Community Corner

'Tree-butchery' in Midtown

In this letter to the editor, a Midtown resident expresses his disappointment in how some trees were recently trimmed and topped outside a new convenience store at Ponce de Leon Avenue and Monroe Drive.

Editor's Note: The former Exxon service station at 486 Ponce de Leon Avenue has undergone a renovation since last Fall and was recently reopened by Stone Mountain businessman Mehwood N. Sohani as a Shell Food Mart. But one Midtown resident is disappointed at how the trees outside the station were recently topped.

April 9, 2013

I noticed this morning that the new Shell Food Mart, 486 Ponce de Leon at Monroe Drive is now open. Something else there caught my eye as I waited at the traffic light: the new trees along the sidewalk have been topped, leaving only the tree trunks and some very short nubs. I stopped and took several photos of the once-beautiful trees. These were important trees, (difficult to identify now, but I think they are a variety of red maple), planted by a professional crew, secured with heavy-duty strapping. They would have provided welcome shade this summer. The owner came out to meet me as I was taking the last photo. He told me he wanted to make the trees look better and had asked his landscaper to take some off the top. He assured me that if they don’t grow he will replace them.

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These trees will probably survive, but the graceful tree structure is gone. Reducing trees to a shrub or low topiary form probably doesn’t satisfy the intent of our tree ordinance. A similar tree-butchery incident happened 2 years ago at the CVS pharmacy at 680 Ponce de Leon, with the same story: the landscape crew did it. The damaged trees there were replaced by Trees Atlanta. I hope these trees will be replaced, too.  

Greg Fenn,

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Midtown resident


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