19E - RFP - STREET TREE MAINTENANCE

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Notify the City immediately of any unusual and hazardous conditions at the work site. A. HARDWOOD TREE PRUNING Any tree work performed on a City tree must be done according to the City's specifications. The criterion for pruning varies based on the type or purpose of pruning. (1) General Specifications for hardwood tree pruning Contractor shall consult with the City Arborist before making any cuts that could result in permanent disfigurement of the structure of any tree. Trees shall be pruned so as to prevent branch and foliage interference with safe public passage. Street clearance shall be kept to a minimum of fourteen feet (14') above the paved surface of the street and nine (9) feet above the curb and surface of a public sidewalk or pedestrian way. Exceptions are allowed for young trees, which would be irreparably damaged by such pruning action. If pruning to these standards would result in permanent disfiguration of a tree, the Contractor shall not prune the tree until such time as direction is obtained from the City Arborist. 3. When removing a live branch, pruning cuts should be made in branch tissue just outside the branch bark ridge and collar, which are trunk tissue. If no collar is visible, the angle of the cut should approximate the angle formed by the branch bark ridge and the trunk. 4. When removing a dead branch, the final cut should be made outside the collar of live callus tissue. If the collar has grown out along the branch stub, only the dead stub should be removed, the live collar should remain intact and uninjured. 5. Whenever pruning involves the removal of limbs that are too large to hold securely in one hand during the cutting operation, the limb shall be cut off first at a point several feet beyond the intended final cut. The final cut shall be made in a manner to prevent unnecessary tearing back of the bark and wood. Cuts that result in tearing of tissue on limbs below cuts shall be corrected. 6. All final tree pruning cuts shall be made in such a manner so as to favor the earliest possible covering of the wound by natural callus growth. Excessively deep flush cuts, which produce large wounds or weaken the tree at the cut, shall not be made. The branch collar should not be removed. 7. All dead and dying branches and branch stubs shall be removed. 8. All broken or loose branches shall be removed. 9. Branches that are developing in such a manner as to become larger than the limbs they originate from shall be removed or reduced to half the diameter of the parent branch. 10. When encountering limbs that are weighted with more foliage than the limb is likely to support, selectively prune branches toward the end of the City of Santa Ana Street Tree Maintenance RFP 19E -27 Page 24