Tree-Trimming Timing Becomes an Issue in LG
The City of La Grange recently purchased a new street sweeper. The machine stands a little taller than the City’s old one, so the City hired some contractors to trim trees that hang over the roadways.
Some of those trees are live oaks, and now is not the best time of year to cut branches from oak trees of any variety. Councilman Pat Janca raised the concern at a La Grange City Council meeting Monday evening, Feb. 8.
“I’ve got a monster live oak tree in my front yard that I try to baby,” Janca said at the meeting. “One of those limbs is going to have to come off because of the street sweeper.”
Janca said the limb measures a foot or more in diameter. Janca said he consulted an arborist about removing the limb.
“(The arborist) said right now is the wrong time to cut on any live oak tree because they are just starting to shed,” Janca said. “He said February and March is not the desirable time to be trimming on trees. It is a concern of mine – should we be messing with these trees?”
According to the Texas Forest Service, oak trees should not be pruned between Feb. 1 and July 1. This precaution is especially important to prevent the spread of oak wilt disease, one of the leading killers of oak trees in Texas. Only about 20 percent of live oak trees will survive an infection. The disease is especially deadly to red oaks.
City Manager Shawn Raborn said most of the trees that need to be trimmed are pecans, which do not suffer as greatly from pruning this time of year. Raborn told the Record on Tuesday that someone from the City would personally speak with all of the property owners who have live oaks that need to be trimmed.
Raborn said the City would check to see if those property owners wished to hire an arborist to perform the trimming. If not, Raborn said the City would wait until later in the year to cut those trees.
Raborn said the City purchased the new street sweeper to replace the City’s 10-year-old unit. He said the old sweeper was due for replacement under the City’s long-term equipment replacement plan. However, he said the City’s street sweeper operator, Loydell Wied, kept the machine impeccably maintained. Raborn said the old sweeper might fetch as much as $50,000 to $70,000 when it goes to auction. The new street sweeper cost the City about $270,000. Raborn said the street sweeper greatly aids the City’s stormwater drainage system by removing debris from roadways that might otherwise clog up drains during a storm.
“It helps us out with drainage and also with the overall cleanliness of our city,” Raborn said. “Not a lot of other cities have a street sweeper.”