City of Milwaukee Forestry Services Implements New Pruning Program

The Department of Forestry Services in the city of Milwaukee introduced a new pruning program during the Milwaukee Public Works Committee meeting on Dec. 2. Forestry Services Manager Randy Krouse delivered the presentation and conveyed that the program itself will commence in 2021.

According to Krouse, the city of Milwaukee maintains over 195,000 trees on public land. His department’s priorities include sustaining the health and longevity of trees, while also maintaining safe environments for citizens of Milwaukee. The new pruning program will go into effect in 2021, and have an emphasis on younger trees within a five-year pruning cycle. Mature trees will be taken care of at the request of citizens or other public employees.

Since 2004, there has been a significant decline in pruning production throughout the city of Milwaukee due to a decrease in staff within the Department of Forestry Services. From 1999 to 2004, the pruning program was set on a three-year cycle for younger trees, and a six-year cycle for mature trees. Krouse outlined the city’s lack of production beyond 2004 during his presentation, which suggested a present-day 10-year pruning cycle that is lackadaisical and inefficient.

Krouse reiterated the importance of production when it comes to pruning trees, as the current 10-year pruning cycle accounts for 2.91 labor hours per tree.

“When we did finally get back to any given tree to prune it, it took a lot more pruning time, or personnel hours to prune a given tree over time,” said Krouse.

Infrequent pruning of city trees over the past couple decades has led to an increased amount of emergency tree response. Krouse recognized the potential for hazard when unpruned trees are affected and damaged by storms.

“Ever since 2015, we’ve seen on average it would be about 3,000 tree damage incidents per year, since then it has increased to nearly 7,000 tree damage incidents per year. That can be directly related to infrequent pruning,” said Krouse.

The Department of Forestry Services’ presentation exemplified several areas throughout the city in which trees are directly affecting the safety of drivers because of branch encroachments out into the street, as well as encroachments toward homes and businesses. Its new pruning plan will focus on problem areas throughout the city, and department staff will be able to assess unkempt trees more frequently in accordance with the five-year pruning window and on-site responses to citizen complaints.