City of Houston Destroyed 70 year Old Oak Tree

Yesterday was a very sad day for our family. We came home to a huge pile of tree debris in our front yard and a giant 12-15″ diameter limb from our old Oak tree cut down by the City of Houston. James and Whitney literally started crying as we drove up to the house asking, “why would anyone do this?” My stomach just sank as we got closer to see the actual damage to our beloved tree. I angrily called 3-1-1 and was told that the city can cut down any tree. I asked, “in my front yard?”
“yes”

We were never contacted prior to June 19th regarding issues with our tree limb over the street.  If we would have, we would have found an arborist that specializes in large trees to help more appropriately prune the tree.  There are several other magnolia trees and others that come lower to impinge on normal vehicle traffic that were untouched on our street. This tree is one of the things we absolutely loved about our home when we purchased it. We have lived in this home for nearly 10 years and have never had any issues. UPS delivery trucks don’t even hit it, but giant 18 wheelers (that shouldn’t be in a residential neighborhood) would on occasion. With care, even they could pull all the way to the other side of the street and get by with no issues. So why would our beautiful 70 year old Oak tree be targeted? The limb where our children’s swing used to hang?  Neighbors have come over to ask us why we did that, so we have decided to make sure everyone knows that we would never have chosen to mutilate our beautiful tree. (See image below) This is just the beginning of our fight, even though this destruction can never be taken back, we will make sure that whoever is responsible will know the damage they have caused and that everyone we know is aware of how our city cares for priceless Live Oak trees in our community!  Please share our story with your friends.

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