Front Page New York Times

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Those are some big pay outs. More and more will keep happening if they keep cutting forestry.

[/ QUOTE ] Got that right--pruning cut by 60+%? And do they install support systems, ever?

Lucky lawyers.
 
Seems like hardly no one looks up anymore. People need to take note that trees need maintenance and are a vital part of our cities and communities.
 
One of the unmentioned factors about these NY cases, especially Central Park, is that people are practically ALWAYS under many of these trees. They need to do a better job of identifying these spaces where people are constantly gathering and focus their inspections and care there, not just monitoring every tree in every public space. It's not all coincidence.

-Tom
 
People hardly look up when there is a rope dangling at the base of a tree, pylons set up to form a work zone, and chainsaws running. 4 million pay out that could have done sooooooo much for the urban canopy if the city got their sh*t straight. This still won't do anything for the tree's cause, forestry will probably still continue to get dismal funding in the wake of infrastruture budgets and city officials pockets. They still after all are defending their case by saying it was an accident, act of god. Not yeah that's our bad, we will step our game and take care of our trees. They will just look for the quick fix; If anything I'd prepare for the total genocide of any tree with a hint of a defect. After all we all remember that euc that fell over and killed that woman in I think it was california, and they clear cut the whole block.
 
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that euc that fell over and killed that woman in I think it was california, and they clear cut the whole block.

[/ QUOTE ]That case was different in a way; a lot the flares were buried by mulch by landscapers and passed regular inspection by arborists, and they were all a reviled species. Basal failures might also be considered more preventable than branch failures. Overreaction may be a result, but that article compressed a lot of accidents into a little ink. someone in city staff will hopefully take a breath and consider the probabilities; remote.

But still, deferring urgent removals because city crews are 2.5x private enterprise rates speak to the cancerous dysfunction that grows in bureaucracies; how do you fix that?

Mayor Bloomberg was down here yesterday graduating with the tarheels. The writeup noted how the stadium was ringed with trees; no word on whether he noticed them.
 
There may be some hand wringing about this but in the end it will be a matter of cost vs. payout.

Hopefully the city and other municipalities will justify the investment into training. Will the adjust budgets? Or step up efforts to act quicker on obvious hazards? Who knows.

In my fair burgh the head of the dpw said to stop looking up in order to avoid awareness of the problems. In another situation the police decried being advised of a problem since that now created a liability (not there inattention to a known problem). After training a dpw worker on proper chainsaw use and safety, along with pruning methods, he was pulled from the tree work to do some painting. He's never got back to doing anything with the trees. They now have someone untrained running the bucket from time to time. I guess there's greater liability in unpainted offices than neglected trees...
 
It's just not possible to make huge trees safe for hundreds or thousands of people to be under. Hopefully insurance rates for arborist who 'pretend' they can pronounce them safe will reflect this reality soon.
 
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It's just not possible to make huge trees safe for hundreds or thousands of people to be under. Hopefully insurance rates for arborist who 'pretend' they can pronounce them safe will reflect this reality soon.

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What do you mean by 'pretend' and 'safe'? I did not read that in the article.
 
Its the murphy's law opinion.

Happen to agree with it. The municipality would have to have you on payroll, tape off every tree after every storm and have an aerial inspection of all possible potential failure points. The act of god that causes fractures and failures or tree death isn't the problem, it is identifying the issue and taking steps toward resolution in a timely fashion. Timely - there is something that government does well...

The incidents that they are discussing are not that though. They are situations of known concern that were not taken care of. High value targets. Significant probability of failure. Haven't taken the newest risk assesment training yet.
 
Yes, with nature it can't be a zero tolerance policy. However, when it is known to be a problem then acting on it promptly is key. When budgetary limits are cited as the reason or lack of training then they are saying the risk is less costly than the remedy. Once the value of the settlement for the injured google engineer is finalized that may change.
 
If I was to ask a dpw tree crew what they're doing on some days they'd say they're driving around because it's too hot to sit in one place. Leadership issue, union caused, bs result. No doubt they had their budget cut.

The funny part is the workers would rather be working if they were properly trained and appreciated the work they were doing because they were doing it properly. Then there's the bums who drag the whole crew down with the union standard of bringing everyone down to the lowest common denominator. Takes superhuman leadership to overcome that.
 
It is, at least in the case of my town, the leadership that is the problem. There is no union but you still see the lowest common denominator take hold. The leadership moves people away from doing tree work then berates people for noticing problems. Once trained the workers are definitely more interested in doing the work.

Too many little fiefdoms here that inhibit the development of anything that may move beyond the status quo.
 
I worked on tree inventories for municipalities for many years and one of the most frustrating comments I got from the public was "this is a big waste of taxes." Other people would comment "why doesn't dpw inspect the trees, anybody can tell if a tree is dead."

I am glad to see some publicity showing the need to fund forestry programs.
 
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