Recently, a community member posted a concern on Facebook about her neighbors’ intent to remove healthy trees on their property in order to gain a mountain view. It is time for us, as arborists, to speak up again.
Trees are our No. 1 defense against a warming world and, here in Asheville, we’re on a disturbing trend toward canopy loss. Every tree counts. This is the reality of the world we all live in. Tree consciousness is part of living here in Western North Carolina. It may feel uncomfortable or intrusive, but we welcome everyone into it.
Removing trees in order to see a “better” view of our wonderful mountains (and living trees in the distance) will cause stress to the plant and soil communities on a property. Many of these stresses will go unnoticed, but they are still there even if we aren’t paying attention. Removing trees on our mountain slopes disrupts soil systems that are working in many ways to keep that slope from sliding into the French Broad River. Just look to California, where trees on slopes are lost to wildfires, and they must live with landslides as a result. Our trees will lose their leaves in winter. Why not keep them and celebrate the beautiful recurring winter view?
When you remove trees from your property, you negatively impact neighboring trees that remain. Trees live in correspondence with each other, in community air and soil. With the loss of a tree, its neighbors that remain lose a partner with which to share and gain resources, causing stress. The remaining canopies will also be exposed to wind loading that they are not used to experiencing, making them more vulnerable in the world.
Some folks will say, “Oh, I’ll just replant.” Even if the new tree is planted correctly and it survives, it will take decades and decades to replace the carbon sequestering that your mature tree once held. If you allow a mature tree to be cut in its prime, it won’t be able to pass its lessons to the younger trees around it. Replacing mature trees with a cultivated nursery product that only knows fertilizer, grass and full sun is not an in-kind replacement.
Three more things to note about trees and their resilience. Even if your trees have a fungal infection, they may be treatable by one of the many certified arborists in town. If your trees have decay or a nasty wound, have a certified arborist examine how the tree is responding to it. There are many ways trees signal how they’re coping just fine. And there is likely plenty an arborist can do to help its recovery. If a tree is “leaning,” no need to panic. It is most likely growing toward the sunlight it needs and poses no great risk of failure if it has had a healthy habitat. Living with trees rather than against them is possible and should be celebrated.
We are all drawn to live in these beautiful tree-filled mountains because we want to walk in the woods. We want to live in the woods. Living “in the woods” comes with responsibility to preserve rather than strip our mountains. We’re at a dangerous point here in our region where development will only increase. Stripping our land of trees will only hurt the place we love and call home.
Thank you for loving this place, thank you for listening, thank you for being open to hearing us out. Before you consider removing trees in your care, please have a certified arborist out for a conversation. You can find a list of qualified, accredited arborists in WNC by searching: [avl.mx/b7i].
— Chardin Detrich and Ira Friedrichs
Certified arborists
Asheville
Excellent letter. I’m keeping their names for when I need an arborist.
They’re the best and highly recommended. Almost always voted #1 in WNC.
Great information. Thank you!
Great to see sensible people in asheville. River Ridge Apartments seems to enjoy cutting down beautiful trees “to improve the views” using the old excuse of “landscape maintenance.” You might leave them your card…with some helpful words. Thanks for being a responsible business.
All of us that go on about admiring our trees should also consider how we manage and maintain these same trees ! I am referring too…shoots that grow from the roots, low branches, damaged or broken limbs. As one walks using our sidewalks…which are already difficult to navigate…there are other deterrents that require your attention. Try using an umbrella on these same walkways and you’ll notice what I am describing. Surely traffic that is continually slapping branches and limbs cannot be a good thing. Something that annoys me as I walk is the willful snapping of branches by our street wanderers…this is rarely a clean break , but often leaves a jagged spike that can cause injury to a person and does not serve the tree too well either !!!
Now before you get all ginned up and think that I want to cut and slash trees…stop that line of thinking…you see I like trees, so much so that I have helped plant 20-30 trees on South French Broad and enlisted the services of a local Arborist to advocate for my 150 year old Oak when DUKE comes round to prune and planted 13 trees in our 0.15 acre lot, not to mention countless shrubs and bushes ! ! With a little maintenance to our existing trees we can enjoy the benefits trees provide and enjoy a stroll ! !