I was speaking on the phone a little while back with a person who was really unhappy about how the power company’s pruning contractor was “butchering” the trees in her neighborhood. Me saying this probably elicits some sort of mental picture in each of your minds of trees that have been pruned that way and some sort of associated feelings. Maybe negative ones. I feel anger at a different party than the power company. And what I think about is cause, effect, misplaced anger and human folly.

This lady was mad about an effect - the unsightly pruning of tree limbs. Pruning that any rational person knows is to prevent loss of power during storms that would return customers to the simple, bygone days of 1800s technology for a few hours, or days or weeks. Sure the pruning is ugly. There’s no arguing that. But, the cause of this pruning isn’t the sinister machinations of power companies and their diabolical contractor minions. The cause of the person’s anger and tree damage in this case was the intentional planning and planting of amenity trees by people long ago who didn’t look up when they picked those spots.  Sure, if we’re talking about the early 1900s, sometimes wires were installed above or next to trees that were already there. But that quickly becomes less and less of a thing the closer we come to present day.

So after many utility pruning cycles, the person in this story had finally had her own tree removed. It’s suffering was finally at an end. Except guess what she did next - right, she planted another maple right back in the exact same spot. I couldn’t believe my ears. I was flabbergasted. Stupefied even. You would be so proud of me for all the cussing I kept in my head. I was, however, helpful enough to point out to her that she was the actual cause of trees suffering. Thanks to her stubbornness, this new tree has years of unnecessary damage to look forward to.

Please don’t be like her. Think and look up before you plant. Picture how tall and wide the kind of tree you selected for your yard will be in 100 years. Imagine that the dinky secondary wire that’s up there now may be upgraded to high voltage some day to keep your descendants and your neighbors in the latest electrical marvels. Surely a bunch of folks will have hover bikes that need to be plugged in at night. You won’t be around to deal with your decision but somebody will. The tree will. Poor planting decisions are the causes of much tree suffering. The pruning for power wires is an effect. Know the difference.

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The Forest Service has a new set of guidance to help municipalities track the health and outcomes of the trees they plant and manage. Urban Tree Monitoring: A Field Guide details field protocols for data collection, and Urban Tree Monitoring: A Resource Guide provides a discussion of tips and strategies for designing and implementing a monitoring project. The Urban Tree Monitoring Playlist on YouTube also offers a series of related training videos.