Oh wow someone in Williamson county is hugging a tree




On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 11:51:25 -0500, "JulioF"
wrote:

Yesterday, a county work crew came down our small country road unannounced
and began grinding off the overhanging trees.

Now, of course we all know that tree branches hanging over a road can
interfere with traffic, and that the road departments have every right to
come along and maintain a clear path along our roads.

But just to make sure what was going on, I phoned the county road
department as the crew began their work. Having a beautiful live oak near
the roadside, I was none to happy at the thought of what was about to
happen. The county road dept. representative insisted that there was no
crew of theirs out in my area, and that my road was not targeted for a
chop job. He suggested that it was the electric company, clearing trees
away from powerlines.

Now, I may not know everything, but I know what a telephone pole looks
like. There are NONE near the roadside here! So, who are these guys
coming down the road?

I phoned the police. The officer said something like "They are cutting
trees? So what?". Once again, the local constabulary comes up on the low
end of the customer service scale. No help. Thank you, Williamson
county.

The neighbors were then contacted, and came out to meet with the
supervisor. It was obvious that we did not want our trees chopped. After
about 30 minutes of complaints, the supervisor said he had several more
streets he could be working on, and they left without doing the entire
road.

But this didn't help my old live oak out there. Have you ever taken a
close look at the results of the county's attempts to cut the trees back?
The remaining stumps are splintered, with various pieces of bark scraped
off. And, they applied absolutely no sealer to these wounds!

And do you know that trimming of live oaks between February and July is
bad practice? There are beetles which are very active during this time
period which love to spread Oak Wilt disease. It's no wonder blights such
as Oak Wilt run unchecked across our country, with local entities who know
and care nothing about our natural resources.

Those trees were not a problem. We are a rural road, posted as "No Thru
Trucks". There was plenty of room. The local residents liked the trees as
they were (and are).

So tell me - when can I expect to see the county back out here to clean-up
the wood chips which are sitting in my front yard? The crew aimed their
chipper exhaust directly at my property, and there's a mess out there.
And when will they be back with a hydraulic bucket and have those tree
limbs properly cut and sealed against infestation?

Or, is this simply another example of Texans being "Texans"?