Homeowner frustrated after HOA makes harmful landscaping mistake: 'This doesn't make sense'

One homeowner was frustrated to find that their homeowners association was using its position of power to damage the trees in the neighborhood.

They posted about their situation on Reddit. "Why is my HOA doing this?" they asked, sharing before-and-after pictures of a tree on their street.

The before picture showed what seems to be a healthy, mature tree. Though it was growing between a sidewalk and road, it didn't seem to be damaging the pavement, and the limbs were not interfering with any buildings or power lines.

In the after picture, the tree was butchered. Most of the leaves were gone, and the limbs and trunk had been cut short in a process known as "topping." While the damage did not appear severe enough to kill the tree, the plant certainly wasn't as beautiful as it was before, and the possibility remained that such a dramatic trim could introduce health issues.

"We have a lot of these trees planted along the roads, and they're starting to top them all like this," the original poster said in a comment. "Can't help but feel they're destroying them."

"That's not topping (which is bad enough),"  a commenter wrote. "This is butchering... Tornadoes do less damage."

"This doesn't make sense even if you're a landscaper by trade," another user said. "Observation of horticulture generally would curtail this."

Unfortunately, while the practice might not make sense from the perspective of an arborist or many others, HOAs seem to love it. Other homeowners have shared similar examples. Some HOAs make dramatic changes in the hope of having to trim less often and save money, while others may object to the trees themselves.

Residents sometimes have luck working with HOAs to change bylaws and adopt more homeowner-friendly, eco-conscious policies. 

In other cases, owners have had to resort to legal challenges to protect the trees in their neighborhoods.

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