CAPE MAY — Protecting the city’s shade trees is pivotal to preserving the tree canopy and the city is taking actions to prohibit conduct likely to result in long-term decline or death of trees.
City Council passed an ordinance June 1 with an amendment including prohibiting excessive trimming, several definitions, no unlawful pruning or cutting of regulated trees and evasion of tree-removal permitting requirements.
Resident Martin Van Walsum said he wanted to share with council an experience he had with the subject matter, as he was advised by his arborists that his trees needed to be pruned heavily to restore their health.
“We hired a company to do that [and] returned home, and we were shocked to find that more than 75 percent of the canopy had been taken off by the company,” he said. “That would be a clear violation of this ordinance.”
Of the three trees trimmed, there were a mulberry, a willow and a maple tree. Van Walsum said the willow is in good health as is the mulberry, which took two years to return to full health.
“The maple, we don’t know, because six months later a contractor cut half the roots away during a construction project and killed the tree,” he said. “We had to have it taken down and replaced it with another tree.”
Van Walsum said if a neighbor or passerby objected to the extent of trimming, it would have led to municipal court.
“I’m not an expert [with] trees, [neither is the] neighbor or passerby, the code enforcement officer is not an expert, and the municipal judge is not an expert, so who is going to decide this?” he asked. “I’d have to hire an arborist, the city would have to hire an arborist, and those arborists would disagree in the court proceedings.”
Van Walsum added that in listening to the Shade Tree Commission meeting, the ordinance could result in catching a net of people trying to do the right thing but are in a conflicting satiation.
City Manager Paul Dietrich said the ordinance includes the written determination of the city arborist, so there is ability to work with them and have it adjudicated.
“Will it cause probably a call and a discussion with the property owner? Yes,” Dietrich said. “But we’ve had many instances over the last couple years where people unfortunately use that type of method to get rid of a tree they don’t want because they’ve maybe been unsuccessful at the Shade Tree Commission.”
Solicitor Chris Gillin-Schwartz said the intent of the ordinance is to incorporate generally understood principles in pruning practices, based on objective standards like the American National Standards Institute A300 (ANSI).
“I appreciate Martin’s comments, because he’s always coming armed with information,” Gillin-Schwartz said. “I also share the distinction of not being a tree expert.”
Gillin-Schwartz added that the Shade Tree Commission understands and appreciates different pruning practices, which may be more appropriate for a particular type of tree.
“This ordinance, as I see it, is to root out the wise guys that wanted to take down a tree, or were applied and denied and they basically gave it a haircut but sent it to the guillotine,” he said. “If you are applied and denied, there’s a rebuttable presumption there that you’re just trying to evade [it].”
Not having an ordinance like this one on the books could end up being an enforcement issue, Gillin-Schartz explained, adding that the city would be the enforcing party.
“It’s not trying to be heavy-handed here, it’s trying to save things that should be saved and not allow this sort of ‘Wink, wink, I didn’t kill the tree,’ type of stuff to happen,” Gillin-Schwartz said. “It’s something the Shade Tree Commission has been asking for to have another tool in their toolbox to have that discussion with homeowners.”
Councilman Steve Bodnar asked if this information could be easily searchable for people to find off of the Shade Tree Commission page, not just within the city’s codebook.
Deputy Mayor Maureen McDade asked if the information could be shared with the known tree companies that work in the city.
“I think that what bothers me the most about it is that we are putting the city in a position, the city [code] enforcement officer of trying to decide a dispute between neighbors,” Van Walsum said. “What we’re saying is something that is healthy for certain species of trees, we now have an ordinance that says you can’t do it.”
Councilmember Lorraine Baldwin and Gillin-Schwartz thanked Van Walsum for his comments.
“We do have some ordinances that are kind of neighbor-driven, if you have an issue reported and it initiates that process,” Gillin-Schwartz said. “That was intentionally taken out of that realm to not be a neighbor versus neighbor type thing.”
Gillin-Schwartz added that the substantive point of the ordinance is to avoid situation-dependent conduct that’s going to deprive the trees of their ability to live on.
“We rely on Councilman Meier being the liaison for the Shade Tree Commission and the city manager to let us know if we’re seeing issues or problems arising from this over 25 percent,” McDade said. “I think that’s why it’s advisable that we do as much as we can to get this information out to the public.”
Councilman Shaine Meier said every property and tree is taken in a case-by-case situation.
“We just want to let the people know that we’re here to work with you,” Meier said. “We’ll meet with you beforehand to give you recommendations.”
By RACHEL SHUBIN/Special to the Star and Wave
