Tree work in the Hull sector

Old Hull is the hardest part of the city to work on a tree in, and the reason is not the tree. It is the lots. Properties in the blocks between rue Laurier and boulevard Saint-Joseph are often under nine metres wide, the houses are tight together, the back yards run into one another, and service drops cross the yards diagonally. Sectional dismantling with rope lowering is the norm rather than the exception.

Access decides the price here more than tree size does. A self-propelled grinder fits through a 900 mm opening, but a bucket truck does not get into an Old Hull back yard, which means a climber on rope and often a crew of three rather than two. The wood comes out through the house or along a lane, one barrow at a time.

Further north, Mont-Bleu and the Plateau are an entirely different market. Mont-Bleu was struck by the EF3 tornado of 21 September 2018, and the trees that survived did so carrying injuries: split unions, broken roots, snapped tops that have closed over decay. It is the sector of the city where an inspection before work is most justified, because many of those trees look healthy from the street.

The Plateau, being newer, has a young canopy planted with the development, which means trees of 20 to 30 cm diameter that have only just come inside the scope of the municipal by-law. Many owners there discover that an authorization certificate is needed for a tree they think of as small.