| Anne McFarland | Monday, May 03, 1999 - 01:42 pm
Congratulations to Doug Freer on his Letter to the Editor, Sun-Press, April 22, 1999. With Doug's permission, I am posting it here.
Cleveland Heights is known for its gorgeous tree-lined streets. A drive returning from downtown Cleveland--through the Cedar-Fairmount district and up Fairmount Boulevard--is both soothing and calming throughout the seasons with 80-foot oak trees providing a canopy of shade and structure above head.
Fairmount is not the only tree-lined street in Cleveland Heights. In our neighborhoods, gorgeous trees have provided shade, comfort and sense of structure and stateliness no other living or man-made structure could provide.
Why then do we allow the Illiminating Co. and its subcontractors to butcher the very trees we prize so dearly? The trees they whack and stack are in direct competition with our power lines. Fair enough, I want my power, too.
As a result of this drop crotch method of pruning, our trees become unsightly and hazardous. Pruning a plant causes it to grow more vigorouly. This is why we prune small trees and shrubs to encourage new growth and to correct any problems early on in its life. A key to designing a successful landscape is making sure the right plant goes in the right place. Therefore, you don't have problems such as power line compeition when trees reach their mature size.
Pruning large mature trees has an opposite effect; it weakens and deforms them, making then an eyesore, vulnerable to disease and insects and creates a public hazard. You don't have to look far to see trees that have been marred and ruined and detract from our neighborhoods.
I've watched the same tree crews pull up to the same trees three years later to prune them again. Each crew and their truck and equipment cost the Illiminating Co. about $1,000 a day. I just saw four crews working again on Stratford Road--another $4,000 a day at this site alone. This certainly is not cost-effective.
Remove the trees that must come down and allocate the future maintenance costs savings into new trees that will not compete with the power lines by selecting the right trees for the right place.
Yes, the initial cost to remove these trees is expensive. However, short-term budget concerns will cost us dearly in the long run.
I urge the cities of Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights to work with the Illuminating Co. on a more cost-effective and less obtrusive method of maintaining the power lines in our urban landscapes.
Douglas G. Freer
President, Lawn Lad |