Recent storm activity has opened what appears to be a large "hole" in what our community has come to expect as "public safety" and "service". And it all relates to the removal of storm debris and dead trees!

The July 4th storm left a swatch of SW Durham with a mess. Trees across roads, trees on houses, and like most of the 64 parks in our fair city, trees down in our parks. Some were dealt with quickly. ... While others, like the trees that have fallen in our parks, I was told, may be three months away from being dealt with. ...

If Urban Forestry spent just a week in every park in town, cleaning up debris, cutting dead and diseased trees, and pruning up the dangerous limbs, it would take them a year and a half just to get that done. And that doesn't even consider the many dead trees that line our roads or the storm debris from even a small storm. ...

Like everything else in this city, there comes a time when we just have to get some outside help just to catch up. That day has arrived!

Typically Urban Forestry deals with cutting down 150 trees a year. This year, because of the drought last year, it will be more like 850. Then you add in a freak storm like we had last week, and there's just no way Urban Forestry can even catch up. When these dead trees start falling, and they will, I only hope there are not a bunch of children playing under them. We need a contractor to come in and give our city a hand at getting the dead, diseased, downed, and pruning ... If it's 90 days to get trees down from just the small storm we had last week, what will happen if we get another [Hurricane] Fran this year?