Crews remove/trim damaged live oaks in midtown Mobile due to safety hazards
MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — A big project to help trim and preserve Mobile’s Midtown canopy kept crews busy Sunday. City officials hope this improves safety around Mobile’s iconic trees.
Work noise fills the air around a block of Springhill Avenue. They picked Sunday to minimize the impact on drivers and homeowners. The trees are a beloved part of the city, but their growth has to be balanced with having the city work.
“City services can be administered police, fire, trash and garbage kit providers down the road, and to keep the risk of the canopy of the trees at a lower level. We’ve had a tremendous number of projects that have come out over the last year to reduce leverage on the trees, and they keep the likelihood they are low-risk,” said Peter Toler with City of Mobile Urban Forestry
City officials say the removal of three live oaks and trimming four more is needed for public safety. They believe years of large vehicles clipping big trunks led to big gashes in the trees that increased the odds of them collapsing in a storm.
“Structurally compromised trees that really and truly there’s no remedial action to try to fix them, sustain them, or keep them at a lower risk rate,” said Toler. While Mobile’s tree canopy takes a short-term hit with this project they hope efforts like this help preserve the tree canopy for the long term.
“Next to these trees, there’s neighboring trees that will take over that spot in the air to fill in the canopy that our city so dearly loves. And that’s the plan to keep that can be healthy as a whole,” said Toler.
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