The Board of Directors of the Peterkort Woods Home Owners’ Association, in consultation with the Association’s Landscape Committee, has taken on the task of addressing the street trees in our community on SW Morrison and SW Windwood.
The trees lining these two streets are all Lindens. Most of you are aware that the Lindens attract a great quantity of aphids and that the aphids create quite a mess for up to six months of the year. Efforts to control the aphids have been difficult and the problem has grown increasingly worse. Even following one of the harshest winters in recent history, the pests have thrived.
Equally important have been concerns regarding the appropriateness of the Lindens for our streets due to their size as well as blocking light to our homes, damage to sidewalks, and interference with our irrigation system.
Background
Over the years, many owners have complained about these trees and have asked for their removal. The LC has tried to address the concerns with less drastic solutions. They have consulted with arborists regarding options.
In the Fall of 2016, the BOD solicited the opinion of two arborists to assess all our trees. Both gave us advice on how to develop a long-range plan for our urban forest. Regarding the Lindens, one of the Arborists concluded, “The Lindens on SW Windwood and SW Morrison Street have some included bark concerns, have grown large enough to have conflicts with traffic, streets, vehicles, and housing. The trees are in a tight planter strip where eventually there will be root conflicts with sidewalk and ground utilities. This planting is a prime example of what (is) great in planning when trees are small, once growth has occurred the growth overtakes the space.”
During the past year the LC has addressed the most pressing tree concerns identified by the arborists including: the removal of approximately 15 cedars, several redbuds, and a few maples.
Peterkort Woods HOA – Linden Tree Survey – Fall, 2017
A survey concerning the Linden Trees was sent by email in the Fall of 2017.
Over 53% of the community responded (119/223). Over 67% of those who live on Windwood and Morrison responded to the survey. The response rate was 36.9% on streets that did not have Lindens.
More than 68% responded “yes” to the question “should the Board consider removal of the Lindens?” (82 of 119) An additional 9% responded that they didn’t care.
The response was even stronger for those who live on the effected streets. On the question of us considering removal, 70.3 % said yes compared to 65.8% yes on the other streets.
It also looks like everyone had to answer every question in the survey. Some of those who wanted the trees taken out over two or three years, didn’t want the trees taken out at all. It was therefore useful to break the results down further.
75 of the 82 who said yes (91.5%), wanted all the trees removed and 75% of those respondents wanted them taken out at one time.
Going forward
The BOD has approved moving forward with replacing the Lindens. We are in the process of obtaining bids for removing the 103 Lindens along SW Windwood and SW Morrison and replacing them with other Washington County approved street trees (http://www.co.washington.or.us/LUT/Divisions/CurrentPlanning/upload/StreetTrees.pdf).
This is a complex undertaking with many considerations which are being addressed. All of the details are not available at this time, but we will provide updates as more information is available.
Peterkort Woods 