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Will Mistletoe Destroy Modesto’s Urban Forest?

February 5, 2020 By Babette Wagner 4 Comments

Mayor Ted Brandvold wants more money to hire police officers and most agree our police force is understaffed. Nonetheless, many concerned citizens fear Brandvold will divert funds and continue to neglect Modesto’s urban forest, once a symbol of pride that has now become a financial liability. With her typical keen insight and concern for the city, Babette Wagner wonders whether the spread of destructive mistletoe will add even more costs to our already overburdened urban forest. As always, Babette makes an important point about an easily overlooked problem that could become a long-term disaster.

Mistletoe in Modesto's Village One
Mistletoe in Village One

Drive down just about any street in the City of Modesto and you’ll find deciduous trees that look like they’re still green.  They’re not; instead, they’re trees planted by the City of Modesto on private property that are, for the most part, totally infested with mistletoe.

What is going on?  Where are our tax dollars and payments for city services going, if not to the prompt removal of fall leaves, which this year was late, if done at all before the rains hit.

We have a city-planted tree in front of our house that has mistletoe from its top branches all the way down to the crotch, where the lower branches spread from the trunk….a dire situation for any tree.  I called a local tree service and, upon explaining my situation, was told that I would have to contact the city for any pruning on said tree.

I looked around my neighborhood and we all seem to be in the same boat.  Then I drove around town, paying more attention as leaves fell and I saw much remaining greenery, all of which was broad leaf mistletoe, common to our area and spread by birds to just about every susceptible tree in town.

Worried that our tree would die and perhaps fall on the house or on a car parked on the street, I called another tree professional and asked him to come out to render his opinion and was again advised that they couldn’t/wouldn’t touch it as it belongs to the City of Modesto and that I would first have to jump through a few hoops.

On checking the City of Modesto website for information, I learned, to my dismay, that they have been free to plant whatever trees they wish on private property but that the homeowner is, with THEIR permission, responsible for all costs of maintaining the health of said tree, its maintenance, removal, stump or root removal—all subject to the approval of the City of Modesto.

Well, we don’t want that poor, sick and unsightly tree on our property and WE didn’t put it there; it came with the house when we purchased it in 2017 and all of the trees in our area of Village One appear to be in similar dire circumstances.

Coincidentally, we have another piece of property in town where the trees, likely planted in the late 1940s and very early 1950s, were becoming so infested with mistletoe that the City did remove the many limbs afflicted with the offending parasitic plant—well over half the tree—without our permission, though we’re glad they did as these old trees were well over 50 to 60 feet high, tall enough to fall and damage our property, and given the right winds, tall enough to fall across the street into that neighbor’s yard and perhaps her roof!

All the trees on that street were struggling to receive nourishment due to the heavy mistletoe loads each carried. Hopefully, the recent pruning will remedy that.  However, as with many areas in Modesto, watering restrictions have driven what should be “deep roots” to the surface to access water, so unless we have a decent rainy season, these trees will remain under stress and, with a shallow root system, subject to being blown down in high winds.

So why does the City of Modesto get to call the shots on what trees are planted where and when they’re due to be pruned?  Certainly the 20 year old tree in front of our residence won’t make it to the 70 year mark like the tree in front of the other property we own—it’ll probably fall and break windows or land on a car well before that should it not be tended to.  But why does one area of the City of Modesto receive City of Modesto tree maintenance free of charge while other areas must not only get permission, but pay out-of-pocket for something they didn’t want in the first place and haven’t budgeted for?

Mistletoe in Modesto’s College District

A call to the City Office yields little help nor sheds any light as to why there is such a discrepancy. Apparently, things are done on a schedule and the city budget is now quite limited. Well, if that’s the case, I have seen a lot of trees around town that I am certain can’t wait seven years, much less 70 years to be pruned!

We’ve had our neighborhood streets, in very good shape to begin with, paved when it did not appear necessary while these trees continue to blossom with more and more mistletoe as time passes. Who’s in charge here?  Who’s running the City?  And what’s happened to the late Mary Grogan’s goal of making Modesto a shaded “City of Trees” we can all be proud of and benefit from?  (Mary Grogan was a long time Director of Parks and Recreation, one of the few women in the state to hold such a position, and she was instrumental in improving the quality of life in her beloved City of Modesto.)

Being rather fed up with the conditions and operations under the current Mayor, I’m hoping a change of leadership will help the taxpaying homeowners in this “City of Trees” remedy the problem of not only mistletoe in our trees, but the deciduous tree leaf pick-up program and formulate a more accurate paving needs assessment .  We would like to see Modesto get back to its former schedules and priorities that seemed to work more fairly and smoothly under Mayors like Peggy Mensinger, Carol Whiteside, Garrad Marsh, and yes, even the late, and often controversial, Carmen Sabatino.

