Thanks for the tips (and to Mike Jensen for the photo) – a tree is down across California Way, uphill from Harbor Avenue SW, so you won’t be able to use that route between Admiral and Alki until it’s cleared.
West Seattle, Washington
10 Tuesday
Thanks for the tips (and to Mike Jensen for the photo) – a tree is down across California Way, uphill from Harbor Avenue SW, so you won’t be able to use that route between Admiral and Alki until it’s cleared.
It seems like there are a lot of trees falling down on that street. That’s a fairly busy street and it seems pretty dangerous. It seems like the city should be checking out that area.
It seems like there is another major highway that’s been taking a lot of resources, not to mention the lower highway below it that needs repair.
The city refuses to do anything with those trees. We have asked numerous times and reminded them of the safety issues. They immediately say no to any maintenance of those trees regardless of the possible danger. Incredible reckless attitude.
I’d be more for prevention, but I think the city policy is to let them fall.
Yes, the problem is they fall across a fairly busy sidewalk. Look at where a tree hit and crushed the metal guideway last year. This is around the 6th tree to fall across that road in the last 2-3 years. 
The hillside belongs to the parks department and they do nothing to check out the trees that are leaning over the street. Most of those tress are covered with ivy which makes them much heavier and prone to falling. This is the second large tree that has fallen in the last month, just waiting for a car to come up or down hill and a tree falls on them. Dangerous situation, but nothing will be done until someone is hurt. All the parks have been neglected as far as up keep, so don’t expect the hillside to get any help.
The WS beav hasn’t had many recreation opportunities with social distancing at the Yen Wor and the Admiral.
Another traffic alert is that the speed limit has changed again on W Marginal Way and Admiral Way. Speed limit has increased to 30 MPH.
Extremely negligent of the city to ignore this. They’ve been falling for years, and someone is going to be killed.
I guess the real question is….If a tree falls in the forest will there be someone who can complain on a blog about how it should have been prevented.
Inwonder about the relationship between falling trees and iminent landslides. The telephone pole across the street street is leaning too and was leaning before the tree fell.
Rob, there is something to what you say. We don’t live as close anymore, but we were there in the nineties when bluffside homes were being evacuated and red-tagged by the City. There are several homes that make me heave a sigh of relief each time I see they are still standing! Here is an area the City Council could focus on if they REALLY care about Seattle.
I caught this through my tree failure potential assessment study. I’m and old park inspector/management/planner and forestry guy that doesn’t like to see people killed in urban areas. I’m impressed at how common it is that “ordinary” people make so much sense. On the other hand, I can’t jump to any conclusions about the park managers either, because I remember how difficult it was to get adequate funding for this kind of maintenance. The problem is usually higher up. It looks like spontaneous growth on an old cut. There may be some slope movement, or the bedrock may not permit adequate development of the root systems. Any leaning trees should, in any case, be looked at. The city records for the road construction should have some information about the geology, such as boring logs (cores?) depending on how old the road is. It appears that “healthy,” relatively small trees are going down, and there is an established pattern. Look into the mechanics of levers (center of gravity, length of moment-arm, and resistance factors. I used to do post-event analyses. That, at the very least should be done following each failure. The attorneys often get away with blaming God, but in my view (and evidence) that’s only valid when there’s been a lightning strike. It only take one huge claim/settlement/judgment to wipe out all the “savings” the budget analysts have bragged about to suck decades worth of “benign” neglect (as much as six or eight figures, depending on the injuries and deaths). Measure the angle of lean several times over time to determine if there’s a trend. Have any failures of trees close to a past failure? Root from the failed tree can damage those of adjacent trees, helping to accelerate the time it takes for an affected tree to go down. Good luck.
https://www.eastidahonews.com/2020/07/man-recalls-the-moment-a-falling-tree-knocked-him-unconscious-and-sent-him-to-icu/
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