The hazardous tree is gone! The city was able to issue us a permit quickly, and the tree service company (Econo tree service) was able to squeeze in an emergency appointment for us yesterday to take care of the tree (Thank you!). It was quite a job. They started from 8 am, and finished around 2:30pm. I was outside most of time to document the whole process with my camera, even our dog, gucci, came out to see what’s going on!

So, what went wrong with the tree? According to the tree service company and the city inspector, the inappropriate trimming and cutting that was done to it a long time ago caused the tree to sprout new growth too quickly, resulting in weak attachments of branches which could break off very easily:

“Topping, or severe heading cuts, is not a recognized pruning standard or maintenance technique. “Topping” is the indiscriminate cutting of branches and trunk to a predetermined height without regard to tree structure or lateral branches or buds. Topping normally removes an unacceptably high percentage of the foliage from the tree. A tree’s natural response to topping is to quickly grow a flush of new leaves to achieve a similar balance of the number of leaves present prior to the cutting. These new small sprouts usually grow from buds around the cut area. The dense new growth can quickly become overcrowded and weakly attached. If left unattended, the sprouts enlarge, may grow against each other and are prone to failure. Additionally, the improperly cut limb is exposed to greater opportunity for decay which can eventually cause wood failure. Even if the sprouts are attended to by follow-up pruning, the limbs are weakly attached, growing around the point where decay may be weakening the wood structure."– from REDWOOD CITY’S TREE PRESERVATION ORDINANCE

Hope this information can help young home owners like us who knew nothing about tree care. Also, it is the best not to plant trees too close to your house. They may be small at the beginning, but soon they will be too big for you to manage, or worse, damage your house. Several of our neighbors and friends (including us) are suffering from the mistakes that were made by the previous home owners.

The Ash tree we cut down was only 27 years old (we counted the tree rings) but it was already too big to manage, especially it was planted too close to our house. So, think carefully when planting a tree next time.