One Magnolia resident is fighting a scheduled Seattle City Light tree pruning to save the shape of the tree in his front yard.
Thirty-five years ago, the tree was a Christmas tree. When spring came and the ground was ready, John Peterson, a 40-year Magnolia resident, and his now-late father planted it. The tree has been part of their lives ever since, seeing their family and the city change around it.
Peterson’s sentimental about the tree. “Somebody has to protect it,” he said.
Now, Peterson is fighting Seattle City Light, trying to save the tree’s integrity.
Aesthetics vs. safety
Peterson received notice in March that City Light would come to trim the tree. Peterson forgot about the notice, and the crew never came. Three weeks ago, he hired an arborist to trim branches on the opposite side, away from the wires. A week later, the Seattle City Light crew showed up.
“We sent them on their way,” Peterson said.
Seattle City Light prunes and monitors more than 300,000 trees within Seattle and the surrounding communities over a three- to four-year trim cycle.
Peterson objects to the way the city crews want to trim the tree, not the trimming itself. He said City Light wants to take a 7-foot-deep half-circle that clears the wire 10 feet above and below, out of the side of the tree.
“I’m not against wires; we have electricity, and we need it,” he said. “I’d be the first one to bitch if something happened to my electricity, but they seem to be going out of their way to cut a big hole out of this tree when it doesn’t need to happen.”
City Light wants to trim the top of the tree away from a primary power line. Three years ago, crews came and trimmed the tree. The City Light arborist worked with Peterson to make sure the tree still looked nice.
The law says a tree must be 10 feet away from primary lines and 6 feet away from the lower lines. The law is flexible, though, said Brent Schmidt, manager of support services; the agency tries to work with homeowners to figure out the best solution. Right now, the branches on Peterson’s tree are about 3 or 4 feet away, he estimates.
Peterson met with a Seattle City Light employee who told him, “The tree will never look the same: It will lose it conical shape.” That shape is what Peterson is worried about.
Schmidt said, “Unfortunately, aesthetics don’t come into play” — partially because they are based on individual preferences and also because City Light only removes the branches they need to: City Light follows the Society of Arboriculture recommendation to trim only what’s necessary.
“We’ll always try to work with the property owner to compromise to get what we need for safety and reliability, as well,” he said.
Cutting to code
Peterson was told the tree is on a multiyear trim cycle, which doesn’t wait for a tree to become a danger to the power. This cycle and the contrast to past city arborists working closely with Peterson makes him think there has been a policy change, and he wants City Light to “be upfront about it and stop pretending like they care about your tree.”
The multi-year tree cycle was implemented in 2008, Schmidt said; before that, trimming was dependent on budget. City Light is committed to maintaining the pruning cycle, Schmidt said, which protects the community from tree-related power outages.
Peterson recently spent $1,400 to have an arborist trim the tree, taking away a lot of the branch density.
“We spent a lot of money cleaning the tree up so [it] is in good healthy condition for another 35 years,” he said.
The lower limbs of the tree touch the neutral wire, and Peterson is fine with those being trimmed. City Light does not trim around the lowest cable and phone wires because they have a low level of electricity that is not dangerous.
“One of the things that causes it to look so unusual is that we only trim for some lines and not other,” Schmidt said.
The City Light crew expressed anger that he had an arborist trim the tree, Peterson said. Since he initially sent the crew away, he has been in contact with officials from City Light to discuss the situation.
“I honestly believe they have this tree targeted now,” he said. “They’re mad because I had it pruned.”
The pruning rule comes from the Washington Administrative Code. While it doesn’t specify trees, the code notes that city workers should handle any structures near lines. There have been instances of city arborists being electrocuted by a branch that touched the wire; doing it yourself could result in a fine, Schmidt said.
Peterson thinks City Light doesn’t want him to get away with the independent pruning, and crews will “come back here and make it ugly anyway. Of course, they’re not going to say that.”
Not a ‘tree hugger’
The aesthetics of pruning are a difficult thing for City Light to explain and address, Schmidt said. City Light gets more complaints about pruning style during the summer when trees are more visible.
“The complaint we get here the most is that crews are butchers — we don’t know what we’re doing, and we’re just cutting branches to be mean,” Schmidt said. “We take this very seriously. We try to be very professional about it and maintain high standards.”
Seattle City Light has made it clear they will return to prune the tree, Peterson said. Even though he’s fighting for his tree, Peterson said he won’t do anything dramatic.
“I’m not one of those guys who’s going to hang from a tree by a rope and have my wife pass me up food,” he said. “I’m not a tree hugger; I just want to save my tree.”
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