Topping off?

Magnolia neighbors Linda Carlson and Susan Ferguson are concerned about tree pruning in the yards and easement in their neighborhood. 

Carlson is concerned about neighbors pruning trees in the easement next to her home. The easement is a set of stairs that replaces a road on the steep 37th Avenue West. 

When Carlson and her husband saw the trees being cut, they called the City Arborist’s office, the nonemergency number for the North Seattle police precinct and the Department of Planning and Development (DPD). 

“He finally got through to the DPD, but the person who took a report said that by the time anything was done, the trees would be cut down,” Carlson said. 

The trees in the easement are maintained by homeowners but regulated by the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), City Arborist Nolan Rundquist said. 

Any tree that grows in the street right-of-way falls under SDOT jurisdiction. The right-of-way spans from the far edge of one sidewalk, over the street and through the sidewalk on the other side. 

In Carlson and Ferguson’s area, the easement starts in one neighbor’s yard, spans across the public stairs and through the other side. In cases like Carlson and Ferguson’s, the right-of-way may be 60 feet wide, Rundquist said; one-quarter of the land in the city is considered right-of-way. 

Under SDOT rules, if a homeowner is cutting branches larger than 2 inches in diameter, he or she needs a permit. The City Arborist’s Office has a list of certified arborists who can cut SDOT trees. With the new street-tree ordinance, non-certified arborists need to be supervised by the City Arborist’s Office, Rundquist said. 

Topping of trees is generally not allowed as an initial practice, but there are instances where homeowners can re-top trees, Rundquist said.  

No immediate response

Carlson was concerned that there was not an immediate response when her husband tried to call. She wants to know who to call to get an immediate response before the trees are cut. 

“City officials talk about protecting trees, but this is an example of when no one came out to check until all the cutting was done,” she said. “We know that, in some cases, a fine is levied, but the trees are still gone.”

Rundquist said concerned neighbors can call their Urban Forestry information line (206-684-TREE). That line gets a lot of traffic and the City Arborist’s Office isn’t always able to respond right away, he said.

“We don’t have enough people to patrol the city, so to speak,” he said.

If someone can’t get through on that line or it is the weekend when no one is manning the line, Rundquist encourages people to call the police if it is an emergency. 

“Go up and ask the worker if they have permit,” he said. Arborists are required to have a copy of the permit when they’re working on a tree.

In this case, the neighbors were trimming a laurel bush, Rundquist said, which because it is considered an invasive species, there’s “not anything actionable in this instance.” 

If a valid complaint comes through to the SDOT, an arborist may get taken off of the approved list, Rundquist said. If a SDOT tree is cut without a permit or against the rules, a fine may occur. 

Rundquist encourages people to take photos and get names and licenses so the SDOT can positively identify people who may have broken the rules. 

Carlson was also concerned about the cleanup following the tree pruning. Magnolia has a rat problem, she said, and recently, Carlson saw a family of raccoons that her husband thinks may be living in discarded tree material. 

“It’s very hard to determine whether the [tree waste] is being adequately removed,” Ferguson said. 

Homeowners are required to clean up after themselves, Rundquist said. The Arborist’s Office can issue a citation, but it typically gives a warning for debris piles. 

A safety issue?

The stairway on 37th Avenue West acts as a divider, Carlson said. The side of the easement that her house is on is not as severely sloped. But Ferguson’s house is on the more critical side of the easement, she said: Because this side is so steep, it is considered an Environmentally Critical Area (ECA). 

“I thought, ‘OK, people will observe these ordinances,’ so I felt fairly safe,” Ferguson said, “and now I realize that the damage will be done.” 

Ferguson lives downhill from the neighbors who are cutting trees on private property. Safety is a concern because the area is so steep and there’s the possibility of slides, she said. 

When Ferguson purchased her house in 2002, she had a geologist assess the land. He told her “everything looks stable, and it would remain that way as long as the vegetation was in place,” she said. 

“I’m concerned because topping [the trees] can damage tree roots,” she said. “The trees are damaged, and the tree roots lose their ability to hold soil. That’s one of the reasons why it’s a protected area, because they want the soil to remain stable.”

Trees on private land fall under the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) jurisdiction, said DPD senior land-use planner Brennon Staley. 

Topping is considered removal in an ECA because it can often lead to the “demise of the tree within a certain amount of time,” Staley said; the trees are critical for stability in areas with steep slopes. 

The DPD official who assessed the area, following a complaint from Ferguson, determined there was no violation and only minimal disturbance to vegetation.

“What I want to do is call them and find out what ‘minimal’ means,” Ferguson said. “Because two people were pruning and chainsawing — they were chainsawing for three-plus hours.”

Topping is rarely considered normal and routine, but there is a lot of gray area, Staley said. 

If someone is concerned about a person cutting trees on private land, they should fill out the DPD’s code-compliance complaint form. The DPD can’t guarantee immediate response, Staley said. 

“The idea is that you’re getting a person right away,” he said. “For tree-cutting, we try to send someone out immediately because there is a finite line.” 

The complaint Ferguson filed took six days for DPD to address. In total, three neighbors have filed complaints, Carlson said. 

“Our greatest concern is that the city does not respond,” Carlson said. “We, as homeowners or as citizens, have no way of getting action when the chainsaws start up.” 

For more information on right-of-way gardening and rules, visit www.seattle.gov/transportation/rowmanual/default.htm

The DPD will put up a third proposal in early 2014 for its updated tree regulations; for more information, visit www.seattle.gov/sfab/docs/DPD%20Tree%20Ordinance.pdf.

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