I'm going to lose one of my favorite trees, it seems!
The city is going to update, redo and level up the neighborhood sidewalks. This beautiful red maple tree is a part of the problem.
It is technically not my tree since it lives on the street side of the sidewalk, within the city's property easement.
There are many trees which are heaving the sidewalks out of place, causing the sidewalks to no longer meet compliance with city code for walk ways.
The City Parks Division arborist wanted to meet with us to discuss this (a courtesy I would not have expected after my last dealing with the city over our old house) and he promised he would do all he can to save the tree.
His "job" is to use city funds as meaningfully as possible however. He says usually when you remove half a root system from a tree this large they die anyway or a storm blows them over before they can reestablish a good root system on that side of the tree.
Either way spells almost certain doom.
He aslo asks if I wanted the tree replaced. "YES!!" I asked for it to be replaced with another red maple, PLEASE. But I also told him that I do not want a locust tree (constantly dropping sticks) or a silver maple (not much fall color and very weak in storms) to replace it. Most anything else would be fine.
He had me sign stuff saying I was notified and gave me a file folder with my "Case Number" on it. WTF!?! A case?