Canadian Forestry Journal, July, 1919 



297 



LINEMEN AND SHADE TREE SLAUGHTER 



From information acquired by the Canadian 

 Forestry Journal shade tree owners in Eastern 

 Canada are by no means as happily placed in 

 their legal rights as those of British Columbia 

 or many of the States of the American Union. 

 In British Columbia, the municipality is supreme 

 in regulating the tree trimming by electrical 

 transmission corporations. In Pennsylvania, no 

 lineman dare touch a hand to a shade tree 

 whether in a city or the open country until 

 permission has been granted by municipal 

 authority. No state or federal charter has prior- 

 ity in such matters. This is quite a common 

 condition in the New England States. 



In Ontario however , recent powers acquired 

 by the Hydro-Electric Power Commission give its 

 tree trimming orders priority over any claims of 

 private tree owners or protests of municiptlities. 

 The Forestry Journal judging by its correspond- 

 ence with the Commission, does not believe that 

 the legal authority in this matter will be used 

 ruthlessly. Indeed, the Commission appears to 

 have taken pains to follow a policy of com- 

 promise and conciliation. At the same time, 

 the Journal is convinced that damage to city and 

 rural shade trees has proceeded far beyond the 

 necessities of efficient electrical transmission and 

 telephone operation. It is beyond question that 



unless shade tree owners place a high value upon 

 their property and insist upon the minimum de- 

 gree of trimming, the beauties of roadsides and 

 town streets are sure to suffer. One difficulty 

 has been that not one municiptlity in fifty has 

 considered the care of its trees as more than a 

 side line of the county or town engineer. When 

 a dispute arises, the power or telephone company 

 is confronted by one or two individual owners, 

 without organized backing and lacking some- 

 times in skilled judgment. If county and town 

 councils regarded their shade trees as a really 

 vital asset and placed their care in the hands of 

 a skilled individual or even a committee, there is 

 little reason to doubt that far fewer complaints 

 would be received about the aggressions of line- 

 men. The Canadian Forestry Association in- 

 tends to develop this question of shade tree pre- 

 servation and invites expression of opinion by 

 tree owners and others. 



In the last issue of the Journal the point was 

 raised whether the present compensation offered 

 by public utilities bodies was at all adequate 

 and whether a higher rate would not decrease 

 the extent of destruction. There follows an 

 article on this subject for which we are indebted 

 to "American Forestry". 



THE CASH VALUE OF SHADE TREES 



By W. W. Colton, City Forester of Nexvion, Mass., U.S.A. 



How to Estimate Compensation for Ruined 



Trees. — One Dollar an Inch of 



Basal Area. 



How are we to determine the value of our 

 individual shade trees? 



It is generally admitted that shade trees are 

 valuable not only from an economic standpoint, 

 but also from their aesthetic, historic and phys- 

 ical properties, but as my purpose is to show 

 that there must be some definite method of de- 

 termining their value, I am going to consider 

 only the economic value. 



The development of a street requires the re- 

 moval of a tree at a certain point. Mr. A. says 

 he wouldn't have that tree removed for $1,000. 



Would it damage his property to that extent? 

 Would he pay that amount for replacing it? 

 On what does he base his estimate of value? 



A private corporation or individual damages a 

 tree in such a manner that it dies. Mr. B. 

 brings suit and claims damages of $500 or 

 $1,000. The court allows him perhaps (?) 

 $150. 



A city or town has a row ot trees killed by 

 gas. The gas company is sued, and here again 

 the court awards an arbitrary figure of perhaps 

 $100 per tree, doubtless altogether regardless 



