Re:Trees on city streets cope with drought by drinking from ...
by Chris2048 on Monday August 25, 2025 @10:19AM
(#45014155)
> They, and the ditch company, rapidly cleared the plug and removed the trees.
Did they need your permission to remove the trees?
Re:Trees on city streets cope with drought by drinking from ...
by ahmeneeroe-v2 on Monday August 25, 2025 @11:07AM
(#45014692)
No OP, but likely the easement allowed them to do it. Just like the power company will trim your trees without asking.
Re:Trees on city streets cope with drought by drinking from ...
by topspin on Monday August 25, 2025 @02:03PM
(#45016812)
No: the ditch company had the easement and the right to deal with their ditch and its problems. They dealt with me fairly and covered all the costs: I feel pretty fortunate that no serious damage to my or other peoples property occurred. That part was luck.
One morning in spring, after I'd been living there about 15 years, the neighborhood streets flooded. There were geysers of water shooting up from manholes. Turns out, the willows had been planted over an irrigation ditch[1]. The willows had driven their tap roots into the pipeline and plugged it about 10' underground. When the water authority opened gates miles upstream, the water pressure blew water up the manholes into the streets and a few yards.
Farmers are very motivated to get their water. They, and the ditch company, rapidly cleared the plug and removed the trees.
Before this happened I had no idea the irrigation system ran through the property. I knew about an easement, but I thought it was for sewage, because the developer used an iron manhole cover from the local municipal waste management operation when they covered the irrigation ditch: it literally had "Sewer" cast into the iron.
[1] Formerly an actual ditch, later made into a pipeline and covered over, but still technically a "ditch" for purposes of water management.