Anyone know anything about trees? I have 8 very large mature trees in my yard that are pretty much right on the property line of my yard and my neighbors yard but on my side of the fence. They're all apx 75-120 feet tall and the neighbor is freaking out. She has in fact been freaking out for years over these trees. Anyway the past couple of years we've had some nasty nasty wind storms and it's fairly common after such to drive around and ooooh and aaaah at the giant trees that plunged through someone's roof cutting their house in half. So I sorta see my neighbors point. However, in reading and researching the "topping" method I've come across numerous sites that claim topping is horrible and increases the chances that the tree will fall during a storm as well as increasing the trees risk of disease. Now she's talking about taking all the trees down to about 20-35 feet. That's probably still tall enough where they will go crashing through her house if they fall over. So will topping make matters worse?

Removing the trees all together is too expensive, it will also mean redoing the entire fence surrounding yards involving 3 houses. And I've already removed 4 trees from the property and I am only allowed to remove 2 more before I am at the removal limit for my property. She wants all 8 trees topped or removed!
Tree specialists have declared all the trees healthy however it was stated that in general it wasn't a good idea to have huge trees towering 100 feet up so close to so many houses. A few of the 8 trees are quite capable of taking out more than 1 house depending on how they toppled over, if they toppled over. I imagine most have been here longer than the houses have.

Realistically the best thing would probably be to take them all out over time and replace them with more appropriate trees for the space. Or I could just move.

Anway any advice on the pros and cons of topping? Some say it's no big deal and others scream it kills the trees. Plus it's kinda ugly if done by a real butcher. But is topping really doomsday for trees or are the "no topping crowd" just similar to the Earth in Peril crowd which is convinced the sky will fall regardless?

__________________
Jesus Was A Liberal

If a certain course of action makes the mouth-breathers furious, then that’s a good policy. – The Practical Environmentalist

Well there's a city tree ordinance that states you can only remove a certain number of mature trees from your property. Beyond that number no more trees can be removed unless they are diseased. These trees are all healthy, not diseased. However they are just too big for where they are. Our neighbor claims a tree guy told her the trees are hazardous due to size alone and apparently he is going to be sending me a certified letter informing me as much which then means if something does happen I could have a larger degree of liability given that the trees were deemed "hazardous" by a tree guy. However we've had our own tree guys, two of them, claim the trees are healthy and not necessarily hazardous but certainly they are not in ideal locations for trees of such size. It's basically a nightmare. I'm most likely going to have to take a second mortgage out on my home to get rid of these trees unless I do it slowly over time, a tree a year or something. But if we actually do get a certified letter from a certified tree guy informing us the trees are, in his opinion, hazardous then it's probably not something we can do slowly over time. She is basically pushing our hand. The crazy thing is she's been in her house for 30 years. We've only lived here for 6 years. The trees have been here longer than both of us but she is choosing now to really go ape$hit due to the wind storms we've been having the past couple of years. She's always hated the trees though. Makes me wonder why she bought her house, though perhaps 30 years ago they were much smaller?

Out of curiousity, what kind of trees are these?

Two are maples, 4 are poplars, and the other two are huge Douglas Firs. The Douglas firs occasionally drop large heavy branches, the maples drop fairly large branches every wind storm, and the populars rarely ever drop anything.

Okay...

Your neighbor may have good reason to be concerned.

Parts of the state that you are in have been infested with Asian Longhorn beetle. I don't know if it is in your area yet or not.

Trees infested with this beetle show few outward signs untill the tree starts to die or until there is a large windstorm that cracks off the branches. The problem is that the larvae of this beetle eat the heartwood (the non-living wood onside of the tree) and make the tree vulnerable.

The Maples are especially vulnerable to this particular beeltle, but the poplars have been found as hosts as well. I have not found and softwoods (the firs) that have been infested, but I would have to do research on this.

Well I've said from the start that their concern is valid. I live here. I've seen trees that have crashed through houses following windstorms. It's just I'm not sure that a "condition" that has been here longer than I have is something I need to immediately go out and get a second mortgage on my house to fix the problem RIGHT NOW. But she's gonna force our hand if we really do get this certified letter she is threatening. We have already removed trees. It's not as if we are sitting around with our thumbs up our butt ignoring her. We're working on it. And in the meantime all the trees have been looked at by numerous ahborists, hers and ours.

I just want her to work with us instead of putting us in the poorhouse with crazy demands that something be done this instant when she's lived under this dominating canopy of trees for 30+ years, long before we got here. She wants the trees ultimately taken out. We told her, ok, but it will take time. It's very expensive. Doesn't help much that she built an expensive shed right under some of the trees which will make it much harder and more complicated to remove the trees. We ARE working on the problem but now she wants all 8 remaining trees immediately topped in the mean time which I'm thinking is going to be ugly as sin. Basically she's driving me nuts. And Christmas is right around the corner and I got wee ones and it's basically not the best time of year for her to get all crabby and inpatient.

If you have never seen what ALB (Asian Longhorn Beetle) does to a tree, these pics will be helpful

Asian Longhorned Beetle - Landscape Nursery and Urban Forestry - UMass Extension

The fact that you are telling me that the local maples regularly drop large branches is good reason to have your tree guy, or a USDA person, come out to SPECIFICALLY check for ALB.

__________________
Jesus Was A Liberal

If a certain course of action makes the mouth-breathers furious, then that’s a good policy. – The Practical Environmentalist

Well thanks for giving me something else to worry about. But in all seriousness these trees have been evaluated soooo many times. I assume the certified arborists would know of this? And the crazy lady behind us has been itching to find something wrong with those trees. She has had so many people out it would blow your mind. It's not at all uncommon to hear a knock at my door 'cause she found someone else who "needs" to enter my yard and take a look. Up until now she couldn't find a arborists who would deem the trees a "hazard" but apparently her persistence paid off. If the guy found beetles I'm sure she would be over at my front door this instant pitching a fit with cops, firemen, and whoever else fell for her pitiful 'ol lady spiel. But no, apparently the guy's letter is just going to say the trees are too big for their location and THAT in itself is what makes them all an immediate hazard. Heaven help me.

The ONLY reason we've agreed to start taking them down is because I'd never forgive myself if something did happen to the 'ol bat or my kids for that matter and the trees ARE in fact too big for their location. But I'm also levelheaded and rational enough to understand that they have been too big for their location for DECADES. So no need to get all nutso at the moment and no need not to proceed slowly as my budget allows.

I don't know most old ladies take up church, knitting, whatever. She has decided to make her fear that the trees are going to kill her in her sleep her number one hobby. Or maybe she has the hots for the arborists she brings out. Who knows? But she is being an irrational bully. I could see having a certified letter sent to us if were ignoring her concerns all together. But we have removed trees already. We keep the current ones trimmed and both she and we have them evaluated more times then is actually sane in a season.

As for the maples I'll look into the beetles though I'd be really surprised if all the men who've looked at our trees, downed branches, ect have missed that. Apparently it's fairly common for healthy maples to drop branches during windstorms. It's what they do. It's not, in itself, and indication of disease or infestation.