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| Urban
Forestry & Horticulture |
| A division of
the Landscape Management Department |
Trees
on Utility / Drainage EASEMENTS
|
An
easement is not a piece of property.
It is someone's right to use a certain part of someone
else's
property for limited purposes, such as drainage, utility
distribution, or access.
Land
under a "utility and drainage easement" does not belong to the
city -- it is private land. Trees on easements are private
trees, and the City will accept responsibility for working on
them only under very limited conditions
(see
below) .
Here
is a drawing of a fairly typical residential property. The plat
map, registered in the County Courthouse along with the deed,
typically says something like "7-1/2' UDE" in the area
designated as an easement.
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>
water distribution
> gas distribution
> electric power distribution, including street lights --
Regardless
of who owns the land, tree problems related to
overhead lines should be handled as follows:
|
TYPE
OF LINE
|
RESPONSIBILITY
|
| electricity
distribution |
Huntsville
Utilities -- 535-1200 |
| electric
service (the large insulated wire from the transformer to your house) |
homeowner's
responsibility |
| telephone
service |
telephone
service provider |
| TV
cable |
TV
cable provider |
For
other problems, which we use citywide and believe is fair to all, is
as follows.
On land that the
city actually owns, such as street
and alley rights-of-way, parks, public cemeteries, etc., the
City handles tree problems other than those related to electric,
telephone, & TV lines.
On
private land under an easement, the
City accepts responsibility for handling tree problems only if they
were caused by our use of the easement, or if the work is required
for our use of the easement. For example, we will prune
or remove trees that have been undermined by water, or damaged by the
city's machine operation.
The landowner is
responsible for other work on easement trees, such as:
general pruning
removal of safety hazards -- dead and cracked branches, etc.
repair of storm damage
taking out trees that the owner doesn't like
removing trees for reasons not related to the City's use of the easement
| Here
is a common problem to look out for in
easement trees, which often have not been maintained
carefully -- a weak fork with what is known as "included bark."
This makes a tree very likely to split during high wind, ice load,
etc. Many people like the graceful appearance of a forked or multi-stemmed
tree. It seems insignificant when a tree is young; but this is when
a little preventive pruning can make a lot of difference. If you
ignore it, you may find out too late that this is one of the most
serious structural problems a tree can have. |
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