An Hour With the Tree Police

 

Sitting in the cubicle on a mid October morning. The Tree Complaint hotline rings. On the other end is a Bylaw Enforcement Officer.

"We've got an incident here, you'd better come down and have a look."

"I'll be right out."

The tree cop collects his things, heads out to the car and makes his way into town to check out the scene.

The Bylaw Enforcement Officer is waiting when he arrives. They knock on the door. An occupant answers. It's the wife. She says her husband did some pruning; "nothing major".

"I'll be the judge of that." 

The BLEO asks if they can go around back and have a look. The lady says it's ok.

Now around the back they see it. The tree cop knows immediately.

"We've got a violation, we'll be taking further action, get your ticket book."

The Victim

• Western Red Cedar measuring 37 cm diameter at breast height.

The Scene of the Crime

• Backyard, southwest corner of property.
  
  

The Complainant

• The neighbours in the house behind.
  
  

The Damage

• The tree has been topped.
• All branches removed except for six.
  
  

The Penalty

• $500 fine.

Who Are The Tree Police?

• The municipal arborists with the Planning and Development Department with the City of Surrey, British Columbia. They implement the city's Tree Protection Bylaw for Private Property.

The City of Surrey

• A city with a population of half a million people. For years Surrey has been the ugly sister of Vancouver. Long considered a suburban wasteland. Things have changed. Surrey has been growing by one thousand people per month for the past thirty years.

Rules for Trees on Private Property

• Facing an aggressive development boom Surrey has adopted a strong set of rules for protection of private property trees.

 

Here is How The Rules Work

It starts by answering this question.


What is a Tree?

More specifically what is a tree that is protected by the rules?

 

The answer (it will be different in every place):

• in this city it's any tree that is at least 30cm diameter at breast height (1 foot across)

Once the unit of a tree is established the rules determine what a person can or can't do to it.

This means measures such as:

• Tree Cutting Permits for Private Property
• Replacement trees
• Rules for land development and construction
• Penalties for doing trees wrong

 

Learn more about the details for a better way forward in urban forestry.