RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond’s Public Works Director Bobby Vincent said he “would like to think we don’t know of a tree that is going to fall down if the wind is above 20 miles per hour” when asked if the large city-owned oak trees in the Rosedale neighborhood on Richmond's Northside are safe after two of them fell during a storm last Tuesday.
Vincent added that if we have storms and pockets of wind greater than 20 mph “at that point in time we can’t control that, that is something Mother Nature controls."
The head of the Rosedale Civic Association, Grady Hart, demanded action last Thursday after two city-owned trees fell during a storm last week, with one crashing into a house across the street from him on Wilmington Avenue.
Hart said he knows of at least four trees that have fallen in Rosedale over the past five years.
"I personally have reached out at least half a dozen times over 311,” Hart said about contacting the city about what he perceives as dangerous trees. "I've reached out at least a few times over email, I have called, I have texted."
After years of contacting the city with his concerns, Hart reached his breaking point when the trees came down during last week's storm.
"It feels like every time a storm comes through the city has just decided to play Russian roulette with our safety," Hart said.
Hart wants Richmond to evaluate every city tree in the neighborhood for safety and commit to removing any trees likely to fall on people's houses.
"We need the city to start taking this seriously before someone is injured or killed," Hart said.
Vincent said the city owns 77,000 trees and employs four arborists who assess them.
He said that if a tree needs to be pruned, DPW staff can handle the job, but if a tree needs to be removed, contractors may need to be utilized.
"We always find funding. We have ample enough budget in order to be able to take care of an immediate danger. What we don't have a budget for, nor does any government, is to be able to take care of everything that anybody thinks might be a danger," Vincent said.
The Rosedale neighborhood currently has about 200 city-owned trees, according to Vincent, over the past five years, the Department of Public Works has removed about 28 trees there and pruned about nine.
He acknowledged there are still trees in the area that need attention.
When asked if Vincent could commit to his arborists assessing every single city-owned tree in Rosedale and taking down dangerous trees, he said, “I would say we would do our best to do our jobs within that community just like we do within every community in the city.”
When asked to clarify futher he said "that means we are going to go out there and take a look at the trees that we deem needing maintenance or preventative maintenance, and then we will proceed accordingly based on that arborist’s inspection."
Vincent emphasized that protecting and growing the city's tree canopy is vital to Richmond's health, but acknowledged that decades ago, the city planted trees that were not necessarily the right species for their locations.
"That doesn't mean that we can go through and remove all the trees that weren't planted properly because if we did that we would have a barren land, and we would not have the affordability to be able to replant all of the trees that weren't planted wise," Vincent said.
Neither of the fallen trees in Rosedale was marked as being in failing condition, according to Vincent, though he said the city did have work requests for one of them. He was unable to share during the interview when that request dated back to and what the arborist found during an inspection, but he said he would provide that information soon.
Vincent noted his biggest concern is the half a million trees on private property in Richmond, many of which are not being assessed or properly maintained because owners can't afford to do so.
He also pointed out that if either a private tree or a city tree falls on a house, the homeowner is financially responsible for the cleanup.
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