By Andy Roubik, Hamilton
On Sunday, January 26, someone topped and mutilated two of the locust trees that have graced our downtown Hamilton for at least 15 years. The two trees in question are in the middle of the first block of Main Street on the north side of the street in front of Tamarack Square. These trees are the property of the city and the perpetrators did not have permission to do this. The city has a lot of money invested in these trees.
Tree topping (google it) destroys a tree’s natural grace and beauty, invites rot, encourages water sprouts (commonly called suckers) and greatly shortens the tree’s life span. The water sprouts grow rapidly to replace the vegetation that was removed so that the tree will not starve as it is the tree’s leaves that produce its food. This rapid growth is very weak and is attached to rotting stumps because topping cuts have a very limited capacity to seal themselves from air and water.
By the end of next summer, these trees will be about as tall as they were before the vandals struck but they will be forever compromised. The perpetrators who ruined these trees should be held accountable.
A bad haircut grows back but a bad tree cut is forever.