City Arborist gives my neighbor’s pines the OK

/ April 26, 2014
The Syracuse city arborist visited to check out the state of these two pines.

The Syracuse city arborist visited to check out the state of these two pines.

I have been worrying about my backyard neighbor’s two enormous pines long enough and hard enough to post two stories about my state of fret.

The last time we visited my world of fears, many of you kind friends suggested that I get up off the recliner and do something about it.

I called the city of Syracuse’s main switchboard, and was switched to the Department of Parks and Recreation.

And the kind woman there provided me with the name and direct number for the city’s arborist, Steve Harris.

I left him a voice message stating my worry that these huge pines in my Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood were in danger of falling down on somebody’s house come the next big wind.

He left me a voice message a couple weeks later telling me that he’d come look, and would cite them as a danger if he thought they were.

The visit came Thursday morning, asI walked out the door to depart for my morning rounds.

He said he’d already taken a look, and handed me his tree evaluation.

I opened the gate to the backyard and offered him my view. We walked. He climbed higher on the bottom beam of our wood stockade fence to get a better angle. We walked together to the vacant lot next door, so he could look through a chain-linked fence at the bottom of the tree trunks unimpeded.

His verdict remained: No citation. He reminded me that it’s within my rights to trim any part of the trees that hang over our property line.

Not my issue, I reminded the kindly arborist, although boughs and pinecones regularly must be scooped into bags from our backyard.

My biggest fear was the big boom of tree onto roof.

We talked. He thinks the trees are OK. The word healthy did not pass his lips, though, I noticed. If anything with these type of trees, he said, big winds topple the top part, not the whole trunk. Besides, he said, he didn’t think they’d damage our house in even the worst-case scenario.

OK. I may now find something else to fret about.

You can read about my first snowy worry here.

You can read about my second sunshine fret here.

Is there something around your house that you envision as going badly and causing a ruckus?

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39 thoughts on “City Arborist gives my neighbor’s pines the OK”

  2. I agree with you! (Not that my opinion is worth much. Or that you asked.) When I opened the post and saw the photo, the first thing I thought was “Those trees are too tall! Someone’s going to end up with those crashing through the roof!” And then I read your post. However, my second concern was not for your roof, but for your window, once your neighbor finds out that you are reporting them. YIKES! Good luck! 😀

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  4. Oh you would get on with my husband. Once one thing that has been fretting him is chased down, all avenues exhausted and cleared of any real issue he moved happily on to the next thing to fret about with barely a couple of hours in between – those hours spent brooding on potential fret issues.

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      • I know neither can he – so I just nod understandingly make the list of what needs to be found out and then deliver the results and await the next batch of queries. It’s a good thing I like research and following trails of information here and there as sometimes it does seem to be required to track down the answers to issues.

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      • It’s a compromise he doesn’t make fun of the need to have all the pegs the same color when I hand out the washing. Or the need to have the same type of hanger all facing the same way in a cupboard and I help him with fixing or finding out if it needs fixing whatever is occupying first place on the worry scale.

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  5. When we moved into our house it was pretty much because my wife was enamored with “all the trees”–a pair of majestic sycamores out front, three towering maples in the back, an even bigger weeping willow, and a row of pine and spruce that, we determined, had once been pruned shrubbery–each tree split into multiple stems about 12′ off the ground, and all soared upwards about 70 feet. All those trees, two of the 3 maples, and the top half of old willow are all gone now, 15 years later–the evergreens made one hell of a hedge row–we eventually took them out, got a deal from a tree service that wanted their guys to practice on a newly purchased bucket truck. I’d never touch the sycamores out front, but they weigh heavily on my own fears every time the wind whips up; and while I’ve mourned every tree lost, we’re slowly replacing them, and the sunny yard is, interim, filled with flowers. (This is a great idea for a blog post–ha!). Just to show how the yard has changed: https://www.flickr.com/photos/102288834@N02/

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    • Good job, my friend. A few years ago we took down the biggest silver maple in the neighborhood at the advice of a tree expert. The trunk branched out just a couple feet up to a crook, which really made it two huge silver maples. I am going to check out our before and after now. Thanks for stopping in, Charlie!

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  8. Dang Mark! i woulda increased my insurance, added “fallen tree’ to my policy then prayed for it!
    Unless you’re home when it fell on ya….that would suck.
    But hey! the payoff would have been great if you survived it!

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  9. good to know, mark. and as you know, i also have nta (neighbor’s tree anxiety), going on in my yard. i’ll follow your example and deal with it head on. thanks for the inspiration –

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  10. I think that the trees look healthy but am like you, a worrier! So glad that the arborist gave a passing review, just need to ‘let it go, Mark!’ And worry about something else! Smiles, Robin

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  11. Looking forward to the next worry Mark. We’ll tackle them one by one! Maybe we should start a blog where worries can be posted and solutions suggested. 🙂 Sounds like a good idea to me.

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