City pauses tree pruning because of public complaints
By Bill Metcalfe
City Council has asked Nelson Hydro to pause its pruning or “vegetation management” activities on city streets following some complaints from the public.
Over the summer, Hydro has been cutting back city trees, on both public and private property, to comply with new guidelines about the distance between vegetation and power lines. The plan was first presented to, and approved by, council on March 17 as explained in a March 27 story in The Nelson Daily.
“Council has asked for a report from the arborist that was hired, and also a report from our arborists on staff,” acting mayor Deb Kozak told council at its regular meeting yesterday.
She said the date for a meeting to discuss the report has not been set yet.
“We are going to ask some questions about how the trees are being pruned and what the intent is, and ask for the concerns of the public to be addressed,” Kozak said.
Complaints from the public did not come as a surprise. Nelson Hydro’s Doug Pickard, when presenting the plan to council on March 17, said, “We can expect a fair number of complaint calls.”
Councillor Paula Kiss told The Nelson Daily that council received about 25 emails in the past few days.
“The feedback has been quite tremendous and most people want to know what the impact is going to be,” she said. “We got a lot of feedback after the article was published in the paper.”
Kiss was referring to the March 27 story in The Nelson Daily linked above, which was re-posted on Facebook during the past week.
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Bill Metcalfe is a freelance journalist who covers Nelson city hall for The Nelson Daily. To receive a regular twice-monthly email with links to his most recent city hall stories, send a request notification to billmet4@gmail.com.
