Discussions

So I live in an area of the city that has large healthy trees. I heard today that the city is planning on cutting down some of these trees to do sidewalk repairs. I do agree that sidewalks need to be repaired but is there not a way to save the trees too. From what I have been told some are 50 years old.

The city seems hellbent on taking the easy way and cutting down trees instead of working around them. I know some ebrandoners will call us out as tree huggers but my grade nine science is part of my reason for keeping the trees. We need the trees to clean the air and give us oxygen and I don't know about you, but I like breathing. And the piddly little sticks that they replace them with don't cut it.

I've had huge trees that were cut down by the city. They were elms and were claimed by bugs but the city employee did say that they needed to fix a lot of sidewalks and a lot of home owners weren't willing to let the city put the sidewalks more on their property to save the trees. He knew this will anger a lot of people but what can they do if homeowners aren't willing to negotiate or compromise. Also our cities tree division hates cutting down healthy trees.

Marv said "I've had huge trees that were cut down by the city. They were elms and were claimed by bugs but the city employee did say that they needed to fix a lot of sidewalks and a lot of home owners weren't willing to let the city put the sidewalks more on their property to save the trees. He knew this will anger a lot of people but what can they do if homeowners aren't willing to negotiate or compromise. Also our cities tree division hates cutting down healthy trees. "

That actually makes a ton of sense.  
 
I've seen the lengths that the city has gone to, trying to save trees in our neighbourhood. I find it hard to believe they would just cut down a tree for the sake of economy, especially with so much of our canopy currently threatened by Dutch Elm and the Emerald Ash Borer.  
 
The reality is too that sometimes the damage to the sidewalks is caused by tree roots. Without removing the source of the problem, damage will simply continue making repairing the sidewalks a moot point.

wrong trees to begin with. Sure they look nice, but the root systems do a lot of damage to sidewalks, streets, sewer lines, and water lines. If the home owners want to save the trees, remove the sidewalks instead. Then there will be no sidewalks in many areas. But then that only solves the issues with the sidewalks and none of the other issues.

Trevor B said "wrong trees to begin with. Sure they look nice, but the root systems do a lot of damage to sidewalks, streets, sewer lines, and water lines. If the home owners want to save the trees, remove the sidewalks instead. Then there will be no sidewalks in many areas. But then that only solves the issues with the sidewalks and none of the other issues. "

Which species are you referring to? All trees do damage if they're planted in proximity to infrastructure, whether it be sidewalks, foundations, sewer lines, etc. I think it's more a matter of not leaving enough clearance for the trees, especially the big elms. Generally, the size of the canopy will suggest the scope of the root structure, and those suckers can be HUGE... but it's not like we didn't know what when we planted them!