Neighbor Wars·
THE SHORN TREES
A homeowner discovers a construction crew has killed two backyard trees, possibly ash, after a miscommunicated trimming note, sparking questions about permits and protected status.
Was this trimming or too far?
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They came home to find two backyard trees mutilated by a construction firm that had just taken over the lot behind their house.
The damage was immediate and ugly. What had been two living trees were now stripped and ruined, with one apparently cut so hard it was effectively gone. The poster said one of them may have been an ash tree, adding, "I believe it was a type of Ash Tree, photo 3 is the best photo I can find of it at the moment before it got cut down."
The only warning, according to the poster, was a letter left at the doorstep. It said the tree would be trimmed. That was it.
"I received a letter about it being trimmed attached to my doorstep but that was the only notification I received," the poster wrote.
Instead of trimming, the poster says both trees were destroyed. They described the work as far beyond ordinary pruning and said the trees were killed outright. The construction firm had acquired the vacant lot behind the home, and the backyard trees, by the poster's account, became collateral damage.
There was another question hanging over the whole mess: whether the trees were even allowed to be touched in the first place. The poster said one tree was more than 12 inches in diameter at four feet tall, which they thought might qualify it for protected status in their area. They were careful to say they needed to double-check that detail, but it raised the stakes immediately.
"It is above 12" in diameter at 4 feet tall which might be the legal requirement (e.g. protected status) for this type of tree in my area (need to double-check this)," the poster said.
For the poster, the main issue was simple: this was not maintenance, and it was not a misunderstanding about trimming. It was a severe cut that left both backyard trees destroyed, and they believed it happened without permits from the city.
"I'm absolutely shocked, this is not pruning, this completely killed the two trees in my backyard and without permits from the city," the poster wrote.
By the time they shared the photos and details, the scene was already done. A notice about trimming had turned into two mutilated trees, a possible protected ash, and a homeowner trying to figure out how a construction crew's work went so far wrong.