Cheyenne continues to remove cottonwood trees from parks

Mar. 28—CHEYENNE — Wyoming's state tree — the cottonwood — can be found lining the streets of its capital city and towering over older parks. Now, many of the historic trees are dying and being removed.

Currently, the city is in the process of removing 13 cottonwoods from Holliday Park. Last year, more than 30 were removed from the same park.

While some disapprove of the removal because of the impact on the environment and the beauty of the park, city officials say this is the safest option.

"The larger the tree, the more benefits it provides," said Mark Ellison, manager of Cheyenne Urban Forestry. "But at some point, when it starts to die back, it's hard to keep up with pruning, and you start to get decay, the roots start to die. So, at some point, you've got to make that decision to remove it because it's becoming too hazardous.

"The threat outweighs the benefits that you're getting. And in a busy park, of course, we've got to be very mindful of public safety."

Cottonwoods typically live between 100 and 120 years, Ellison said. In the past decade, he said they've been removing more and more each year. Ten years ago, they were removing 40 or 50 cottonwoods a year. Each year, that number has increased, and he said they've removed well over 100 every year for the past few years.

Cheyenne's founders turned to the cottonwood when planting the foundations of the city's first canopy in the late 1800s and early 1900s because that's what was available to them.

As the city removes the trees now, they are replanting with a more diverse set of species with the hope that the trees will not all have to be removed in such a short timeframe, the predicament the city has currently found itself in.

Local opposition

Some residents have criticized the city for the removal, saying it is unnecessary and a result of poor planning.

"They're cutting these perfectly fine trees out in both our parks, both Holliday and Lions Park," said Buck McVeigh, who lives across from Holliday Park. "And then what they've done in cemeteries is just absolutely horrible."

He watched on Wednesday as four historic cottonwoods were removed from the park.

"My contention is that [the trees] will outlive us if they're left alone and just pruned to preserve them," he said. "If there's a branch in danger, then take the branch, but don't take the tree down just because you're doing this wholesale approach to create a new canopy."

Ellison said that, in addition to being a safety hazard, it can get too expensive to prune the trees.

Cottonwoods are fast-growing trees. They require pruning early in their life to maintain a strong structure. When it reaches 20 or 30 years old, it requires pruning only around once a decade. In its older age, it may need pruned every three to five years, Ellison said.

"At some point, when it turns out to be every year, or even more, then you have to make that decision if it's time to remove it," he said. "And that's what we did with these trees."

He said the removal of cottonwoods in Holliday Park costs around $2,500 to $3,000 for each tree. The city puts the contract out to bid from private contractors. Big Paws Lawn & Tree Service was selected for the Holliday Park job.

Doug Thies, owner of Big Paws Lawn & Tree Service, estimated that one of the trees he removed on Wednesday was at least 110 years old.

"Unfortunately, we don't get any rain, we don't get any snow, there's no moisture. Especially now, in the winter, this park is dry, the dirt's dry. So, these trees are all suffering, and it's not the forester's fault, it's not the general public's fault, it's the lack of moisture."

Thies said there are many trees suffering like this around town that are a safety hazard, but people may not think to have them removed because they aren't inspected the same way ones on city property are.

Better safe than sorry

Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins recalled in February when a neglected cottonwood tree in poor condition fell on a neighbor's house during a windstorm because the homeowner did not have it removed — despite Ellison's order to remove it.

"Thank God nobody was injured in that situation, but it was just a really good example of the risks that we take if we don't take action now," he said. "The sad part is we probably should have been doing these replacements a number of years ago, more gradually, so that we wouldn't lose the whole urban canopy at the same time."

Ellison said they've tried replanting trees earlier on in the past to avoid stripping a park of all its trees, but the saplings didn't survive. The No. 1 reason: squirrels.

The unnatural, unmanageable squirrel population is more than the environment can handle, Ellison said. Cheyenne Urban Forestry has been leading efforts to educate the public to not feed the squirrels because they will continue to destroy the tree replacements, like they did between 20 and 30 years ago.

"Because of the situation we're in, we're going to have big gaps in our canopy," he said. "That's just the way it is."

McVeigh mourns the loss of the habitat for the black-crowned night herons, who often make their nests in the canopies of Holliday and Lions Parks.

While Ellison said they haven't removed trees where the bird makes its nest, he said it is inevitable that they will all be removed in the next 10 to 15 years.

Tree check-in

Thies recommended residents monitor the health of the trees on their private property, as well, to avoid any potential damages. He said the main indicators are to observe the health of the tree's canopy and its lateral.

"If a tree is dead at the top, it's dying back. The tree is failing, it doesn't have enough water, it's coming to the end of its life," Ellison said. "Something is happening to cause the top of the tree to be dead instead of alive."

If the tree is fine at the top, then observe the laterals — flat branches that extend from the main stem. The laterals can fail if they have too much weight on them. Thies said there is an elevated risk of this failure if the leaves come out early this spring and another snowstorm comes, which would cause more snow, and more weight, to burden the laterals.

He said the trees become a liability instead of an asset as they get older, especially ones that loom over homes, cars, garages, streets and sidewalks.

"I just feel like [Ellison] always gets pinned up against the wall because, you know, everybody wants to save everything in the park, and I do, too. That'd be awesome. But it's not realistic. That's not how life works," Thies said. "... There's a time for birth and a time for death. And a lot of these trees, it's time for death, and you just gotta move on and plant more trees."

Noah Zahn is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's local government/business reporter. He can be reached at 307-633-3128 or nzahn@wyomingnews.com. Follow him on X @NoahZahnn.