During my walk today, I was particularly paying attention to the tree canopy instead of just taking advantage of the shade that they provide. I snapped a few shots and thought that I’d post in a tree topic that already exists, but none did.
So, I’m starting a new topic around the trees of downtown Raleigh.
These were taken the other day when it was hot. What in the hell was wrong with these trees at Capitol Square to get a hack job like this?
Wow! Odd way to cut back, but maybe a pedestrian safety reason due to limbs overhanging sidewalk/street?
There are some extremely overgrown trees in the right of way, specifically crepe Myrtle’s around Transfer that I wish they’d take this approach with. The undergrowth and pure lack of maintenance keeps the sidewalk and street a mess 99% of the time. I’ll be honest that I’ve actually never seen a tree trimming or maintenance around S East St other than a public utility hack job.
I noticed today that many trees in Nash Square have gotten a haircut lately: especially some of the shorter ornamentals.
We needed this thread back when they took down the monster on McDowell in Nash Square. I still miss that tree.
From dealing with some large very old trees down here, my understanding is there’s a process to encourage the tree to be less sprawled and more bushy, and as a result, less likely to lose the very long limbs in a storm, etc. By cutting back some of those longer limbs it encourages the tree to fill in. It’s a multi-year, multi-stage effort to get to the desired end state, assuming that’s what they’re doing.
Yeah, I get that, but that is one hell of a hack job.
Come Spring 2027, you’ll never even notice. Trees down here grow like weeds!
