These trees were just plain hacked. No rhyme or reason behind this job except maybe to just cut anything that looked like it needed it. Apparently there was a height standard because they've all been chopped back to pretty much the same height. They are in the back yard of property that abuts Branciforte Creek here in Santa Cruz, California. The address of the property is on Market Street. This brutalization probably wasn't a view clearance. There isn't anything to look at across the concrete creek. If anything, you'd think they would want to obscure the view. In a cruel way, this kind of lop-job will produce a lot of adventitious growth, suckers, and those suckers will block the view at least temporarily. The suckers come from latent buds just under the bark of the tree and are activated by a sudden loss of canopy like this. So the tree produces long fast-growing suckers to provide leaf material to produce photosynthetic mechanisms to keep the tree alive. These suckers will eventually grow too long and their weight often times makes them break off easily. I can't remember for sure but these trees look like Chinese elms. If you are interested in an actual identification let me know. If someone paid for this, they were cheated and the neighborhood will never be able to enjoy these trees growing in their natural growth habit without spending money to have a ISA certified arborist restore them and I doubt that will happen with the current owner.
Photo taken with an iPhone
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