davis_square | getting City tree trimmed?

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getting City tree trimmed?

Looking for advice... I put in a request to 311 over two months ago to have a City tree in front of my house trimmed. I've followed up 3 times to 311 and once to an individual DPW employee. The only responses I've gotten are that my request has been sent to DPW.

Has anyone ever had a situation like this and dealt with it successfully? It's apparently not allowed to have a private company come trim the tree, so I'm a bit stuck. 311 has generally been helpful, but in this case I'm getting pretty frustrated.

Thanks!

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I think it is also up to the city whether or not they feel the tree needs to be trimmed, as was the case with a city-owned tree near our house. When you submitted the first time did they give you a job number?

Put what you said on Somerville311's twitter, with the reference number.

Call DPW directly.

If no response, complain to DPW's head, up the chain.

Maybe they think it's a bit early to start trimming trees, with Christmas five months away. :-)

You could start trimming it yourself. In my experience, that causes a DPW guy to happen to drive down the street, and yell at you for not having the city do it. (Which didn't stop me, because I guessed, apparently correctly, that they'd be less than responsive.)

I have called 311 about the tree outside my house, I pointed out that it was touching wires and someone came that week. I didn't have to do anything crazy about it.

Edited 2014-07-30 11:12 (UTC)

When I called 311 and told them that a tree was running into wires as well as starting to scrape the tiles off of the roof, the city sent a truck and did the trimming within just a few days.

I asked to have the tree trimmed years ago because it was overhanging my house - they came and cut the middle branches out of the tree (probably because they thought it was a wires issue) and made it look like it was doing a bizarre V for victory, leaving the overhanging part. I gave up but now am trying again - sent photos and everything! They gave me a 311 reference number but no job number. I did just see a DPW truck drive down my street and pause in front of my house, though - maybe livejournal did the trick. Thanks, Livejournal! ;)

LiveJournal shouldn't have to "do the trick" though- I luv our tree city and understand more trees will make it more lively and fresh or whatever the studies have said. The thing is I feel the trees we have now are huge, growing through power lines and onto people's property

I called 311 when the tree guy who I had evaluate the trees on my property told me off-handedly that the tree in front of my home (on the city's property) was dying and structurally unsound. The tree in front of my home was quite tall and in danger of coming down in a storm.

As I recall, it took the city approximately 8 months (including a stormy and terrifying winter) to come by and take the tree down.

Then I called 311 to try to get the tree replaced; that was another several month long endeavor. After spending more than a couple hours on the phone with the appropriate people over the course of a couple years, I would guess that -

a) Somerville's tree crew tends to work in specific seasons only,
b) the tree crew has a list of tasks, and that they wait until that list is of a certain length before sending out the crew.

Lastly, it's possible that the tree crew that I needed - to cut down and uproot a large tree and to put in a new one - is different from the one that trims trees.

Invite this guy over: http://somerville.wickedlocal.com/article/20140729/NEWS/140726700

Somerville police: Man destroys new tree outside home

We also don't have a full-time arborist, meaning, that when people submit concerns about dead trees it will take a while until he can be scheduled to inspect. With increased planting, I hope we can have one on staff, so concerns like this are dealt with in a more timely manner.

Nice answer!

We put a call in to 311 back in May, same sort of trouble, tree branches bending wires and scraping the front of my house. It took about 5 or 6 weeks but they came a couple of weeks ago. They were great and took care everything in 20 minutes. Maybe their staff is running a little thin with all the new tree plantings I'm seeing them doing lately.

I thought a property owner always had the right to trim branches of a tree that overhang his/her property, even if the trunk of the tree is on someone else's property?

Nope:

http://faqs.somervillema.intelligovsoftware.com/law3.aspx

"Question: Can I cut/trim the City of Somerville’s public tree in front of my home?

Answer: No. If you believe a City tree needs to be cut, trimmed, please complete the tree trimming service request. If you believe a City tree needs to be removed, please complete the service request to have the tree assessed by an arborist.

Note: There are significant penalties and fines if any person other than the tree warden cuts, trims or removes a public tree."

As far as I can determine, according to MA law, the city is wrong:

http://www.lawlib.state.ma.us/subject/about/trees.html
http://massrealestatelawblog.com/2013/01/27/check-before-you-cut-massachusetts-illegal-tree-cutting-carries-substantial-civil-penalties/

"Branches Over The Property Line

Under Massachusetts common law, you may remove branches of a neighbor’s tree extending over your property line as long as you don’t kill or damage the tree. Also, the neighbor has no liability for roots growing into your yard and causing damage. Massachusetts law does not allow a person to cross or enter a neighbor’s property for these purposes without the neighbor’s consent, nor to remove any branches or other vegetation within the confines of the neighbor’s property. This is the “Massachusetts Rule.”

This wouldn't be the first time the City of Somerville overstepped it's authority.

I suspect a public tree may be a different legal entity than a neighbor's tree.

FWIW, when I called the city about having a tree trimmed, it happened almost right away. In my case, the branches were growing sufficiently close to the ground that pedestrians had to duck to get by, so that might have upped the priority.

Also, at the risk of being "old Somerville", you might want to try calling your ward alderman. Part of their job is to expedite these sorts of things.

I admit, I did loop in my alderman. Going to give it a few more days and see if that DPW drive-by results in any action...

We actually have the opposite problem. A city tree came down in 2011 in a storm, and we have regularly requested a new tree installed. When we spoke to the tree crew that was chopping it up we asked that a new on be planted, followed up with a call, and instead the area was paved over with tar. Every request since then has been ignored/left open, meanwhile new saplings were planted around the corner (came down in same storm) and there is more planting that happened this week throughout our neighborhood.

The last, semi-snarky 311 request went in this week (I can understand not running to plant something at the drop of a hat, but this has been three years and seeing the signs noting planting going on just blocks away ticked me off) so I was going to give it a few more days before the Alderman route. But just wanted to share that this non-responsiveness isn't just for trimming or removal.

Update: they cut down the whole tree! Not what I intended, but watching the limbs as they came down, it's clear it was not doing well. Probably for the best, but sad to see it go.

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