“It’s absolutely heartbreaking to look out your window and see trees that were there just a day ago beautiful in all their glory, to be mutilated,” said resident Joanne Horne.
Known for it’s historic charm, the Victoria Park neighborhood is also home to some of the city’s oldest trees.
So when jagged hack jobs began appearing residents say they were more than upset with the “pruning” they had signed up for.
“Some of the residents have been mislead or misinformed as to the proper care for their mature trees and what’s happened because of that is there’s been some beautiful, what I call heritage trees, affected,” said Horne.
Horne says there has been a resurgence of tree pruning in the neighborhood over the past few years – some of it done well, some simply destroying heritage trees.
In fact, the city says what has been done is not pruning at all and what residents have actually been paying contracted companies for is tree topping.
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“Now that the branches have been removed and basically the tree is stubbed back, what happens is you’ll get some growth on the end of where those cuts are and you’ll get a lot of growth and those new branches that form on there over the next three, five, ten years are weakly attached and with the winds we get in Lethbridge they have a tendency to break off,” said Urban Forestry Foreman John Gilbert. “So unless you are able to take care of your trees, you run the risk of having branches that break off and cause damage.”
Residents say seeing these trees brought to an untimely death not only leaves a gap in summer and fall foliage, but can also be costly.
“They’re forced to pay again to deal with a problem that was caused by the miscommunication to begin with,” said Horne.
Gilbert says there are a few things residents can do to avoid a mistake like this from happening again.
City officials say any work done to trees on your property should be done by certified arborists and it’s important to consult with three different companies before signing the bottom line.
While nothing can be done about the trees already ruined, Horne says she hopes others will learn from the destruction when choosing to prune.
“Decades of growth has been affected so quickly and cut down in a matter of hours and it’s really quite tragic and it’s forever changed the landscape around here,” she said. “You can’t duct tape the branches back on. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.”
An urban forest information session will be held at 7:00 next Tuesday, at the Galt Museum.
The event will host a number of certified arborists, with information on how to best care for mature trees.
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