Great fences make great neighbours, but untrimmed trees can be the cause of neighbourly disputes. Low-hanging branches can cause injuries or obstructions. Some untrimmed or dead trees can simply become an eye-sore.

If a tree is causing a nuisance, what is the best strategy for dealing with it? Unless you know you can ask your neighbour and the situation can be dealt with amicably, the solution is found at City Hall.

“The best thing to do is to call the City,” said Parks Co-Ordinator Linda Prokott. “The Public Works and Parks workshop here, we have a pruning request list.”

Depending on who the tree belongs to will determine the protocol after that.

“If it’s a city tree, the City will come and prune that, if it’s a private tree that’s causing an issue, we can contact the homeowner regarding that,” she explained. “If it’s something like several branches of a private tree blocking a sidewalk, we can get in touch with the homeowner and request that they prune that within a specific period of time.”

This tree hangs down to about five feet high, which causes people to need to deviate from the path, or hit their head (photo by Austin Arvay).