Hamilton storm damage

Trees have become a consistent casualty of all of the storms lately. Downtown Hamilton got hit pretty badly leaving more with damaged property. Two beechwood residents came home to the entrance to one of their houses, obstructed by a tree and snapped in half.

Forestry came around three in the morning, waking up many of the residents with a wood chipper.

If the city owns a tree on your property that you believe poses a threat to your home, you can call the city, have them assess it and find out whether or not it meets the requirements to have them remove it free of charge to you.

“As a street, we had known this tree was coming down. It was marked for removal at some point anyway.” When asked when it was marked, we were told sometime last year.

Mike Fraser, who owns a tree removal business said, “We called the city about four years ago, and they marked it to have it taken down. And we never heard anything from them. So we talked to them probably about two months ago, and they’ve rescheduled it.”
Mike says that the constant flooding over the last few months is a nightmare for trees with shallow roots, making them vulnerable to falling over. He says ash trees are an epidemic and can be dangerous.
Fraser told us that according to the city when he asked about the delay, it was because they severed ties with the tree removal company they contracted, citing that that company was not doing the work quickly enough. We reached out to that company and the city, both of whom were not available for comment.