[CANUFNET] Tree Removal Letter

[Meagan Hanna]

Hi Taylor,


To answer your question, the borough I work for systemically sent letters out to all of the addresses on specific streets touched by EAB during our first year of mass removals. Although this was a great way to provide details, what we found is that sometimes the letters didn't make it to the right people (people living on the street vs. building owners). In certain cases, specifically with large apartment buildings, it was tough to reach everyone. In other cases in districts where French is not the main spoken language, not everyone understood the content of the letter. The other issue we had was in commercial and institutional districts with heavy traffic, especially university districts, many people would see rows of trees marked for removal and call 311 with a slew of your typical questions. Therefore, my borough's Communications Division was given the task to develop a visual aid that could be directly fixed to the ash trees up for removal. That way, people walking by would have the information instantly. The goal was to be short and to the point. This can be rather handy when you have a street of 20 plus trees heavily declining and marked for removal.


Although the following strategy is probably not the cure all answer, it is a little more succinct and visual than your run of the mill letter. If I had it my way, we would have looked at another way of attaching the notice to the tree. In another Montreal borough (Sud-Ouest), EAB related information signs are taped around the trunk rather than stapled. The following picture is a version of the notice we apply directly to the tree in the days/weeks leading up to mass removals.


[cid:09bc13c2-55fc-4403-9a7c-1304808e9633]

Essentially, the notice says that the tree will be removed in order to limit the spread of EAB. The notice states that the following steps will be 1. Tree Removal 2. Stump Removal 3. Site assessment to ensure that a replacement tree may be planted 4. Tree replacement, if the conditions allow for it 5. Maximum duration of the process will take 18 months, a link to the City's webpage on EAB is also included so that citizens can get more detailed information on EAB - In theory this works well at handling certain questions. In practice, we're not exactly on the 18 month timeline. If I had it my way, I would have also left out a time period. Either that, or I would have had a couple of hundred thousand dollars invested into our urban forestry maintenance budget in order to acquire the resources needed to get everything done in 18 months.


It's just one of many ways to achieve your goal of getting the information out. I hope the example I shared may be of some use to you in your research.


Wishing you the best with your project.


Meg



Meagan Hanna, MA.
meagan.hanna at mail.mcgill.ca
________________________________
From: CANUFNET <canufnet-bounces at list.web.net> on behalf of Taylor Morris <taylor_morris at live.ca>
Sent: July 19, 2016 1:26:49 PM
To: canufnet at list.web.net
Subject: [CANUFNET] Tree Removal Letter


Hello All,

I am creating a letter to give to residents when the region is going to remove their boulevard tree (primarily for EAB).

Does anyone have any samples or tips of what to include in this letter.

Any information would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Taylor Morris

Forestry Student
Region of Waterloo

TMorris at regionofwaterloo.ca<mailto:TMorris at regionofwaterloo.ca>
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