Shade trees get deserved pruning

HILLSIDE DISTRICT ? Though the sky may not actually be falling onto Mansfield Drive, residents in the neighborhood have heard their share of loud crashes over the past two weeks.

Two limbs from the liquid amber trees that line both sides of the street snapped off during the last weeks of July, the first one crashing down onto resident Jeffrey Daniel’s car.

“They’ve been falling like crazy,” area resident Bruce Noll said.

When the second limb fell on July 26, Maryon Parnes was out in her front yard talking with her son.

“All of a sudden we heard this crash,” Parnes said. “It was more of a cracking sound, so we knew it was a tree and not an accident or something.”

In response to resident complaints, city work crews trimmed the trees on Mansfield on Wednesday, Parnes said.

Limbs tend to fall during hotter months when braches dry out from the sun, said City Manager Mike Flad, a former Parks, Recreation and Community Services Director.

“It’s a pretty common occurrence in the summer that we lose some tree branches,” he said.

“When we had the most recent heat wave, we had a lot of branches go down.”

The liquid ambers soak up as much water as they can, which makes their branches heavy and more likely to snap off when temperatures heat up and water is scarce, Flad said.

“As much as we trim them and try to keep that from happening, it still does,” he said.

Compounding the problem is that landscapers must trim the trees from the bottom up in order to keep foliage from encroaching on city sidewalks, Flad said.

Over time, the tree becomes top-heavy, creating disproportionate and problematic weight distribution, he said.

Early in 2005, Bruce Noll’s truck was smashed by a falling limb, after he had already asked the city to remove it, Noll said.

“The branch that came down here was humongous,” he said. “And my truck was brand new, so it kind of bummed me out.”

Liquid amber trees were planted throughout Southern California because their large canopies provide ample shade, Flad said.

In addition, their strong root structure can withstand urban infrastructure like sidewalks and roads, he said. But strong roots can also negatively impact infrastructure underground, he said. Since some water and sewer lines run underneath the sidewalks, the aggressive roots of liquid amber trees have cracked underground pipes in the past, Flad said.

“The problem from the aesthetics and urban planning standpoint is that if you want big, beautiful shade-producing street trees that necessarily comes with large root structure, which impacts the lower infrastructure,” Flad said.

“So when you get the benefits of the above-ground part, it’s at the detriment of the below ground part.”

The city maintains trees throughout the year by sending out crews on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood route or in response to residents’ calls, Flad said.