City Trees is a premier publication focused on urban + community forestry. In each issue, you’ll learn how to best manage the trees in your community and more!
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/677172
34 City Trees A chart showing hazard tree removal expenses in Fort Worth, Texas in 2011-2015 owing to the five-year Texas drought. Courtesy Fort Worth Forestry Section Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep FY12 $22,003 $35,339 $69,428 $87,704 $101,751 $124,704 $160,410 $192,907 $263,753 $319,752 $376,223 $426,551 FY13 $58,051 $76,134 $116,430 $186,698 $223,890 $290,896 $333,906 $387,070 $439,694 $483,134 $541,688 $596,008 FY14 $66,484 $97,908 $115,102 $160,058 $205,714 $257,362 $297,280 $322,912 $357,700 $399,802 $426,050 $462,252 FY15 $31,130 $46,258 $76,546 $107,756 $121,458 $127,016 $159,268 $190,228 $252,272 $281,058 $310,278 $340,136 $0 $50,000 $100,000 $150,000 $200,000 $250,000 $300,000 $350,000 $400,000 $450,000 $500,000 $550,000 $600,000 Expenditures Removal Expense - Running Total FY12-15 for emergency vehicles. Per our IAP, each week we prepared a report on the number of trees marked for removal and the projected time it would take our contractor to remove them. Our biggest backlog was in July 2012, when 867 trees were identified for removal. Monthly reports were generated on expenditures and reported up the chain. At the same time, pruning work orders were backing up as well. Weekly reports were given on pruning backlog by priority ranking. Monthly reports on request volume and all pruning backlog was reported up to the Department level. During the five-year drought, there were ten months where pruning back - logs exceeded 350 work orders. Work order backlog tended to peak in August through October as temperatures rose and drought worsened during the summer. The work accumulat- ed to a volume that could not be abated until well into the winter. In a normal year, a dead tree might stand for months without danger of falling. However, the drought-stressed trees baked by the high temperatures were falling apart quickly. This reduced the amount of time we could leave a dead tree safely standing. Our primary objective by the beginning of fiscal year 2013 was one we kept throughout the response: to prioritize and remove high risk trees to prevent personal injury or death. At the same time, we needed to address our citizens. Since the City of Fort Worth is responsible for hazard pruning and removal of street trees, and most of our street trees are in residential areas, part of our response early on was to reduce the number of trees affected by drought by educating the public. The Texas Forest Service produced a flyer and video on proper watering of urban trees. We passed out the flyer at every opportunity and added a link to the watering video in our email signature line. We gave a drought-response pre - sentation to town hall meetings, neighborhood associations, and other stakeholder organizations. At the same time, we promoted wise watering and conserving water for the future. Our work orders are usually generated by citizen's request. Most requests for removal of dead trees are made in the spring when trees fail to bud out. Going into winter of 2011, we real- ized we would be overwhelmed with requests if we waited for spring to begin removing trees. We started driving city streets proactively looking for dead trees throughout that winter. This