| Big Radio News Staff |
Hundreds of shredded, damaged trees continue to stand on Janesville’s south side in the wake of the tornado that ripped through last June.
But if the question is whether the city plans to start more aggressively pushing residents to cut down tornado-hit trees in their yards, city Operations Director Ethan Lee says, ‘not so fast.’
Lee says it’s easy to drive past a stand of trees alongside Center Avenue on Janesville’s south side and see lots of tornado-hit trees with limbs and bark stripped off, and assume the trees are dead. But some of the trees might be alive, and healing.
Just nine months have passed since the tornado. Lee says that’s not long enough to know which of the hundreds of tornado-hit trees still standing on the south side might eventually heal up and pull through – and which ones won’t.
Lee says trees can be remarkably resilient in the face of damage. For instance, he’s hearing reports of stands of trees that had their bark scalded off in the California wildfires. He says those tree are now showing signs of healing — and they’re leafing out.
Lee says if a large, mature tree gets damaged by wind, lightning or fire, it can take a couple of years for that tree to either heal or succumb to its wounds.
Lee says if you live in a Janesville neighborhood with lot of tornado-damaged trees still standing, don’t expect to see a tidal wave of city inspectors out flagging trees and ordering owners to cut them down. It doesn’t work that way.
Lee believes the city will deal with residents’ tornado-torn trees similar to how it has handled trees harmed by insect blight or other tree plagues. He says when the city was in the thick of the emerald ash borer tree die-off, it was common to hear from residents who complained their neighbors’ dead trees were shattering and shedding limbs onto their property.
Under city ordinances, the city can require an owner to trim or remove a tree on their property if it has become a nuisance or caused damage to others’ property.
The city can cut down a dead tree in a terrace and bill the owner if the tree is deemed a nuisance and the owner takes no action.
So far this spring, city operations workers have had their hands full between late-season snow emergencies, and a couple spring storms that left some Janesville neighborhoods with even more snapped-off and uprooted trees.
Lee says city crews spent 18 hours cleaning fallen trees and limbs off public property after a thunderstorm that packed 80-mile-per-hour winds tore through Janesville on March 15.
Meanwhile, the city’s ad hoc sustainability committee is in talks with a local tree advocacy group over possible ways to help residents restore the south side’s tree canopy after it took a direct hit in the tornado last year.
