July 12, 2006

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            The incident has sparked another Wake Forest controversy about its trees that had a thorough hearing Tuesday night during the town board’s work session.

            Kathleen Donovan, who bought the log cabin across from the Boys and Girls Club last year but who lives elsewhere in town, said she was shocked when she saw the clearing. “I thought it was Raleigh that had come.” She remembered the trees as maples, 12 and 15 inches in diameter.

            She and Town Manager Mark Williams also remember their subsequent conversation differently. She said the conversation was “really discouraging to me” because his response to her questions was that “my main concern is to keep the lights on. I wanted him to state to me that the trees in this town are so treasured,” along with wondering if the trees on Durham Road are in jeopardy. “His response was not at this time.”

            Williams said he remembered talking about the trees along Durham where the oaks on the south side were marked with blue for trimming. “Some are earmarked to be removed. Those are on the opposite side that have been topped for thirty, forty years.” He said the tree crew – supervisor Robert Riley, David Elliott and Rob ??? – was in the board room, but they were not called.

            Commissioner Margaret Stinnett had raised the issue of tree-trimming and cutting during June’s board meeting after hearing from Donovan, and she had also said the tree board had too much power.

            Tuesday night, Hugh Nourse, chairman of the urban forest board, gently disputed that claim. “We are the most enthusiastic advocates for trees in Wake Forest. We are the planters of trees along the streets of Wake Forest.”

            However, Nourse said, “Our authority is limited to street trees where tree easements have been granted.” The town parks and recreation department controls the trees in town parks, Nourse said, the electric department has the authority to remove trees that threaten power lines, and the state can veto the board’s decisions about trees along state-maintained streets. “We really don’t have much power.”

            Nourse mentioned the oaks on Durham Road that have been trimmed. “We have not had a single complaint.”

            The trees that had bordered Paschal Golf Course on Durham Road were covered with vines and “butchered for years,” Nourse and later Williams said. When the vines, which were growing into the power lines were removed, the crew found the trees were dead.

            In answer to questions, Nourse said the urban forestry board follows a management plan set out after the Davie Resource Group took a census of all the street trees in town, locating them by GPS, determining their health status and recommending different levels of pruning or removal.

            What sort of methods and standards do you use, Commissioner Frank Drake asked.

            It is all part of the management plan, the ANSI 300 standards, planner Lisa Potts said. “Any contractor we hire [for pruning or removal], we hold them to those standards.”

            Does the electric department also embrace those ANSI standards, Drake asked.

            “They all have a copy,” Potts said. “That’s a separate issue. That’s protection of the electric department.”

            (According to information distributed by Public Works Director Mike Barton, the tree crew successfully completed a line clearance arborist certification program last summer.)

            Potts said that some of the trees identified for priority removal may have been under power lines. Last year the town hired crews to do the priority pruning – trees where limbs were in danger of falling on roads, for instance – and some of the removal. She said the town advertised in every way possible the meaning of colored dots on trees and would do so in the future.

            Barton said Riley followed procedure to notify the property owner next door by hanging a notice on the door in November, then knocking on the door on June 1 and speaking to the woman who answered, explaining what they planned to do. The Donovans did not receive notice, Williams said later, because they did not own the property in November, the door hanger was lost and the young woman, a renter, apparently did not tell her landlord. In the future, Williams said the crew will ask if the person is the property owner.

            Removing the two trees was the only alternative, Barton said. “Tree-topping is not accepted. Neither is V-cutting, so that’s out and we’re not to sidecut a tree.”

            The urban forestry board’s trees are all on town property, Barton said. “Our trees are in people’s yards, on back roads, side roads.”

            “It seems to me the majority of this problem is in the older part of Wake Forest,” Stinnett said. “It’s a small area.”

            “It’s a small area, but you take one tree down and it’s a big problem,” Barton said.

            “For years and years the trees have been pruned improperly,” Stinnett said. “Some of those are trees with a twenty-four-inch base that have been topped for years.

            “I’m of the opinion that in the older section of town we need to have a policy {of not removing trees} until the trees are going to harm someone,” Stinnett said.

            “There is damage, there’s decay in them you can’t see,” Barton said, citing the tree where a crew member could put an 8-foot stick down through the trunk.

            But, Stinnett said, a tree can be diseased and still stand for years.

            “If the town is aware a tree is diseased or damaged and it causes any damage, then the town is liable,” Barton said.

            “We’ve been a tree city for twenty-five years,” Williams said, “but sometimes we do have to take trees down. We have a responsibility to our electric customers to provide dependable power. There are some places under power lines we shouldn’t put a tree there.”