2014

Public service is very important to Backridge Tree Service, and giving back to the community is part of their business model. Certified Arborist and Backridge Tree Service President Rob Calley carried on that tradition by volunteering at a local middle school as a science fair judge on Tuesday, Dec. 9.

Calley judged plant science for sixth, seventh and eighth graders.

"These kids have really put in a great effort and their projects are a pleasure to judge, said Calley. You can really appreciate how much hard work they put in."

Certified Arborist Travis Morales is also contributing to the local community. He has been invited by North American Training Solutions (NATS) to teach at a three-day climbing/safety course in Orlando on Dec. 10, 11 and 12.

NATS is one of the leading arboricultural training groups in the nation and only a very select, handpicked few get the opportunity to work for them. Morales selection reflects great credit upon him, Backridge Tree Service, and the greater Fort Walton Beach area.

"I am so incredibly proud of Travis, said Calley. He has worked his tail off for years, and to be recognized by such a renowned outfit like NATS is beyond words."

About the company: Backridge Tree Service, Inc. is a specialty tree company serving residential, commercial and municipal customers in the Florida panhandle. The company was founded in 1998. Backridge Tree Service concentrates on tree pruning and trimming, tree preservation, and tree removal, but they also provide stump grinding, tree installation, tree health care, and any other tree-related needs. All of their tree pruning and tree removal jobs are supervised by their professional arborists. They currently have three full-time ISA Certified Arborists on staff, Rob Calley, Travis Morales, and David Whitley. For more information about Backridge Tree Service, contact the company today by calling 850-939-8533 or visit their website at http://www.backridgetreeservice.com/.

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New Hampshire's largest electric utilities have substantially increased their tree-trimming budgets since the great ice storm of 2008. They are taking away more limbs and taking down more trees in a wider zone around power lines than ever before.

The Thanksgiving Day storm, which left more than 200,000 electricity customers without power, put the question of tree trimming back in the spotlight.

Utility representatives say the number of outages in recent storms could have been a lot worse, but there's no way they could trim enough trees to win every war with Mother Nature in the most heavily forested state in the country.

The 2008 ice storm prompted utilities to look harder at mitigating weather-related electrical outages.

"After that, the Public Utilities Commission brought in some consultants to look at all the utilities in New Hampshire, and how they responded to that ice storm," said Bob Allen, supervisor of Public Service of New Hampshire's vegetation management program.

The consultant's report, among other things, recommended more aggressive tree trimming and removal. After that, PSNH, which serves 70 percent of the state, launched a program to trim one-quarter of the "maintenance miles" in its franchise area each year.

By the end of this year, the utility will have completed the first four-year cycle, having trimmed every mile of its network between 2010 and 2014, according to Allen.

"Of course if we get a fatal storm tonight or tomorrow, we might not finish," he said. "But I believe we will finish the fourth year and be on cycle."

Increasing costs

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Nature vs. man Keeping the lights on