Trees felled too small to be protected by tree protection law, much to dismay of neighbor - Burlingame, CA

Tree-felling causes tension in Burlingame's Easton Addition - San Jose Mercury News


A knotty issue has taken root in the City of Trees.

Cutting down one of Burlingame's 18,000 or so trees is sure to generate a dispute, and that's exactly what happened this week in the Easton Addition. Call it the "Acacia Chainsaw Massacre."

Christina Carey returned to her home on Drake Avenue after a shopping trip Wednesday to discover workers cutting down a tall black acacia tree in the lot adjacent to her backyard. Distraught, she asked the workers to stop, but they ignored her and cut down a second acacia.

"I was upset. I wish the owner had called me to let me know," Carey said. The next day, the workers finished off the third and final tree. The action left her with little privacy in her backyard, especially because a house will soon be built on the adjoining lot by its new owners, and concerned about a potential drop in her property value. She also worried about the impact on the birds and squirrels that used the trees for shelter.

"It makes me sick to my stomach to look out my own window," Carey said Thursday as the workers finished the job, hacking the felled trees into sections for disposal.