CLEARWATER, Fla. — Michael Buttacavoli has two giant stumps in his front yard on Magnolia Drive where 50-year-old trees once stood.
“If everyone has seen Dr. Suess, The Lorax. It kind of makes me feel like that,” he said.
Buttacavoli said an arborist hired by the city of Clearwater marked the trees as unhealthy.
Then less than a week later, a crew hired by the city cut them down.
“I don’t know what they deem as unhealthy. We weathered the storms we had during the October months. Nothing damaging. No big logs, no big stumps falling over,” said Buttacavoli.
Over the last couple of years, the City of Clearwater’s Tree Assessment and Inventory program deemed some trees as either dying, diseased, hazardous, or invasive species.
The worst fear is something like this 2017 incident where an oak tree fell on a car with a woman and her grandson inside.
Thankfully neither was hurt.
Evaluated trees have a blue tag.
People like Mike Dawson first thought that automatically meant the trees were going to be removed.
“We were absolutely shocked. What? This beautiful tree, and it seems healthy,” said Dawson.
The city said the tags don’t mean automatic removal.
But the confusion over the process and ratings has led the city to pause tree removal until more research can be done.
It didn’t come soon enough for Buttacavoli, whose trees are already gone.
“I think we could have had some other option besides the whole tree having to leave. We definitely would have been up for some trimming of the tree,” said Buttacavoli.
The city only evaluates trees in the city right-of-way, not those completely on private property.
But they will look at other trees if they get a request.
You can look up tagged trees on the city’s website.
The Public Works Department is re-evaluating the tree rating system and will present its findings to the City Council on Jan. 30.
