Stricter tree-cutting rules
Posted on August 17th, 2009 by Phuong
For anyone who has watched a tree being cut down in their neighborhood and bemoaned the loss of tree canopy,
new regulations are underway in the city of Seattle to tighten the rules around tree-cutting. The exact specifics haven’t been ironed out yet — like whether a permit is required to cut down a tree — but the Seattle City Council passed two measures earlier this month that provide some measure of protection for trees. (Both the Seattle Times and seattlepi.com covered the issue).
One resolution asks the city’s planning department to come up with tree-cutting rules by May 2010. Currently, private property owners can cut down three trees without having to get a permit. The rules may consider fines for improper tree-cutting and incentives for keeping trees intact during development. The second ordinance establishes an Urban Forestry Commission that includes scientists, a developer and tree advocates.
Filed under:Seattle Landscape Maintenance | Permalink |
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Posted by Zeb Haney
August 21, 2009 @ 12:23 am
This will be debated hotly over the coming year, but deserves to be argued well. Too many trees are being removed. Too many “arborists” are making their living by removing trees unnecessarily. It has become cliche to have a “hazard” tree that “needs” to be cut down. Enough already. Tree care is for people, plain and simple. Establish a common sense goal or policy and stick to it. There are now lots of ways to evaluate the net benefits of trees and the urban canopy. An easy rule would be to have zero tree removal without an unbiased consultation from an independent consulting arborist, who is not giving an estimate for removing the tree. Easy! This doesn’t address view issues, but does work everywhere else.