Warmer weather means more Columbia trees likely to be cut down

Shade tree canopies shelter many Columbia streets, a blessing in our famously hot summertime. But you might have noticed some of your neighborhood’s trees replaced by stumps lately.

As more people become active outside this season, the city’s Forestry and Beautification department receives more calls about potentially troubled trees.

The city removes only trees that are “dead, dying, diseased or have some kind of structural defect” that causes a safety hazard, said Sara Hollar, superintendent of Forestry and Beautification. City officials believe a warm winter might have contributed to more compromised trees this season, but it’s too soon for them to have seen the full effects.

Cold winter temperatures typically kill off certain bugs that damage trees, said Tim Rushman, assistant superintendent of Forestry and Beautification. But a lot of tree-harming bugs and diseases thrive in warmer, wetter environments.

Two large trees, an oak and a pecan, recently were cut down along Pendleton Street near the University of South Carolina campus – one having been colonized by ambrosia beetles and one due to a safety risk posed by a leaky sewer line running under its roots, Rushman said.

A quartet of trees also recently came down on Devine Street near Incarnation Lutheran Church.

“One of the things about this city and the university are the big, huge beautiful trees that line the streets,” said Mark Kirby, a Columbia resident who at first was alarmed to notice the missing trees along Pendleton Street, until he learned the reasons they were cut.

The trees, he said, are “what makes Columbia kind of special, even though it’s an urban area.”

The Forestry and Beautification department does most of its work by request, Hollar said. In other words, there isn’t a hit-list of trees to come down.

If a resident calls about a concerning tree, the department will examine the tree and determine whether it is is unhealthy or unstable enough to warrant removal, Hollar said.

So far, the city has cut down about 160 trees this year, Hollar said.

The city typically removes about 400 trees a year and plants an average of 500, Hollar said. Cut trees are usually replaced with “the right tree in the right place,” Hollar said. Sometimes that means a similar tree to the one that was removed, and sometimes not, depending on its surroundings.

The city plants trees between December and March to give them time to adjust to their new environment before facing the heat of the summer.

If you notice a tree with no leaves at this time of year, or a tree with peeling bark, dead limbs or “anything that looks out of the ordinary,” Hollar said, call the Forestry and Beautification department.

“If it’s brought to us early,” Rushman said, they can do something about it.

Columbia Forestry and Beautification can be reached at (803) 545-3860.

This story was originally published May 22, 2016 at 6:20 PM with the headline "Warmer weather means more Columbia trees likely to be cut down."