HEAD 'EM OFF AT THE TOP

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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I CAN'T GET ESPN. THERE'S A TREE LIMB ON THE CABLE.

An excellent example of poor "line clearance" hacking done for utility companies. P.G. & E. as well as A.T.&T. and Comcast sub-contract to companies that have specially trained units that do nothing but keep trees planted in the wrong place from interfering with their lines. When I write they are specially trained I don't mean in the proper ways to prune but to do it without injury and keeping the wires/cables operating. Unfortunately there are many examples just like this all over the place. Instead of trying to prune and shape the tree, in this case an Acacia, the hackers just stub cut anything that had foliage that was or might contact lines the company that hired them wanted to protect. The companies that do this are paid by contract. The faster they get the job done the more money they make. I have only seen rare cases where conflicting trees are pruning according to published standards. Careful tree selection is the most effective way to prevent this from happening. Select a tree that is suited to grow under power lines. P.G. % E. has an excellent program and information to help select the proper trees. I think this tree was just abandoned. The property owners didn't want to have the tree removed and once again, subjected their neighborhood to an unsightly and unnatural looking tree. Time is money. Aesthetics is another matter.