Living in a community where the streets are lined with trees provides a number of benefits for residents.
In addition to simply looking great, trees help to improve air quality, boost physical and mental health, bring natural shade, minimize the impact of the heat island effect, and increase biodiversity.
What's more, they can up the value of your property, with research published in the Urban Forestry & Urban Greening journal, shared by Science Direct, detailing that residents predict a 5% higher house price if it is located on a street dotted with trees.
That's why it's so baffling that one community member decided to take maintenance into their own hands and effectively ruin the health and appearance of a pair of trees.
In a post on the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit, a user posted several pictures of the hack job one local did to trees outside of their property.
"First three photos show some of my neighbors handwork," they captioned the post. "The last picture shows what the trees are supposed to look like. I don't understand how multiple people on one street can feel compelled to psychotically destroy trees like this. They don't even own the trees!"
The first three pictures show the trunk and a few mature branches, with the latter two of the trio showing wispy branches that at least show some signs of growth — despite them looking extremely worse for wear.
The last shows the other trees in the community that are lush, thriving, and giving the sidewalk a natural canopy.
Pruning or pollarding is definitely advised, as that will aid the tree's growth, but this took things to a drastic, damaging level.
"This is not pollarding," one Redditor observed. "The cuts aren't correct and too much of the tree was cut. This is a straight botch."
"I was happy to see that you put the word 'prune' in quotations, as the picture shows this is to pruning as a limb removal is to a pedicure," another user added.
The local council or homeowners association would usually be responsible for ensuring tree health in a community — although HOAs are no strangers to cutting down trees for no reason. This attempt at pollarding should really have been left to the professionals.
Instead, this resident may have done untold harm to the trees, in addition to depriving residents of the various boosts they would provide.
Still, if it's outside their own property, they've not just cut down branches, but they've also cut off their nose to spite their face.
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