The Porter Ranch Neighborhood funded a project June 2021 removing about 60 tree stumps from along Wilbur, Rinaldi, Sesnon and Reseda. Due to previous work on Tampa, no stumps needed to be removed there.
Urban Forestry did a great job for us! There were two crews working two full days. The first crew prepared each stump for removal by taking out any surrounding cement, bricks or agroperm. The second crew then used the stump grinder and remover to remove the stump. They also cleaned up shoots popping up around some trees, which will enable the tree to thrive.
We were thrilled with their work and sent a thank you letter: Thank you letter to Urban Forestry
Project History as noted in the motion approved to do the work:
The Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council has worked hard over the last several years to address the dead and dying trees, starting with the improvement project to remove and trim dead trees back in 2019. This included stump grinding at the 22 locations where trees were removed.
Subsequently, the Urban Forestry Division (UFD) planted approximately 50 trees along Rinaldi between Reseda and Wilbur. This is noteworthy because the City had only planted two trees near Reseda and Rinaldi. Another opportunity for tree planting came about when tree planting was offered as part of the Street Services Neighborhood Council Blitz program, which in prior years had been just for potholes. PRNC submitted a CIS suggesting that other services like planting and stump removal be included in this program. As part of the NC Blitz, approximately 24 trees were planted along Tampa Ave. from Rinaldi to Sesnon Blvd. on both sides of the street.
In 2020, the PRNC sent a letter requesting the Urban Forestry inspect and remove an additional 10 trees that were compromised mainly from drought. These are tremendous accomplishments by PRNC, however there are continuing challenges and needs to keep the public right of ways safe and also keep up with the necessary maintenance of our street tree infrastructure. That being said, there are areas in Porter Ranch that need badly need attention, particularly large backlog of stump removal requests dating back to 2017. Porter Ranch has an abundance of stumps because when a tree falls, the City responds on an emergency basis and cuts the tree down but leaves the stump. This is why it’s important for the Neighborhood Council to supplement the work currently being done by the City and greatly enhance and improve the community at the same time.
In order to look into removing stumps, UFD was contacted and requested to provide an estimate for one of their stump removal crews to work on removing stumps in Porter Ranch. When presented with the scope of work, the estimate was given for 3 days of stump removals at $4700.00 (approximating 10-12 per day) which would also include potential street closures as necessary. Stump removal is preferred to be done by the City because they can obtain the necessary permits and have lots of experience dealing with the possible presence of underground infrastructure. Stump locations have been visited and marked and an updated list with 311 request numbers will be presented at the meeting. Wilbur is the leader with 32 stumps, Rinaldi has 5, Sesnon east of Tampa has 16, Tampa is 0 because of all the past work, and Reseda has approximately 10. The final count will likely be over 60 but many of the stumps are smaller (not as big as the Pines) Bottlebrush and Crape Myrtle trees and also some have had time to decompose.
