Better Ask Barry: Falling trees
The winter showed us how dangerous the combination of wind, rain and saturated ground can be. The weather brought trees down onto roads, homes and cars. If you’re concerned about a tree in your neighborhood, you’re not alone.
Richard, a KION viewer, alerted us to a tree in Monterey, at the corner of Drake and Belden. He thought it was tilting dangerously and asked, “How come they don’t trim the tree?”
We put that question to Monterey city forester Steve Morton.
“Well, actually we did prune those trees,” said Morton, “and we have a record of what we do there.” Morton told KION’s Barry Brown the tree isn’t a problem.
“No, it’s not, actually. This is a Mayten tree. They are native to Chile, and they’re actually pretty well behaved,” he said.
Despite a large branch that grows at a steep angle, Morton said it’s not a danger.
“No, it’s not. These trees are organized to have a spreading canopy. So the cantilevered limbs there, that’s a characteristic of the species,” he said.
Morton says the city trims the trees on this corner periodically, and they’ve been watching them for years. There is another nearby tree that’s a little higher on his list.
“There is a large mature pine tree up the street that’s been the focus of concern over the years,” he said, and agreed to show us.
“So, a Monterey Pine — a native Monterey Pine — in this case it’s grown wide instead of tall. We had a couple of anonymous calls about this tree. People were concerned that the tree was falling over. It does have some dead wood in it that will have to be pruned, but in general the tree is in excellent health, no signs of decay, very few defects and those are in the branchwork and they’re minor and easily correctable.”
While the tree is on the city’s watch list, Morton says there’s no immediate worry. We thought we’d get a second opinion from a neighbor.
“It’s gonna go, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to go anytime soon,” said Caroline Knapic. “Maybe you know differently.”
There are tens of thousands of trees in Monterey alone. The city says neither of the two trees we visited is a big problem.
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