John Reber wrote:
dpb wrote:
John Reber wrote:
When I arrived home from work yesterday, something seemed different.

I looked up and 2 trees on either side of my driveway had all of
their branches cut off up to approx 25'. The trees are close to the
road and I could understand branches being trimmed on the road side,
but they cut all branches, including the ones on my side.

Is this a normal cutting technique? There is no interference to
utility wires, as all wire runs underground across the street from me.

I did contact MD State Highway Administration, and the person I did
speak to said my road was their jurisdiction, but the person who
would know was out of the office, attending a meeting, but assured me
they would return my call to answer any specific questions.

Not sure whether you mean the topped the tree at 25' or cleared the
undercanopy up to that height. Given it wasn't for utilities I would
assume it wasn't topped.

Either is a fairly common practice by maintenance although the
abomination topping is fortunately less common than it once was (at
least in enlightened jurisdictions).

If the trees are on the right-of-way, it would be likely they're
taking preemptive action for long term visibility concerns. If they
clear only the bare minimum of low branches required for visibility
today, it's not that long before it may be needed again. If they trim
high, takes a lot longer for it to be a problem again.

Since the trees are in the street side right of way, they're theirs,
effectively, not yours. That they did all of them instead of leaving
them lopsided is probably better, actually than if they hadn't.

Don't think there's much really to talk about...

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Thanks for a quick response.

I meant they cleared the undercanopy. I was just curious as to why they
did it the way they did. I understand the reason for trimming high,
just didn't know if it was better to do the whole tree or just the road
side, or if it didn't matter either way. None of the other trees along
the road were trimmed like this.

That last is somewhat interesting, though...

Had there been any indication of a impaired vision problem getting
in/out of the driveway (or maybe more importantly, a neighbor's
driveway)? Or, are you near a corner or curve or other restricted
visibility zone.

Sounds to me like somebody made a "concerned citizen" call if it wasn't
a general soire through the neighborhood and the MD DOT thought it
justified so fixed it.

I would say, overall, you should be glad they did it the way they seem
to have done.

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