Parade may be bad for trees due to pruning for balloons; changes coming - Seattle, WA

Seafair: Bad for Seattle's trees?:
Seattle's Seafair Torchlight Parade may have to do a better job of accommodating trees.

How isn't clear, but city managers are worried about the summer parade's effect on trees that line the Fourth Avenue parade route downtown.
During past parades city crews have pruned branches of the trees so they'll clear the balloons that float along the route as the parade progresses.

But Roy Francis, urban forestry manager for the Seattle Department of Transportation, told an advisory city forestry commission Wednesday that starting next year the city will no longer prune the trees for the parade and that Seafair will have to reconsider how to move through the streets.