"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
"John Bachman" wrote in message
...


Your town has an ordinance that requires a homeowner to get a permit
to cut down a tree on his own property? Yikes!


Not a totally bad idea, for two reasons:

1) People sometimes think they can cut down huge trees without the help of
a
professional. But, there's a certain order in which to do these things, to
assure that falling branches don't cause problems. To use the analogy of a
building permit, which most people accept, why not have a permit process
for
removing trees? Let's face it: A significant portion of the population is
just plain stupid. Sounds like a good idea to have someone knowledgable
stop
by, interview the budding lumberjack, and make sure they have a proper
plan
in place for 1000 lb chunks of falling wood. I also think it would be wise
if the permit required the lumberjack to pay every single penny of a
neighbor's property damage. Override their deductible, in other words.
Most
decent people would offer this, but some people aren't decent.

2) A library is a place where OTHER people go to read about trees and
plants. So, we have people who MIGHT want to take down a tree for the
wrong
reasons, after doing absolutely zero research. Example: When I moved to my
new house last September, the old lady across the street came over and
said
EXACTLY this: "Hi...my name is Helen. Let me tell you about that stupid
tree
of mine, before it upsets you". Her "problem" is an ancient sycamore which
has the nerve to drop bark on her lawn all the time. At certain times of
year, it blows across the street to my property. I don't mind. That's what
sycamores do, like lobsters moulting. But, she is convinced that the tree
is
diseased, and that 3 tree services and a guy from the township are
withholding information from her. She's probably telling other people that
*I* am in error, too, by telling her that the tree is normal.

Here are two more reasons for some control over removal of trees.

One of my neighbors is completely nature-phobic. Anything that moves or
isn't produced in a factory is a threat. She had her entire SLOPING back
yard clear cut and then didn't plant anything for 8 years. Periodically she
would have the boyfriend/husband spray the slope with Round-up. Sure, it
was her yard and I guess I didn't HAVE to look at it. The real problem came
with the erosion caused by removing all the trees without a plan to
remediate the erosion. Eventually a very large tree (too large for them to
remove themselves) was undercut and fell, crashing into and breaking off two
of my trees. Both trees were on the edge of a drainage ditch. Between the
erosion from their property and the loss of the trees in my yard, the ditch
evolved from a shallow canal to an 9 foot deep crevasse. Now other trees
are being undercut and are about to fall, causing a downward spiral of
events that threaten our property and theirs.

The other reason for regulating the removal of trees is that some people
feel that cutting a tree down and leaving a big stump is fine. A number of
our neighbors have cut trees down in their front yards, leaving large stumps
sticking two to three feet out of the ground. It looks like hell. If you
are going to remove a tree, don't start a job you can't finish.