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Workers removed two trees Monday between Boundary and Central streets, said Kevin McFarland, owner of Sound Forestry LLC of Olympia and the city’s consulting arborist. There are two more trees to remove in that area, the hardest hit, he said.
Afterward, workers will work their way down the Legion Way hill, removing more trees. He said at least 10 must go, but possibly 12, depending on another assessment. Another five may be removed in a future phase.
“The worst of the worst has been taken care of in terms of blockage,” McFarland said, and “now we’re going back to where the trees have lost large pieces.”
Portions of the street will be closed at times and people are warned not to drive around the “road closed” signs. American Landscape Services is doing the work for the city.
The stately row of trees dates to 1928, when they were planted as a memorial to veterans of World War I. Red oaks, pin oaks and sweet gum trees are some of trees that have grown broadly.
But their future was doomed, arborists have said, by a practice called topping. The pruning technique, which the city has discontinued, involves lopping off the tops of trees to accommodate power lines.
That opened the trees up to disease and made them top-heavy and more vulnerable during a storm.
McFarland said it’s unclear whether the trees would have been removed eventually even without the storm damage. A 2010 city survey found that 23 of the old trees would have to be cut down in the next three years.
McFarland said he is not sure if this year’s casualties are those trees.
“I haven’t cross-referenced yet on that,” he said. “I know that there’s a good chance that they are.”
An additional 76 trees would be removed in future phases, the 2010 survey found, but they would have to be pruned in the meantime to reduce weight.
Another 28 trees were rated in good condition, because they were planted in the past 20 years and never topped.
Five Legion Way trees were taken down in 2010 due to deterioration. Six were lost after the 2006 Hanukkah eve windstorm.
It’s unclear when or whether the most recent casualties will be replaced. “We’ll make that assessment later on, also to see if the funds are available as well,” McFarland said.
He said the trees are planted very close together and may need more space.
Budget cuts have hurt the city’s ability to assess trees. City Planning Manager Todd Stamm said the city once had a tree staff of three, including a dedicated urban forester, but now has one half-time position. It contracts out the urban forester role to McFarland.
Stamm said the city is in a reactive mode right now and can’t assess all of the city’s trees. It will rely on the public to report hazardous trees on public rights of way by calling 360-753-8391.
“We expect that assessment of things that result from the storm to take weeks or months,” he said.
Matt Batcheldor: 360-704-6869
mbatcheldor@theolympian.com
