Pasadena is in the process of removing over a dozen, large, very green and shady Ficus trees. It has something to do with the City (and the Playhouse District business owners) not wanting to share responsibility of maintenance and liability. I'm not sure of the entire story. I do know that I'm not a tree-hugging fanatic - and that I quietly blew off the emails I'd seen around the city on this topic. But pictures of these huge tress being destroyed (at 2am!!!) looks horrible! It looks traumatic! It is very sad. Brutal. (Photos courtesy of Branislav Kecman)
Here is the Pasadena Star News article about it.
Isaac: It is a shame to cut down any healthy trees, but these were condemned to death the day someone decided to plant these potential giants in such cramped quarters. Whether due to ignorance at the time, or the "that's okay, we'll just prune it" mentality of years ago, it's the wrong tree for the location. I blogged about it last week at http://gardenwiseguy.blogspot.com/2009/02/too-late-to-hug-these-trees.html.
Too few people pay attention to the mature size of a plant before putting in the ground. It's a living thing genetically programmed to achieve a certain size. We should learn from our mistakes and move on.
Posted by: Billy | February 25, 2009 at 09:36 PM
Isaac, how very sad this is.
It's interesting that there are very strict ordinances penalizing homeowner for cutting down the trees on their lot, but same ordinances seem to be totally disregarded when it comes to the city/business owners.
Shame on them!
Posted by: Irina Netchaev | May 03, 2009 at 08:03 PM