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.



Details for a new way forward in the urban forest

Neighbour Tops Tree

            A six letter word that starts with D, ends with R O Y.  The clue is; never to be the same again.

 

           With two thirds of the crossword puzzle completed she voiced the word pleased with herself. “D E S T R O Y”.

 

            A cake was in the oven. It was her husbands birthday cake, his seventy ninth. Their grown children and grandchildren were due to arrive shortly.

            A rainbow pattern of light shone through the hanging crystal onto the kitchen backsplash. “That’s strange” she thought. Strange to see that light at this hour. Something was different.

            She glanced out the kitchen window into the backyard.

            A man was suspended in the tree. A rope and harness supporting him. He wore a yellow hard hat, thick suspenders, and a fluorescent shirt. In his hand was a small chainsaw; its engine running.

            She tossed the crossword puzzle to the floor and ran outside. Adrenaline spiked as the grey lady marched out the sliding glass doors onto the sundeck.

“What is going on?“ she hollered.

The man did not respond.

A fit of rage overtook the grandmother as she absorbed the reality of what was happening. Her tree was being destroyed.

Vile words began to spew from her mouth towards the dirty climbing man.

           “What are you doing?”

           “I’m doing what I’m told.” the man responded as if irritated. He pointed at the neighbouring home to the rear. “They want more light.”.

           “You’ve topped my tree.”. She stood there vibrating.

          The top twenty five feet of the twenty five year old Christmas tree lie horizontally on the ground.

 

---

 

There are two types of problems we face in the world of arboriculture.

Tree problems and People problems

Most arborists are pretty good with the tree problems. It’s the people problems where they need help.

Arborists stumble upon emotional tornadoes like they stumble upon hornets nests.

There is something about tree anger. It can certainly get a reaction out of people.

• A docile seventy six year old woman turns into a raging maniac.
• A righteous thirteen year old child turns to political activism.
• Responsible parents turn into weapon wielding barbarians ready to fight to the death.
• The piano teacher next door is losing her shit at the  site of a truck and chipper parked on her street.

Arborists should become experts at dealing with this type anger.

It’s one reason why we need better rules.

Is your community doing enough to protect trees?

             More and more places are.