This is no common Douglas fir. It is the ‘Davey Tree’, named after the tree service that so diligently prunes it for clearance from the utility cables above. Yes, I can see as easily as you can how disfigured it is. The plan is to cut it down before it falls apart. At least that is the excuse for cutting it down. It is relatively short an stout, so is likely quite able to support its own weight, regardless of this disfigurement. We really just want it gone because it is so unsightly.
Most who see the Davey Tree are quick to blame the disfigurement on those who prune it for clearance. They do not consider that without such pruning, the utility cables would eventually be ruined and unable to deliver the electricity that so many of us use. Those who prune the trees do what they must to keep the electricity and other utility cables operational. Unfortunately, such work sometimes ruins trees.
As an arborist who sometimes works with other arborists who must perform clearance pruning, I am more likely to blame other landscape professionals. Some landscape designers design landscapes with trees that get too tall or broad within utility easements. Heck, many designers do not even designate where such easements are on the drafts of their landscape plans. Some so-called ‘gardeners’ plant such trees in utility easements with no plan at all. For what they all charge for their services, landscape professionals should know better than to put inappropriate trees into situations where they will eventually need to be mutilated or removed. Not many think that far ahead, or even care.
Anyway, the inappropriate location and disfigurement of the Davey Tree really can not be blamed on anyone. It is a wild tree that grew there from seed.
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Tony Tomeo 
The tree has certainly grown large. We see a lot of that around here.
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I think that the only regions that are exempt from it are places like Death Valley, where the are no trees . . . or anything.
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It’s too bad about the tree. They do need to be trimmed though. We had a good example of that up in Montgomery County MD where people banded together against the utility company…until they kept having so many outages, they let them trim the trees.
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I believe that it is at its worst in California, and some attribute the fire that killed so many and destroyed Paradise to a lack of forest management. We all know that overgrown forests are combustible, but there are so many who do not want them managed. I am unable to cut overgrowth and burn it on my own property here, even though there are homes above!
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That’s pretty shortsighted. I did not know that.
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The so-called environmentalists here are just crazy, and do not even want terribly invasive exotic specie managed, including the blue gum eucalyptus and Acacia dealbata!
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I actually think the tree is kinda cool in a weird kind of way.
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Yes, it is sculptural in a weird sort of way. In a weird sort of way, some of us do not want it to go.
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Reblogged this on Tony Tomeo and commented:
Since this reblogged article originally posted, this Davey Tree has been removed. A new landscape at the site in nearing completion.
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