My husband works for a large institution in Modesto that struggles to recruit new employees who often find that it’s the city that is not to their liking, not the job prospect.

Yes, we have wonderful performance venues, a vibrant downtown and several hub areas in various other parts of the city that locals patronize, but it’s the “overall appearance” that strikes them as a bit unkempt as they tour their possible new city while they ponder whether or not to accept the position for which they’ve scheduled an interview.

It wasn’t always this way. Back when I was in Leadership Modesto, I became aware of the many ways in which the city prioritizes its use of funds and as a result of that experience, I have enough awareness to recognize what’s do-able and what is not. But keeping trees healthy and standing should be a priority—or perhaps the City should just butt out of planting trees and trust that we know best how to manage our own lives, homes and yards as they appear to be incapable of handling the necessary tasks under the current leadership that’s in place.

Filed Under: Environment Tagged With: Modesto's urban forest

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Eric Reimer says

    February 6, 2020 at 11:16 am

    From Ms. Wagner’s article:

    “On checking the City of Modesto website for information, I learned, to my dismay, that they have been free to plant whatever trees they wish on private property but that the homeowner is, with THEIR permission, responsible for all costs of maintaining the health of said tree, its maintenance, removal, stump or root removal—all subject to the approval of the City of Modesto.”

    Note the word “responsible”. If the City of Modesto does indeed assert that they have authority over the trees, it is the City that must bear the responsibility that attends the exercise of authority. The property owner cannot be held responsible in the absence of authority.

    Reply
  2. Bruce Frohman says

    February 6, 2020 at 1:49 pm

    I pay $700 every three years to have my City tree trimmed. The private contractor does a much better job than the over worked city trimmers. The contractor gets a permit to do the work; he is on the city’s list of approved arborists. I am always very delighted with the work.

    City trees are at the bottom of the list of priorities of the people who run the city. They prefer to build roads that citizens don’t want and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on studies that will do nothing to improve the quality of life in the community. They would rather subsidize residential McMansion builders than serve your street.

    Politicians only have money for what they and their cronies want.

    Reply
  3. Babette Nunes Wagner says

    February 6, 2020 at 2:36 pm

    Eric Reimer, I agree with you fully:: homeowners should not have the burden of financial responsibility without the authority to take mitigating measures without jumping through ridiculous hoops (their actual wording is not “responsible” but “at property owner expense” …. a windy way of saying we’re responsible.) .

    From speaking with City representatives as well as professional, licensed tree trimmers, that seems, in fact, to be the case. For more comments (pretty much in agreement with us both) please see the feedback on the Facebook page for The Modesto News Group.

    We all have a right to demand either action.or at least have the right to self-determination with respect to the maintenance of the trees on our property.

    As a final insult to this injury, when I asked about the list of trees the city has “approved” homeowners to use to replace any mistletoe infested trees (at property owner expense), it seems,not only does the city get to decide which tree type, depending on your property location and size, but choices are,not only limited, but some are, in fact, also susceptible to mistletoe, unlike conifers such as redwood or cedar, Chinese pistache, Bradford flowering pear, ginko,crape myrtle, eucalyptus and liquid amber, among several others.

    Our neighborhood has an abundance of palms (family Arecaceae) and sago palms (not true palms, as they are cyads with root systems closely related to ancient conifers) neither of which seem to be troubled by mistletoe, so perhaps if one lobbies enough, it might be possible to remove and replace the diseased tree with one’s personal preference (at one’s own expense, of course..) But given the current city government, I’m not holding my breath with respect to either getting permission much less having them cover the costs so I might just haul out the tall ladder and have a go at it myself as I seriously doubt they’d notice as they sure haven’t noticed the mistletoe!

    Reply
  4. Diane says

    February 6, 2020 at 9:54 pm

    I live in a court and called the City of Modesto that my City tree had a mistletoe infestation that needed to be addressed. They came out and said it was fine. It had one branch left of the original tree. One year later the tree died with dead mistletoe that hung and looked very bad in my front yard in an HOA community. Then called the city again and they came out and cut it down last year. We still have an ugly big stump that I was wondering if they are going to send out the city to stump grind it and replace it with a new tree. After hearing all these remarks is very upsetting. The City should be accountable of taking care of their trees. I am going to see if our HOA will get on the City to take care of this god ugly stump! Thanks for all that have commented on this Important issue. Please keep me informed.

    Reply

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